Kate & Silas

I have an engagement ring! (Matt proposed with a plain platinum band since he knows how… particular… I am when it comes to jewelry.) 

We went to AmericasMart on Friday because they were doing their Corporate Friday. Apparently everybody has heard of AmericasMart except for me, but if you’re not in the know, it’s the largest trade center for wholesale buying and selling in the world. Usually you have to be a wholesale buyer or seller and have a pass to get in, but some Fridays are Corporate Fridays and normal people can get in. You have to show proof of employment, which I found interesting - what if I were unemployed and rich and wanted to buy myself a shiny little pick-me-up? 

It was a little overwhelming at first. There’s a whole floor devoted to fine jewelry. It looks like a mall if a mall only had stores and no kiosks or benches or advertisements or food. Following the always appropriate advice of Cher Horowitz, Matt and I did a lap before committing to a location. We started with an estate jewelry store, and visited four stores out of 15-ish before finding The One. 

Since these are wholesale stores, most of the settings don’t have stones in them. It’s hard to envision what they’ll look like with stones, and made shopping a bit of a challenge. The upside is that I got to choose the exact setting and exact stone that I wanted - no compromising.

Once I found a setting I liked, the saleslady used the giant jewelry tweezers to put in all kind of diamonds - princess, cushion, asscher, emerald, and round. I’ve always loved asscher in pictures, but was surprised by how underwhelmed I was in person. It would probably look better in a simpler, more geometric setting, but the princess cut with all its sparkly facets looked perfect in my setting.

I was operating on four hours of sleep on Friday since I’d been up late packing, so I decided to sleep on the decision. I went through hundreds of rings on the internet on Saturday, including some that I’d bookmarked before, and compared everything to photos of The One. Nothing could top it.

Matt ordered the ring yesterday and had it sent to my mom to avoid paying Georgia sales tax. She’s bringing it down when she’s in town next week. For now, I’m compulsively looking at the photos she sent me.