For those of you who have been following my mini-saga, I am pleased to report that as of last Thursday, I am engaged! The timeline was tight, but I was successful in pulling everything off, start to finish, in under a week. Granted, I had already done my research ahead of time on GOG and in the forums, but I couldn''t have done it without all of you. For the detail-oriented romantics among us, I''ll recap the proposal and the events leading up to it...
After being in contact with Jonathan at GOG on Monday of last week and discussing a couple of his latest diamonds that hadn''t even posted as "For Sale" yet, I decided on Tuesday morning to go with the 1.74 H VS1.
http://www.goodoldgold.com/1_74ct_h_vs1_h%26a.htm
I had it mounted by GOG in an elegant platinum 6-prong tiffany setting, and overnighted to me THAT DAY. They were AMAZING, and able to turn the ring around in under 24 hours, coast to coast. Unbelievable. Wednesday afternoon I had an appointment with Nancy Stacy, and appraiser in the SF Bay Area, who was incredibly impressed by the brilliance of the diamond and the amazing symmetry of the cut. She even remarked that she''d been seeing a lot of GOG rocks lately, and that the best diamonds that her clients have been bringing to her as of late have all come from a host of reputable, well-respected online jewelers, in particular GOG, WF, DirtCheapDiamonds, and NiceIce. She commended me on my choice of purchasing channels, and sent me on my way with her solid approval of my purchase. Now, on to the proposal...
Less than two hours after leaving the appraiser''s, I drove down to Los Angeles with a truck full of vases, tables, linens, votives, and pillars that I had borrowed from my family''s rental business. I arrived at her parents house in LA at 3am, only to get up less than 3 hours later to head to the LA Flower Mart with her mother. After securing a good amount of roses, we headed to her apartment to begin setup. I''ll spare you the setup details and skip right to the big moment. She was DEFINITELY not expecting me in LA that night, as she was driving to see me for the weekend on Saturday, and we had just gotten off the phone when she pulled up to her apartment. When she arrived at her apartment and opened her front door, I was standing in the middle of her living room dressed in my suit, admidst scattered rose petals that blanketed the carpet, surrounded by 100+ candles and votives and 28 dozen long stem red roses arranged in vases around the room. The look on her face was priceless. She was still confused at the time, and kept asking what all of this was. She then opened a wrapped shoebox that I had prepared for her, to reveal a decorated miniature broom. Still overwhelmed and a little confused, she asked "A broom?", at which I replied that she had mentioned that all she had ever wanted was for someone to come in and sweep her off her feet. I think she got it right about then
I proceeded to tell her how amazing she is and how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her (along with other more personal reflections that I will reserve for the two of us), and followed that by getting down on my knee and proposing. It was truly the most amazing moment of my life, and one we will never forget. But just in case, I had hidden a video camera in the corner to capture it all, so that she might be able to look back and see it as it happened, given that the moment itself was such a whirlwind.
So that''s how it went down. We''ve talked in length about it since, and she is still awestruck over the entire thing, and incredibly thankful for pulling it off in the manner that I did. I didn''t want to have to rush it, but seeing as we''re still doing long distance, and probably will have to for a few more months, it was nice to pull this off just before the holidays, as I was able to truly surprise her while giving us over 2 weeks together to enjoy our engagement in person, and start planning. Ideally, this whole idea would have hit me before the middle of December, but with the help of all of you, I was able to find a diamond that both of us believe is truly the right diamond for us, and an amazing representation of our love. I guess it was just fate that I would stumble upon that diamond at that time. We couldn''t be happier though.
On a related note, not ONE person has asked her about the specs of the diamond, but she was pretty impressed to see the photos of it under magnification and see how clean it is as a VS1. I definitely could have gotten the 1.88 SI1 and she would have been just as happy, but we''re both so in love with the 1.74, I wouldn''t be able to pry it off of her hand. And we definitely can''t tell that it''s an H. I''d heard that GOG''s H should show very white, but I thought for sure I''d be able to pick up SOME color. Not that case...it''s beautiful. And as for having it reset in the mounting of her choice...she''s having none of it. I''ve tried to convince her to go out and take a look at some other settings, but she absolutely refuses. She says the current setting is "classic" and "so her", and it''s what she would have picked if she had her choice anyway.
