I've been incredibly procrastinatory (new word) in posting this. Anyway here's my engagement tale and some photos of her ring. After three months of learning thanks to Pricescope and the education oriented vendors and posters here, and I had the setting custom made by an Atlanta jeweler named Brad Harris (http://www.bthjewelers.com). He's a great guy who went the extra mile for me.
Stone is .6ct H/SI1, appraised H/VS2. Setting is platinum, and the appraiser told me he thought it was Vatche except it didn't have the label. I have heard people say a bezel type setting covers too much of the stone or makes the diamond look smaller. At least in my case, I think all of that is HOGWASH!
In November 2003, we started planning a trip to Hawaii for March to visit my friend who was stationed on Oahu with the Army before he had to ship out for Afghanistan. So, we thought, if you’re going to go, might as well see some of the other sites and turn it into a full-on vacation. We quickly decided to visit Kauai since my parents had raved about it and we were more interested in the natural beauty and scenic hiking than in resorts. Little did She know I was also cooking up a plan to propose. I started learning about diamonds and shopping around the same time in November. There’s so much to learn, I’m glad I started when I did! In early December, during a Christmas shopping trip at a local mall, I suggested that we pop into a jewelry store to just look around under the pretense that I was curious about the whole jewelry thing and had no idea about her particular tastes. She later related this to her mom and they went out together to do a little ring shopping of their own. There was a bit of anticipation that the big question would come sometime around Christmas. It didn’t. I’m a very methodical shopper, especially in such a special case.
By late January, after some near misses, I found and purchased a fantastic sparkler and began looking for a custom designer to fabricate the type of setting I wanted. Eventually, I settled on someone who promised to have the ring completed by by Friday, February 27. We were leaving for Hawaii on Monday, March 1. With that settled and out of my hands, I started searching the internet and our guide books for ideas on where to propose. I had never been to Hawaii at all. I was also trying to decide on the ideal situation for the proposal. Would she like something casual and private or dressy and semi-public? At the beach, a waterfall, a canyon, a mountain top, in a helicopter, sunrise, sunset, day, night…endless choices. I was pretty sure that just the two of us being there was bound to be romantic, so I decided to improvise after we got situated. Then, on Friday the 27th, my jeweler called with the news that the engraver in LA was sick and might not be able to complete the ring in time. I told him I didn’t have any breathing room and he said he’d get back to me Saturday morning. I was a little frantic after that. I started searching for a FedEx staffed location on Kauai, comparing delivery schedules, planning for the contingency of having the ring shipped to me over there. That proposition was not ideal. However, on Saturday morning, he called back to say that the ring looked beautiful. He had it! I picked it up and he was right…I was so excited and grateful that he and the engraver got it done.
We left for the airport early Monday morning. I dropped the ring in a small ring pouch and put it one of the pockets of my cargo pants, praying that I wouldn’t have to empty my pockets at the security checkpoint in the airport. I also padded the ring in the pouch a little so if she put her hand on my leg she wouldn’t immediately feel this ring in there. On top of that, I dropped a handful of folded tissue in the pocket in case she asked me what I had in there. That way I could just say, “tissue”, and pull one out to offer her. Am I thorough or what? There were not hitches at the airport by the way.
At the hotel in Kauai, I put the pouch in a sock and balled it up. I decided not to keep it with me the first day, so I could get a stress-free look at the playing field. One of our first hikes led to this amazing scene in some cliffs right on the water. I was kicking myself for not having the ring with me there and decided I would just have to keep it with me all the time.
The next day we headed out (ring in my pocket) and had a great breakfast on the grounds of a former plantation. After that, we headed for Wailua Falls, the falls seen in the opening to the old tv show “Fantasy Island”. We had seen them from the helicopter the day before, along with a hundred other falls. Kauai is gorgeous everywhere. When we actually drove up and walked to the observation point over the falls, She remarked how amazing it was and that we had to find the trail mentioned in our guidebook that led down to the base. At that point, I decided this was the place. I went back to the car for my “hat”, retrieved the ring pouch which I tied securely to the drawstring of my shorts and we headed off back down the road past the observation point. At the trailhead we met a couple who had just returned from the bottom. They were wet and muddy, but all smiles as they told us how amazing it was and how to maneuver around to the area literally behind the waterfall. That’s what we wanted to hear. We were going all the way.
