❤️ We Do! Love Stories Part 4: The Ring

In Part 1 of Jim & Savannah’s love story, we shared how their paths crossed, how they fell in love, which led to a heartfelt engagement.

In Part 2 of Jim & Savannah’s journey, we explored the highs and lows of a 2.5-year engagement — from celebrating milestones to navigating the waiting game.

In Part 3 the couple shares how that extra time turned into one of their biggest advantages: saving money while still planning the wedding of their dreams.

Now in Part 4 Jim dishes on his quest to find a very special ring and how he knew when and where he would propose.

Information Gathering

Shopping for Savannah’s ring was both easy and hard all at the same time. Starting with the easy aspects, Savannah freely offered some essential information without me having to dig for it. We were casually talking about jewelry for some reason and she mentioned this company that ethically sources their metals and stones and even lab grows a lot of their diamonds. These were really important aspects for Savannah because she wanted to ensure that she didn’t have a blood diamond in her ring. She also commented to me how she really liked their designs and that a lot of their jewelry was dainty, something she really likes in a ring. At this time, I had no active proposal plans in mind, but this all seemed like very useful information, so I filed that company name away in my brain, just in case it became useful at a later time (ladies do like a man who listens, afterall). 

But not everything was so straightforward. Later on I had to be a very smooth operator to acquire more information without letting it be too obvious that I was thinking about wedding rings. Take ring size, for example; of course, you want to make sure the nice ring you pick out for your sweetheart is the right fit! So, I waited for the right time to bring it up with Savannah organically. We had some of her friends over one night and they happened to be talking about rings. Determined to find the answer to my question, I interrupted Savannah while she was in the middle of saying something to ask, perhaps a little too loudly, “WHAT SIZE RING DO YOU WEAR?” I’m telling you folks, they just don’t make them this suave anymore. 

But after that, I had the information I needed: a company, a size, and preferences for lab grown diamonds and white gold jewelry (the type of metal I learned naturally by dating her). Then came the hard part: putting all of that together into a ring she will actually like.

Finding the One Ring 

By far, choosing the ring was the most difficult part. There's the style of ring and the stone(s) need to have the right shape, size, and quality (who knew the stone rating system was so weird?). Does your partner want just an engagement ring or do they want a ring set so that the wedding band is guaranteed to match? Also, in my case, it took me so long to figure out which ring I wanted that the manufacturing/delivery window almost became an issue. Of course, this all depends on your relationship. I have some friends who went ring shopping with their partner so that they could choose a ring together and then the proposal itself was a surprise. For me, I wanted Savannah to have no idea that I was proposing (to such an extent that I actually didn't tell a single person my plans). Do what works for you, but I highly encourage you to put in the work to make sure it's something your partner will like. You want them to wear it every day for the rest of their life, after all! 

Deciding a Proposal Location

Choosing where to propose was much easier for me. We booked a trip to Ireland and, as a bit of an Ireland aficionado, I instantly knew where I should propose: Blarney Castle. Savannah loves historic buildings and walking through gardens/nature. What better place than an almost 600 year old castle surrounded by dozens of acres of gardens, fields, and forests? The one snag in my plan was not knowing exactly where on the castle grounds I would propose. I knew Savannah and I both preferred the idea of a private proposal, so I wouldn't be getting down on one knee on the top of the castle. I decided to wait for the opportune moment to show itself, and boy did it! 

After we ascended the castle, kissed the Blarney Stone, and walked through the Poison Gardens (which also didn't seem like the right place to propose), we encountered a  side tower that interested Savannah. I told her to go check it out while I fixed something in my backpack. Really, I needed the moment to retrieve the ring box that I had been hiding in my backpack for the whole trip. I put the ring in the back right pocket of my jeans and hung my raincoat through the bottom of my backpack strap so that it would hide the new, random growth protruding from my butt. Thank goodness I did hide it, because as soon as I was done, Savannah wanted to take my picture at the tower!

Sometimes the Proposal Finds You

We turned left from there and ended up in a spacious clearing with a beautiful eucalyptus tree in the center. I looked around and noticed that we were the only ones in the clearing and most of it was blocked from view by a row of other trees. Savannah then declared, “Isn’t it magical?” as she gave me a big hug. I suddenly knew that this was the moment. I held her in the embrace and started my pre-meditated proposal spiel. While I later learned that Savannah at first was annoyed that I didn’t let her go when she wanted to take pictures of the cool tree, she patiently listened to enough of what I was saying to realize I was suddenly being quite serious. By the time I got down on one knee, she very much knew what I was doing. She (thankfully) said yes – so quickly that my knee didn’t even get wet from the grass! The deed was done and she was (and is still) in love with the ring!

I am so excited to place the matching wedding band I got her (she did, in fact, want a set) on her finger in less than a week! Thanks for continuing to read and we can’t wait to share details of our wedding celebrations in our next installment!

Cheers,

Jim (& Savannah)