the engagement [part 2]

[If you missed Part 1 you can find it here.]

The subtitle for this post should really be "The Ring Shopping," cuz seriously, I had some strong opinions about this.  You'll see what I mean.

After I told Tim that I was ready to look for rings, he was more than happy to bring me with him.  He didn't really want to pick out a ring himself, and he said he wanted me to get exactly what I wanted.  Which was more than fine with me.

You see, I really didn't think I would be very picky about the whole thing, but I totally was.

Needless to say, we started shopping right away in California on our road trip.  We went to a mall, because that seemed like a good place to start.  It seemed like the odds would be in our favor, as there were at least three jewelry stores all in one place.  After looking around a bit, I found a few rings I liked, but after talking to the sales people and learning about their warranties and other whatnot, we just weren't impressed.  We decided to look again when we got back home to Arizona.

The day after we got home, we wanted to go ring shopping again.  I really wanted to go to Shane Co., even though I'd heard they were more expensive - mostly because I'd heard their radio advertisements ["Shane Company - now you've got a friend in the diamond business"] and because their website is bomb.

We walked through their doors and were immediately mesmerized by their impressive selection of rings.

"Wow, can we get a ring here?"  [Now if you were to guess who said this, who would you guess?  Me or Tim?  Probably me, right?  Nope.  Wrong.  Tim said this.  Yep, that's right.  It was that impressive.]

Here are a few reasons why Shane Co. was bomb:

1. Their customer service was awesome.  Seriously.  They don't work on commission and weren't pushy in the least.  They would even walk away from time to time just so Tim and I could talk about the rings privately.  [If you know me, this is huge.  I don't work well under the pressure of someone continually hovering nearby.]

2. Their ring selection was way better than anywhere else we went.

3. The diamonds and their bands have a lifetime warranty.  Anywhere else we went that cost extra.

4. All of the diamonds are certified.  Everywhere else we went, getting the diamonds certified cost an extra few hundred dollars.  Yuck.

5. You get to pick a setting and then choose the diamond you want.  They bring out a few different diamonds, have you look at them up close and in the ring, and then tell you about the color, clarity, etc. of each diamond.  So fun.

6. The rings were comparable in price to everywhere else for [in my opinion] better rings.

7. Tim even liked Shane Co.

[Shane Co., you can give me my stipend later.  Just kidding.]

I thought Tim would be choking after spending so much on such a small [seemingly useless] object.  But he told me it was "the best purchase of his life."  The lady who helped us find the ring said that she loved watching Tim when I finally decided on the ring I wanted.  Whenever I smiled, he would look at me and smile just a little bit bigger.  When my eyes lit up, he would look at me, and his eyes would light up just a little bit brighter.  I could have hugged her for telling me that.

Is the ring the most important part of getting engaged?  Certainly not!  The best part is that I get to marry my best friend in a month and a half.

But it certainly didn't hurt anything, either.

Thank you Katelynn Harris!

Never fear!  The proposal story is coming soon...

Continue on to Part 3.