We started down a steep, slippery, muddy track with no one else in sight. At various tricky spots in the trail, a few of our more thoughtful predecessors had secured climbing rope to help hikers negotiate their way. The whole trek down I was trying to think of what I would say…how would I ask her? I remembered the guide book said something about warriors jumping off the top of these falls to test their manhood, which I’m sure often only confirmed their mortality. Anyway, I figured that would be a funny factoid to work into my little speech….something about us jumping off a proverbial cliff and landing safely in the pool of our lives together. It doesn’t sound cheesy in the moment. When we reached the bottom, we were already muddy, but the roar of the falls beckoned us through the trees. The sky was bright and clear and the sight was breathtaking. There had been a lot of rain recently so the falls were really full. They poured down from the cliff into a large pool at the base from which water flowed through a stream to some other destination. Ask her here? Nope. Wait for it…wait for it…
We clambered over loose rocks and small boulders clinging to the side of a bank that bordered the pool on our way around to the falls themselves. The spray was already soaking us. We left our pack with the digital camera behind a bush a continued on with a waterproof camera. Looking up, we saw only the bottom of the outcropping on top of which stood all those tourists we had seen before. We couldn’t see them now and as we went on, I didn’t look up again, concentrating instead on each slippery foothold. Now, it was really loud and really soaked. We could hardly see because of the tremendous amount of spray from the falling water. We could feel the booming in our chests…it was a little louder in mine, but that wasn’t just the water. I still had no idea how I was going to ask her, but suggested that she venture out behind the falls so I could snap a picture of her. I did. As she came back, it hit me. I handed her the camera, told her to take a picture of me now, and then tried to get enough water out of my eyes to be able to see. I walked toward the wall of water desperately trying to get the double-knot undone and free the pouch from my shorts. I was having a lot of trouble loosening the strings and thought I must look pretty ridiculous from behind. I finally freed it, opened the pouch, unwrapped the ring and shoved the pouch in my pocket and turned around. She was facing away from me trying to keep the water out of her eyes. I found some semi-secure footing got down on my knee, and over the pounding of the water yelled, “Hey!” She turned around and I held up the ring and yelled again, “Will you marry me?” Yep, that was it. The speech went right out the ol’ window with the noise and the water and the rest of it. She bent right over and laughed. She stood up again, yelled, “Yes!”, took the picture and said, “Get over here!” I slipped the ring on and we kissed right there, muddy and drenched in the mists of Wailua Falls. She beamed. The ring sparkled like mad. I was greatly relieved. Just then some other hikers ventured up and we got one of them to take a photo of us together. We spent a little more time at the base and then made the much more laborious trek back up the trail. At the top, we celebrated with a toast…milk from an ice cold coconut. We did some more sight-seeing that day, and then continued the celebration that night at the luau. What a fantastic day. Kauai, a gorgeous waterfall, a little improvisation, a little luau, a little dancing, the BIG moment…unforgettable.
Stone is .6ct H/SI1, appraised H/VS2. Setting is platinum, and the appraiser told me he thought it was Vatche except it didn't have the label. I have heard people say a bezel type setting covers too much of the stone or makes the diamond look smaller. At least in my case, I think all of that is HOGWASH!
In November 2003, we started planning a trip to Hawaii for March to visit my friend who was stationed on Oahu with the Army before he had to ship out for Afghanistan. So, we thought, if you’re going to go, might as well see some of the other sites and turn it into a full-on vacation. We quickly decided to visit Kauai since my parents had raved about it and we were more interested in the natural beauty and scenic hiking than in resorts. Little did She know I was also cooking up a plan to propose. I started learning about diamonds and shopping around the same time in November. There’s so much to learn, I’m glad I started when I did! In early December, during a Christmas shopping trip at a local mall, I suggested that we pop into a jewelry store to just look around under the pretense that I was curious about the whole jewelry thing and had no idea about her particular tastes. She later related this to her mom and they went out together to do a little ring shopping of their own. There was a bit of anticipation that the big question would come sometime around Christmas. It didn’t. I’m a very methodical shopper, especially in such a special case.
By late January, after some near misses, I found and purchased a fantastic sparkler and began looking for a custom designer to fabricate the type of setting I wanted. Eventually, I settled on someone who promised to have the ring completed by by Friday, February 27. We were leaving for Hawaii on Monday, March 1. With that settled and out of my hands, I started searching the internet and our guide books for ideas on where to propose. I had never been to Hawaii at all. I was also trying to decide on the ideal situation for the proposal. Would she like something casual and private or dressy and semi-public? At the beach, a waterfall, a canyon, a mountain top, in a helicopter, sunrise, sunset, day, night…endless choices. I was pretty sure that just the two of us being there was bound to be romantic, so I decided to improvise after we got situated. Then, on Friday the 27th, my jeweler called with the news that the engraver in LA was sick and might not be able to complete the ring in time. I told him I didn’t have any breathing room and he said he’d get back to me Saturday morning. I was a little frantic after that. I started searching for a FedEx staffed location on Kauai, comparing delivery schedules, planning for the contingency of having the ring shipped to me over there. That proposition was not ideal. However, on Saturday morning, he called back to say that the ring looked beautiful. He had it! I picked it up and he was right…I was so excited and grateful that he and the engraver got it done.
