So after we lived together and adopted two fur babies, the Cliff Notes of the next 12 months went something like this: Celebrate one year anniversary. Decide to house hunt. Put an offer in on the third house we saw less than 12 hours after visiting it (another example of us going with our guts). Buy a house. Move. Begin to get settled.
If we were on a road trip, we’d now be entering August 2012. One day, Aug. 13 to be exact, I’m sitting at home, relaxing by myself, Mr. PB is off doing something with Gee and Gold. Whatever they were up to seemed to be taking a bit longer than originally planned, so I called Mr. PB.
Me: Where are you?
Mr. PB: I’m coming home soon.
Me: I thought you were coming home a while ago.
Mr. PB: Well, I had to help Gee move a treadmill.
Me: What?! That doesn’t make any sense. What were you really doing?
Mr. PB: Moving a treadmill…
Me: You’re up to something…
Mr. PB: If you open the door for me when you get home, I’ll tell you what I was really doing.
I anxiously await his return home and let him in. He had a strange look on his face and I inquired as to what he was doing. From behind his back, he pulls this out:
Neil Lane and Jane Seymour may have been uninvited house guests but they were welcomed nonetheless. // Personal photo.
Needless to say, my mind went a million miles an hour and my heart rate quadrupled. (Maybe that’s not scientifically accurate but it sure felt that way.) After the what, who, why and other questions I was able to muster out, I began to compose myself and realize that things just got really real. Mr. PB and I had been talking about marriage before we were even FBO but this took things to another level. Ring shopping. With his brother. Without me knowing. Wowzers.
Luckily, Mr. PB brought Gee with him and after Mr. PB looked at a few options, Gee suggested Mr. PB include me in the process. Gee wasn’t quite sure that Mr. PB was on the same page as me when it came to rings. Gee was right, I wasn’t thinking about sparklers from Kay’s. I had been pinning faux diamond rings from Etsy, sure that I didn’t want Mr. PB spending the amount of money associated with a diamond sparkler. Mr. PB, being the stubborn guy he can be every now and again, was determined to only get me a real diamond despite my plans.
Mr. PB and I chatted and opted that we would buck tradition like we had already with many other things. We decided to go ring shopping together. We could look at the options, I could narrow it down to three and then he could pick the final one. We went to Kay’s (Gold has a friend at one of the locations) and started browsing. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted: simple but not plain, round center diamond, a few smaller side stones. I wasn’t totally up to snuff with things like clarity, carat or cut. A few of the ring options piqued my interest but I wasn’t head over heels about anything. Trying to explain what I wanted, I pointed to a round cut solitaire and then a diamond wedding band, wishing the two were together. Apparently, my wish was the salesman’s command and he said it could be done!
I was trying to envision and document what the ring would look like // Personal photo
I immediately became giddy and decided that was definitely one of the three options. I don’t remember what the other two were but I was prepared for Mr. PB to pick. The salesman was trying to help with the anticipation, playing it off like the other two were contenders but he knew that the customized ring was my fave. Mr. PB decided not to have me leave and just double, triple and quadrupled checked that the custom one was definitely my fave. After I confirmed it was, the deal was done and off to the register he went!
As he was checking out, the salesman told him that the ring needed to be sent to a central location to be customized and it could take a couple of weeks. It was August 17 and our anniversary was less than a month away. I was CERTAIN that he would propose on our two-year anniversary so I was hoping there would be enough time. The salesman verbally confirmed that the ring would be ready by August 30. In that moment, I basically had Engagement Day (or E-day) penciled Sharpied in for the second week of September. As we were leaving and I was looking over the paperwork, I saw the promise date for the ring: September 30. Womp womp.
Did your fiance surprise you with ring shopping? Did you go shopping with him? Were you sure you were going to be proposed to on a certain day?