Dainty bling bling

Early on in my ring search, I fell in love with the look of the Tiffany Novo:

Problem #1: For the size and quality diamond I wanted, this was out of kyzen8's budget. Problem #2: I wanted a 6-prong round brilliant cut instead of their cushion cut. Tiffany custom route? Try 6+ month wait and $$$ which we already didn't have to begin with.

I then fell in love with Blue Nile Sweetheart:

Unfortunately, our diamond was too big for this setting which can carry a max of 1.15 carats.

Next up was Blue Nile Nouveau which seemed like a pretty good copy of the Tiffany Novo:

We actually ended up ordering this ring and matching band without the center diamond being set. I was planning on sending it back with my center diamond if it was a good match. I even planned on "settling" for the 4-prong instead of the 6-prong that I wanted. The rings looked nice separately and had just the right amount of bling, but together they were too chunky on my short fingers. :( The engagement ring was 2.2mm and the wedding band was 2.3mm. This is when I started examining the Tiffany Novo closer and decided it too was a tad too thick at 2.0mm.

My next love was the Gabriel Novo which was advertised as 1.8mm wide:

Gosh, this ring looked so nice on pricescope, but I went to a local store that had it in white gold and it looked dull. The camera flash brings out the bling in the pictures above, but in person the diamonds (sized at 0.05 pointers) covered too little of the width and just didn't look good.

Next in line were various rings from Excel Diamonds and James Allen, which I paid to have samples shipped to me. Here's an example:

Maybe it's the nature of how samples are, but the quality just wasn't that good. Those were quickly crossed off the list. I was very interested in the petite cathedral from White Flash and Brian Gavin:

I wanted the head to be replaced by 6-prongs. But then I saw more closeup pictures and got turned off by how the prongs looked irrespective of how many there were. I also decided I didn't really like the cathedral look where the sides of the shank taper up and end in thin air.

At this point, I pretty much gave up hope of finding any ready-made settings. Here's when I entered the realm of custom rings: Maytal Hannah, Bridget Durnell, Mark Morrell, and Leon Mege. I interviewed Maytal Hannah in LA and she was very personable. But the work she showed me was very antique with lots of intricate details, whereas I wanted simple and elegant. She also wasn't able to pull up any 6-prongs of previous work so I wasn't confident she would be able to pull that off with the dainty look I wanted. I also met up with Bridget Durnell (also in LA) but was not that impressed by her pave settings.

The final 2 contenders were Mark Morrell and Leon Mege. Let me just say they are both highly respected on pricescope forums. I absolutely ADORE Mark's fancy torchiere:

I am still in love with it!! In fact, I'm trying to convince my mom to let me reset one of her diamonds in it. I didn't pick Mark for 2 reasons: 1) While he does do custom work and could make the ring thinner, he is not comfortable making it any thinner than 2.0mm due to his technique of making rings. 2) His schedule was fully booked through end of July when I talked to him in May, and I really didn't want to wait that much longer for the engagement ring to complete since engagement was in March!

That's how we decided to go with Leon Mege, THE God of micropave and really all things pave. Here was our inspiration from his site, though I knew I wanted the brightcut pave changed:

http://www.artofplatinum.com/4images/details.php?image_id=103

Before meeting with Leon in NYC during Memorial weekend, I studied his mushroom pave, brightcut pave, v-cut pave, millegraine, etc. The one thing that clouded my mind was he seemed offended when I asked him to "copy" the Tiffany Novo. In fact, he claimed to hate that design which scared me since it was my inspiration. It's funny how much the guy seems to dislike Tiffany's based on his description of his tulip prongs for the ring above: "For those of you who are fans of "Tiffany" style six prongs setting. The difference is - our version looks elegant and done by hand."

