How I ended up with 3 engagement rings and an engagement Mac Book Air

When then-Boyfriend first asked me about rings, my romantic response was “If you spend more than $100, I’ll be mad.” And I meant it. It wasn’t one of those “Don’t worry about getting me a gift Honey, your love is all I need” comments when you really DO want a gift and get mad at him when he doesn’t decipher your true meaning [I LOATHE those games and the lack of them in our relationship was one of the key ways I knew he was the one].

I’ve never been into labels or caring if an item is “real.” I’m much prouder of a pair of $35 Canolo Flahnik’s out of a dude’s trunk than a pair of $965 Manolo Blahnik’s out of a Lincoln Park boutique. When someone compliments something of mine, if I can add “And I got it on sale for ____!”, all the better.

When it comes to jewelry, I’m a Claire’s girl, not a Tiffany girl. So I didn’t think I’d care what others thought of my ring. But since getting engaged last May, starting immediately with reactions to my engagement Facebook post –

Asheville

If one is going to get engaged, it might as well be in front of a waterfall, elevation 2450, in the Land of Subarus, Craft Beer and Hushpuppies, where super-heros hang out… — in Asheville, NC

Holy shit! Congratulations and WOW!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! I just screamed at work. The order of seeing things was gorgeous ring, Batman, Saya!!! and [Fiance]!!!!!

OMG, that’s so awesome, congrats SAYA!!! AND wow, look at that rock, GORGEOUS!!! 

Holy crapolie!! Congrats!!

Love everything about this post- the partnership, the photo, the RING! 

Holy bat ring! I like your rock. Tell Mr Hillman he’s the man. 

Sorry, did you post some text with this picture? i was in a trance with the beautiful shiny rock on your hand. congrats, guys!! awesome-sauce!!

 Is that at least 3 carats total weight or a good camera angle? And what’s the cleavage angle on her?

Congrats  and I have to agree with so many others- that ring is gorgeous!!!

Damn girl that ring is BIG!!!! Congrats! 

That ring looks massive! Well done!! 

Yay, Saya!!! So happy for you and , of course, the ring ain’t too shabby. 

Oh My Gosh!!! Congratulations!!!!!!!! Nice rock!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa–there’s a rock! So happy for you!

 That’s a rock alright! Congrats!!!

HOLY AMAZING — we could serve a meal on that ring! Congratulations!!!! 

Congrats, Saya! And nice bling.

— and continuing on through today, when people take my hand in their hand and bring it uncomfortably close to their eyeballs, twisting and turning my appendage like a chicken on a rotisserie spit, making comments like “Fiance done good!”,  feelings of discomfort surface. I was/am (naively?) surprised at all the comments on its size and implied cost.

I know nothing about rings but I assume that if mine was real, it’d be about a gazillion dollars. I became horrified that people thought my engagement ring was an expensive ring.

  • I’m the girl who wore $3.50 Old Navy flip-flops to her Commencement Ball!
  • I’m self-employed; frugality is my oxygen!
  • I don’t wear make-up, heels, or nylons!
  • I’d so much rather travel, technology, a class, fine-dining than jewelry!

When Fiance told me he had no clue what to look for and asked for direction, we smooshed our shared-love of efficiency and organization; I created Dropbox folders, one marked “No” and one marked “Yes,” with about twenty images in each of rings I didn’t like and rings I loved, as well as a document called Ring Thoughts, my very important opinions on all things sparkly [Dropbox is awesome! If you’re not using it for online storage/backup/sharing, you should; it’s free!]. Then I promptly forgot all about the topic. Until he turned me into a girly-girl on top of an Asheville, North Carolina mountain and gave me the most gorgeous thing in the world.

It was a little big as he had stolen one of my rings from my jewelry box for sizing purposes, unaware that I enjoy wearing my rings on my middle finger and thumb, which are bigger than the ring-finger. When we were chatting about this back in our sweet [and amazingly affordable] Asheville Airbnb; $37 a night!, and he said he’d get me a different size, I was expecting to wait a week or two or three for the exchange, not the thirty seconds it took him to give me a new ring.

Turns out, he wasn’t confident in his size choice. And the price being whatever it was made it easy to have a Plan B AND a Plan C. He told me what website he got the three rings from. I could go see how much he spent. But I feel like that number is much like the other number conversation couples have that does no one any good; what positive will surface knowing how many people he slept with before you? So it goes for what he spent on the ring. All I care about is that a) he didn’t spend a fortune and b) he wants to marry me. Little did I realize that my Claire’s-ness would result in a huge-ass cherry on top of the proposal-sundae.

“Since I didn’t spend a lot on your ring(s), want me to get you an engagement Mac Book Air?” [faint] Most romantic statement ever! Yes!

And so that’s how I ended up with three engagement rings and an engagement Mac Book Air.

Engagement

Just like we’ve got our fat clothes for when we accidentally gain five, ten, thirty-pounds and can no longer fit into our jeans, I’ve got fat rings; bring on the Poutine!  AND I get a beautiful new machine of entrepreneurism?!?! I couldn’t imagine a better scenario. Except for if Apple heard our story and was so smitten that they decided we HAD to be America’s Apple Couple and asked us to be in their ads and test-drive their products, showering us with free iPhones and Mac Books. I am not above wearing an Apple logo on my wedding dress.

Referral links (you get something, I get something, win-win): Dropbox // Airbnb