The Royal Rings-piration

I've read a lot about the "royal ring" recently. I'm not keen myself but I do like the sentiment. It was Princess Diana's engagement ring, I like that. A hand-me-down always holds its own value within the family. I like to think jewellery has a memory. I, myself have a hand-me-down of sorts. I inherited my Grandmothers solitaire (around 0.60ct if you care to know) and had it for years before finding it a wonderful purpose. I like to think I gave it a new life.

When Lee and I decided to get engaged I knew what I wanted to do but wasn't sure everyone would understand. My Mum had made comment in the past about changing the ring, I worried I might upset her. Lee bought a stand in ring to propose... (tiffany dontcha know ;)) I'll do a whole other post on the proposal if you're interested.

Later I took the diamond from my Grandmothers ring and attended a design day at Ernest Jones (hence me bigging them up all the time)

I loved it! The designer basically took my childlike sketch and recreated it exactly as I pictured it in my mind!

I loved her input.. we got to calculate the costs with different metals and surrounding stones. I settled on two pear shaped amethysts (my birthstone) either side of the diamond and lots of tiny diamonds in the ring mount.

It has a very vintage feel.

I love that the diamond in my ring is so old. It was second hand when my Grandmother got it so it's at least 100 years old and that's lovely to me. I wasn't previously in the family to my knowledge so I have no idea where it came from or what it's seen.. It could have been to fabulous parties or been part of a bigger piece... who knows? It just makes it a little more interesting. Reusing old jewellery in engagement rings has apparenltly become quite popular with the recession and all... This was in part why I did it... although with the ring design costs and the stand in rock it cost as much as new :p

So this is my ring now...

Have any of you reused a family heirloom as an engagement/wedding/eternity ring?

I love the stories so please share :)

And anyone who's had a ring made... you too!!!

xoxo

miss bb



Amanda Wakely @ Ernest Jones

Have you guys seen these goregous Amanda Wakely rings at Ernest Jones?
So gorgeous and an absolute bargain... definitely in the running for a wedding ring... yes I know I know I take forever to make a decision! No decision is final until the deed has been done!

Check these out and let me know what you think
(click the pictures for a closer look)

£75 - Black Diamonds

£99 - Brown Diamonds

£125 - White Diamonds

Each are Silver which is what brings the price down but would you rather pay more for gold and CZs or less for silver and diamonds? The argument is obviously in which is the hearder wearing against your engagement ring but all metals contain such high quantities of alloy now that I doubt it makes that much difference anymore!

There are a couple of other cute pieces in the collection too... oh go on then I'll throw in some pics of those too, however unrelated :p...

£99 - Silver/Leather/Black Diamonds

£350 - Silver and half carat of white diamonds

£399 - silver with half carat of white diamonds

How cute is this stuff???

For those of you that want diamonds without the crazy inflated gold prices this is for you, the link to where you can buy is below

http://www.ernestjones.co.uk/webstore/l/search/?No=0&Ntk=PRIMARY&Ntt=amanda+wakely

xoxo

miss bb

With this ring...

So here's my engagement ring

It's kind of vintage looking, I have it made and I love it..

The problem is I haven't found a ring that looks right with it.

This ring has a kind of milgrain finish and a diamond band, it's shaped but I don't want a shaped wedding band, I wanted a diamond band that would look nice alone aswell as with the engagement ring. It's been a tough search, I'd take CZs if I could find the perfect ring but I haven't!! plus if I buy costume jewellery it won't last so even when I see something that looks like the perfect fit it's never any good.

I thought about having one designed but it will take 3 months to come back and I'm not sure how much time I have, I've already had to wait so long to get re-married that I don't want to slow things down any more just for a ring. So anyway.. I found this...

It would go perfectly.. I'm yet to try it on in the store but it's exactly what I've been looking for :)))

If anyone has any suggestions or has seen anything suitable keep me informed!!

Until then..

See you in my next post

xoxo

Miss BB