It took many months but I''m glad to report we are happily engaged! I''ll skip the talking for a minute since I know you all just want to see the pictures and then I''ll roll the credits 
Now that the formalities are out of the way....
I started working on this ring months ago. Like most things I do I was well in research before I even knew when I wanted to pop the question. I started reading just about everything I could find and started talking to fellow PSer LaurenThePartier. I looked at just about every image of an engagement ring that I could find and went to plenty of B&Ms.
I knew that Monica was going to want something unique, unlike anything anyone else had, and a bit away from the norm. While we had discussed marriage in the past (we''ve been together 4+ years and living together for half of that...) it really isn''t Monica''s personality to have heavy set expectations in this arena. It turns out she didn''t really even know much about what she wanted. It wasn''t really my style to bring it up in casual conversation or try and get a friend to sneak it out of her as both would have been painfully obvious. A bit bold, and probably not advised, I relied solely on myself to figure out how the ring was going to look.
I settled on a Sapphire rather quickly as in addition to its appearance, rarity, (and cheesy match to her eye color) they were supposed to have good durability as required by an every day stone. I also knew that the ring would need to have an antique feel to it so that it would continue to go well with her few other jewelry pieces that she had.
As I got in to it I narrowed the search to a 3 stone arrangement and began to work with Lauren to find vendors, both for the stone and the setting. Lauren introduced me to Katie at WF and I began trying to narrow down my ideas from literally hundreds of images and notes that I had collected. As I talked to Lauren and Katie I began to get a better idea of which features I was most interested in and how to describe them. I narrowed the word document to 6 pages and was ready to go.
The Sapphire front on the other hand was the exact opposite! I knew that I really wanted to find the right stone with a great cut. I was looking for a 6.0-7.0 mm round non-native cut medium blue sapphire. I began working with several of PSs favorite including Jeff White, Barry Bridgestock and others. Rough was tough to come by for what I was looking for and no one felt they had anything that matched what I was looking for. I had a timeline in mind at this point and was trying to pull the project together in order to coordinate my proposal with Monica''s birthday on December 16th, in advance of us returning home for Christmas. One day I received and email from Lauren letting me know about a stone that had just popped up on Barry''s site. After talking and reviewing a few more photos the stone was in the mail. Unfortunately, while beautifully cut and an amazing stone, it just wasn''t the right stone for me.
I continued my search finally working with Richard Wise. In speaking with Richard we identified a sapphire that seemed to fit the bill. It was in a matched pair but Richard was willing to split the pair up as he was quite confident that this would be the stone. Dealing with Richard was a great experience, he was EXTREMELY knowledgeable and was extremely accommodating to work with. The stone arrived and I knew it was finally the right piece. It was shipped off to White Flash and they finally began the detailed design work.
I started working with my CAD designer Joe. The design was somewhat complicated and I had some fairly specific requests so we held a net meeting to make sure he was interpreting all of my needs properly. Joe put in many late hours to help make up time and delivered a CAD rendering that was nearly perfect. When we spoke initially the only unknown had been the scroll work under the stones. While he worked I came up with the concept for the scroll work W and M that can be seen in the photos. Joe artfully integrated the idea and it came out better than expected. We confirmed the details on the engraving and that was it.
Here are some of the "in-process" images
The original CAD images:
The final CAD images:
The first photos of the finished piece:
My original sketches of the scroll work concept:
When I received the first photos from WF I was amazed, but when I actually received the ring in hand I was blown away. It came out as beautiful as I ever could have imagined. The hand engraving was spectacular and exactly what I was looking for.
Overall the experience was great. I learned more than I ever thought I would thanks to Lauren and Pricescope. Jeff White and Barry Bridgestock were amazing to deal with even though I didn''t end up with one of their stones. Richard Wise was amazing and delivered the perfect sapphire. My experience dealing with Katie and Joe at WF was amazing and they were great.
As some of you know, I did have several issues with poor communication with WF. They continued after my PS post culminating in the ring being shipped to the wrong state at Christmas. Ultimately my experience was unique, and hopefully others will learn from it in the future. While I did have my issues with WF, I would not hesitate to work with them again. Once I resigned myself to stop trying to plan my proposal on my time (it was rescheduled 3 times) and figured out how to do it when I had the ring it was a lot easier to swallow the hiccups associated with something as complex as this.
All in all I couldn''t be happier and I think Monica was truly blown away by the ring and wouldn''t change a thing(or so she says!) She keeps saying she is ''so glad she doesn''t have a boring diamond'' (we''re working on coming up with a less offensive way to say that!). I can''t thank Lauren enough for all of her help as she really was my sounding board through this whole process. Enough sob story, hope everyone enjoys my attempt at photographing the ring.... Monica would only let me have it for a few minutes!