As you all mentioned, the size definitely got me the WOW factor that I had hoped. I asked her what she thought she was going to get from me, and she said she had hoped that MAYBE I would get her a 1.0ct, but that she was expecting even smaller than that. Needless to say, she was floored. The ring looks VERY larger on her hand, but not too large that it''s gaudy. I keep telling her that the size isn''t really what makes that diamond so amazing (it''s all about the cut), but I don''t think she''s paying much attention. All she knows is it''s huge and VERY sparkly, and she can''t stop staring at her hand, even 5 days later. That''s just the reaction I was going for
Thanks again for all of your help, and I''ll be sure to get you some pics as soon as I can get some sharp digital images of the ring!
After being in contact with Jonathan at GOG on Monday of last week and discussing a couple of his latest diamonds that hadn''t even posted as "For Sale" yet, I decided on Tuesday morning to go with the 1.74 H VS1.
http://www.goodoldgold.com/1_74ct_h_vs1_h%26a.htm
I had it mounted by GOG in an elegant platinum 6-prong tiffany setting, and overnighted to me THAT DAY. They were AMAZING, and able to turn the ring around in under 24 hours, coast to coast. Unbelievable. Wednesday afternoon I had an appointment with Nancy Stacy, and appraiser in the SF Bay Area, who was incredibly impressed by the brilliance of the diamond and the amazing symmetry of the cut. She even remarked that she''d been seeing a lot of GOG rocks lately, and that the best diamonds that her clients have been bringing to her as of late have all come from a host of reputable, well-respected online jewelers, in particular GOG, WF, DirtCheapDiamonds, and NiceIce. She commended me on my choice of purchasing channels, and sent me on my way with her solid approval of my purchase. Now, on to the proposal...
Less than two hours after leaving the appraiser''s, I drove down to Los Angeles with a truck full of vases, tables, linens, votives, and pillars that I had borrowed from my family''s rental business. I arrived at her parents house in LA at 3am, only to get up less than 3 hours later to head to the LA Flower Mart with her mother. After securing a good amount of roses, we headed to her apartment to begin setup. I''ll spare you the setup details and skip right to the big moment. She was DEFINITELY not expecting me in LA that night, as she was driving to see me for the weekend on Saturday, and we had just gotten off the phone when she pulled up to her apartment. When she arrived at her apartment and opened her front door, I was standing in the middle of her living room dressed in my suit, admidst scattered rose petals that blanketed the carpet, surrounded by 100+ candles and votives and 28 dozen long stem red roses arranged in vases around the room. The look on her face was priceless. She was still confused at the time, and kept asking what all of this was. She then opened a wrapped shoebox that I had prepared for her, to reveal a decorated miniature broom. Still overwhelmed and a little confused, she asked "A broom?", at which I replied that she had mentioned that all she had ever wanted was for someone to come in and sweep her off her feet. I think she got it right about then
So that''s how it went down. We''ve talked in length about it since, and she is still awestruck over the entire thing, and incredibly thankful for pulling it off in the manner that I did. I didn''t want to have to rush it, but seeing as we''re still doing long distance, and probably will have to for a few more months, it was nice to pull this off just before the holidays, as I was able to truly surprise her while giving us over 2 weeks together to enjoy our engagement in person, and start planning. Ideally, this whole idea would have hit me before the middle of December, but with the help of all of you, I was able to find a diamond that both of us believe is truly the right diamond for us, and an amazing representation of our love. I guess it was just fate that I would stumble upon that diamond at that time. We couldn''t be happier though.
On a related note, not ONE person has asked her about the specs of the diamond, but she was pretty impressed to see the photos of it under magnification and see how clean it is as a VS1. I definitely could have gotten the 1.88 SI1 and she would have been just as happy, but we''re both so in love with the 1.74, I wouldn''t be able to pry it off of her hand. And we definitely can''t tell that it''s an H. I''d heard that GOG''s H should show very white, but I thought for sure I''d be able to pick up SOME color. Not that case...it''s beautiful. And as for having it reset in the mounting of her choice...she''s having none of it. I''ve tried to convince her to go out and take a look at some other settings, but she absolutely refuses. She says the current setting is "classic" and "so her", and it''s what she would have picked if she had her choice anyway.
As you all mentioned, the size definitely got me the WOW factor that I had hoped. I asked her what she thought she was going to get from me, and she said she had hoped that MAYBE I would get her a 1.0ct, but that she was expecting even smaller than that. Needless to say, she was floored. The ring looks VERY larger on her hand, but not too large that it''s gaudy. I keep telling her that the size isn''t really what makes that diamond so amazing (it''s all about the cut), but I don''t think she''s paying much attention. All she knows is it''s huge and VERY sparkly, and she can''t stop staring at her hand, even 5 days later. That''s just the reaction I was going for
Thanks again for all of your help, and I''ll be sure to get you some pics as soon as I can get some sharp digital images of the ring!
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