Just the other day another Facebook friend of mine made her engagement announcement via social media. It was, seemingly, a real surprise to her, but, of course, a good one. And her now-fiance picked a wonderful spot to drop to one knee and pop the question: The Trevi Fountain. Cue the sweeping music and the birds chirping. And I don’t mean that to sound bitter or snobby. Quite to the contrary. I think the right time and place only makes the moment more special for the couple. That being said, the next thing people usually say after “how did he do it?’ (meaning arrange the proposal, and the details of the proposal) is ‘let’s see the ring.’ And, that, everyone, is where things can go wonderfully spectacular, or horribly wrong.
A woman I work with has said to me on many occasions that she’ll need everyone in her life to know exactly just what kind of diamond engagement ring she wants for when her boyfriend (whichever of them it is at the time) decides to propose. This way everyone has a chance to steer him in the right direction. And by ‘steer,’ of course, she means lead the horse to water and make him drink. Meanwhile, my cousin is the sort of person who has established such a solid relationship with her boyfriend that they can speak about such things clearly and plainly. So, she has all the confidence in the world that when the time comes when he’s ready to put the entire proposal together, she’ll be getting the diamond engagement ring of her dreams. While I, on the other hand, begged my husband (boyfriend at the time) to be very understated and simple with my engagement ring. In fact, I went so far as to show him examples of rings online that were exactly what I was talking about. He agreed and thanked me, and then completely ignored me, getting me, instead, a ring I adore, but is so much more sparkle than a bird like I would ever need.
The point is, of course, that you need to know yourself and know your partner in order to make a truly astute choice when it comes to the diamond engagement ring of your (collective) dreams. After all, it isn’t just one partner’s engagement ring. As a symbol of your engagement to one another, the ring is representative of both partners, and should, therefore, take both parties into account.
Now, should the buying partner not be sure of the receiving partner’s taste or preferences, my best advice is to ask. But, if you don’t want to be so open about it, then arrange for a friend to discuss taste and preference on your behalf (undercover, of course). If you can’t make it to the store in person to obtain your visual aids, then it’s great that so many high-end jewellers these days have supremely detailed websites with all manner of samples available for digital viewing. Reve Diamonds of London has a wonderful selection available for viewing and that is a wonderful starting point for the conversation, no matter if it’s between the partners themselves or between the receiving partner and the buying partner’s undercover surrogate.