~Walter
Now that the formalities are out of the way....
I started working on this ring months ago. Like most things I do I was well in research before I even knew when I wanted to pop the question. I started reading just about everything I could find and started talking to fellow PSer LaurenThePartier. I looked at just about every image of an engagement ring that I could find and went to plenty of B&Ms.
I knew that Monica was going to want something unique, unlike anything anyone else had, and a bit away from the norm. While we had discussed marriage in the past (we''ve been together 4+ years and living together for half of that...) it really isn''t Monica''s personality to have heavy set expectations in this arena. It turns out she didn''t really even know much about what she wanted. It wasn''t really my style to bring it up in casual conversation or try and get a friend to sneak it out of her as both would have been painfully obvious. A bit bold, and probably not advised, I relied solely on myself to figure out how the ring was going to look.
I settled on a Sapphire rather quickly as in addition to its appearance, rarity, (and cheesy match to her eye color) they were supposed to have good durability as required by an every day stone. I also knew that the ring would need to have an antique feel to it so that it would continue to go well with her few other jewelry pieces that she had.
As I got in to it I narrowed the search to a 3 stone arrangement and began to work with Lauren to find vendors, both for the stone and the setting. Lauren introduced me to Katie at WF and I began trying to narrow down my ideas from literally hundreds of images and notes that I had collected. As I talked to Lauren and Katie I began to get a better idea of which features I was most interested in and how to describe them. I narrowed the word document to 6 pages and was ready to go.
The Sapphire front on the other hand was the exact opposite! I knew that I really wanted to find the right stone with a great cut. I was looking for a 6.0-7.0 mm round non-native cut medium blue sapphire. I began working with several of PSs favorite including Jeff White, Barry Bridgestock and others. Rough was tough to come by for what I was looking for and no one felt they had anything that matched what I was looking for. I had a timeline in mind at this point and was trying to pull the project together in order to coordinate my proposal with Monica''s birthday on December 16th, in advance of us returning home for Christmas. One day I received and email from Lauren letting me know about a stone that had just popped up on Barry''s site. After talking and reviewing a few more photos the stone was in the mail. Unfortunately, while beautifully cut and an amazing stone, it just wasn''t the right stone for me.
I continued my search finally working with Richard Wise. In speaking with Richard we identified a sapphire that seemed to fit the bill. It was in a matched pair but Richard was willing to split the pair up as he was quite confident that this would be the stone. Dealing with Richard was a great experience, he was EXTREMELY knowledgeable and was extremely accommodating to work with. The stone arrived and I knew it was finally the right piece. It was shipped off to White Flash and they finally began the detailed design work.
I started working with my CAD designer Joe. The design was somewhat complicated and I had some fairly specific requests so we held a net meeting to make sure he was interpreting all of my needs properly. Joe put in many late hours to help make up time and delivered a CAD rendering that was nearly perfect. When we spoke initially the only unknown had been the scroll work under the stones. While he worked I came up with the concept for the scroll work W and M that can be seen in the photos. Joe artfully integrated the idea and it came out better than expected. We confirmed the details on the engraving and that was it.
Here are some of the "in-process" images
The original CAD images:
The final CAD images:
The first photos of the finished piece:
My original sketches of the scroll work concept:
When I received the first photos from WF I was amazed, but when I actually received the ring in hand I was blown away. It came out as beautiful as I ever could have imagined. The hand engraving was spectacular and exactly what I was looking for.
Overall the experience was great. I learned more than I ever thought I would thanks to Lauren and Pricescope. Jeff White and Barry Bridgestock were amazing to deal with even though I didn''t end up with one of their stones. Richard Wise was amazing and delivered the perfect sapphire. My experience dealing with Katie and Joe at WF was amazing and they were great.
As some of you know, I did have several issues with poor communication with WF. They continued after my PS post culminating in the ring being shipped to the wrong state at Christmas. Ultimately my experience was unique, and hopefully others will learn from it in the future. While I did have my issues with WF, I would not hesitate to work with them again. Once I resigned myself to stop trying to plan my proposal on my time (it was rescheduled 3 times) and figured out how to do it when I had the ring it was a lot easier to swallow the hiccups associated with something as complex as this.
All in all I couldn''t be happier and I think Monica was truly blown away by the ring and wouldn''t change a thing(or so she says!) She keeps saying she is ''so glad she doesn''t have a boring diamond'' (we''re working on coming up with a less offensive way to say that!). I can''t thank Lauren enough for all of her help as she really was my sounding board through this whole process. Enough sob story, hope everyone enjoys my attempt at photographing the ring.... Monica would only let me have it for a few minutes!
~Walter
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