We left for the airport early Monday morning. I dropped the ring in a small ring pouch and put it one of the pockets of my cargo pants, praying that I wouldn’t have to empty my pockets at the security checkpoint in the airport. I also padded the ring in the pouch a little so if she put her hand on my leg she wouldn’t immediately feel this ring in there. On top of that, I dropped a handful of folded tissue in the pocket in case she asked me what I had in there. That way I could just say, “tissue”, and pull one out to offer her. Am I thorough or what? There were not hitches at the airport by the way.
At the hotel in Kauai, I put the pouch in a sock and balled it up. I decided not to keep it with me the first day, so I could get a stress-free look at the playing field. One of our first hikes led to this amazing scene in some cliffs right on the water. I was kicking myself for not having the ring with me there and decided I would just have to keep it with me all the time.
The next day we headed out (ring in my pocket) and had a great breakfast on the grounds of a former plantation. After that, we headed for Wailua Falls, the falls seen in the opening to the old tv show “Fantasy Island”. We had seen them from the helicopter the day before, along with a hundred other falls. Kauai is gorgeous everywhere. When we actually drove up and walked to the observation point over the falls, She remarked how amazing it was and that we had to find the trail mentioned in our guidebook that led down to the base. At that point, I decided this was the place. I went back to the car for my “hat”, retrieved the ring pouch which I tied securely to the drawstring of my shorts and we headed off back down the road past the observation point. At the trailhead we met a couple who had just returned from the bottom. They were wet and muddy, but all smiles as they told us how amazing it was and how to maneuver around to the area literally behind the waterfall. That’s what we wanted to hear. We were going all the way.
We started down a steep, slippery, muddy track with no one else in sight. At various tricky spots in the trail, a few of our more thoughtful predecessors had secured climbing rope to help hikers negotiate their way. The whole trek down I was trying to think of what I would say…how would I ask her? I remembered the guide book said something about warriors jumping off the top of these falls to test their manhood, which I’m sure often only confirmed their mortality. Anyway, I figured that would be a funny factoid to work into my little speech….something about us jumping off a proverbial cliff and landing safely in the pool of our lives together. It doesn’t sound cheesy in the moment. When we reached the bottom, we were already muddy, but the roar of the falls beckoned us through the trees. The sky was bright and clear and the sight was breathtaking. There had been a lot of rain recently so the falls were really full. They poured down from the cliff into a large pool at the base from which water flowed through a stream to some other destination. Ask her here? Nope. Wait for it…wait for it…
We clambered over loose rocks and small boulders clinging to the side of a bank that bordered the pool on our way around to the falls themselves. The spray was already soaking us. We left our pack with the digital camera behind a bush a continued on with a waterproof camera. Looking up, we saw only the bottom of the outcropping on top of which stood all those tourists we had seen before. We couldn’t see them now and as we went on, I didn’t look up again, concentrating instead on each slippery foothold. Now, it was really loud and really soaked. We could hardly see because of the tremendous amount of spray from the falling water. We could feel the booming in our chests…it was a little louder in mine, but that wasn’t just the water. I still had no idea how I was going to ask her, but suggested that she venture out behind the falls so I could snap a picture of her. I did. As she came back, it hit me. I handed her the camera, told her to take a picture of me now, and then tried to get enough water out of my eyes to be able to see. I walked toward the wall of water desperately trying to get the double-knot undone and free the pouch from my shorts. I was having a lot of trouble loosening the strings and thought I must look pretty ridiculous from behind. I finally freed it, opened the pouch, unwrapped the ring and shoved the pouch in my pocket and turned around. She was facing away from me trying to keep the water out of her eyes. I found some semi-secure footing got down on my knee, and over the pounding of the water yelled, “Hey!” She turned around and I held up the ring and yelled again, “Will you marry me?” Yep, that was it. The speech went right out the ol’ window with the noise and the water and the rest of it. She bent right over and laughed. She stood up again, yelled, “Yes!”, took the picture and said, “Get over here!” I slipped the ring on and we kissed right there, muddy and drenched in the mists of Wailua Falls. She beamed. The ring sparkled like mad. I was greatly relieved. Just then some other hikers ventured up and we got one of them to take a photo of us together. We spent a little more time at the base and then made the much more laborious trek back up the trail. At the top, we celebrated with a toast…milk from an ice cold coconut. We did some more sight-seeing that day, and then continued the celebration that night at the luau. What a fantastic day. Kauai, a gorgeous waterfall, a little improvisation, a little luau, a little dancing, the BIG moment…unforgettable.
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