Leon was also quite rude and abrupt on the phone. But I decided to swallow my pride because I trusted fellow pricescopers' advice. kyzen8 and I flew to NYC and carried the diamond all over town with us and then had a 2-hour chat with Leon in person about all the details of the ring, emphasizing on the thinness and the fact that we wanted the engagement ring and wedding band to sit flush next to each other. Leon was the perfect man for thin bands as he regularly makes 1.6mm wide rings for people. We ended up with a platinum 6-prong tulip with a slightly flattened gallery (to allow flushness) on a 1.6mm-wide band with melee diamonds 3/4 down on each side set as a cross between mushroom pave and v-cut pave. We also got a matching eternity diamond band. We liked the look of mushroom pave where the diamonds go all the way to the edge. But since I plan on wearing the e-ring and w-band together, I didn't want the diamonds to scratch metal. I didn't like the side look of v-cut pave though which has more protection on the sides. So that's why Leon recommended something in between. We wanted 3/4 way for e-ring so that diamonds would show if ring spins partially but it would be resizeable. The wedding band needed to be eternity (not resizeable) because it doesn't have a diamond to stop it from spinning 360 degrees. As for the size of the melee diamonds, I kept thinking bigger was better and even considered increasing the width to 1.8mm, but Leon said with micropave the cost of labor is much higher than the cost of diamonds, and smaller is actually more labor intensive. The most important thing to him was to create a ring that looks good, and he recommended 1.6mm. For a while there we seemed to be speaking different languages because I was trying to emphasize a minimum diamond weight (i.e. 1.5 pointers) whereas Leon just cared about the width of the ring which in essence is the width of the diamond since he likes to have very little metal show.

Here is our baby, which I received from kyzen8 on July 30 (4+ months after original proposal) with another proposal. This time it was caught on video by my mommy! :)

Leon is actually a really sweet and charismatic guy in person and I would totally do business with him again. For micropave/pave work, I would go with Leon hands down. But if you like the more romantic, fluid look, I say Mark! Actually, you can't go wrong with either.

Would you rather have a say in your setting or leave the decision to your fiance?

Ugly hot dog shoe

MOH and I went dress shopping today and bumped into my beloved Amanda shoe.

My heart sunk when I saw this super-sized flat hot dog looking excuse for a shoe. And as if it couldn't hurt any more, MOH drove a deep knife through my already broken heart. Sigh. She *hated* the shoe. And I did too, but I tried to spin it in a positive light. Maybe it will look better in your size instead of this sample size 10. Maybe it will look better once dyed. Well, maybe it just ain't the right shoe! I didn't notice this before, but if you compare with the taller version of the shoe, you'll see that this flat version has a much wider open area for the toes. It's so deep in fact that her toes only went halfway through.

Just imagine this:

Disappointed and heartbroken, I went back to the drawing board. Let's call ugly Amanda and the prettier twin (ironically named Pretty) shoe set #1. Below are my other frontrunners. Personally, I am leaning towards shoe set #2 because it comes in silver which is a good color for the lavender BM dresses, and I don't have to go through the hassle of getting them dyed in a color which may not end up looking good. With set #3, I feel the heel heights are slightly too large and the differential between the 2 pairs is not enough. With set #4, the peep and peek a boo holes vary slightly from shoe to shoe so they may not match up exactly. But it might be nice to have each girl wear a different shoe from the same family.

Shoe Set #2

This shoe would be in silver and would not be dyable.

1/2 inch heel height named Palace:

http://www.promshoes.com/silver-prom-shoes/dyeables/palace-silver-4247

2 1/4 inches heel height named Flamingo:

http://www.promshoes.com/silver-prom-shoes/dyeables/flamingo-silver-2812

Shoe Set #3

This shoe would be dyed to match the bridesmaids dress colors.

1 inch heel height named Andie:

http://www.bridalshoes.com/white-wedding-shoes/coloriffics/andie-5763-3528

2 1/2 inches heel height named Tori:

http://www.bridalshoes.com/white-wedding-shoes/coloriffics/tori-5754-3605

Shoe Set #4

These shoes all have "peep toe" or "peek a boo toe"--I think they mean the same thing. They would also be dyed to match the bridesmaids dress colors.

1/2 inch heel height named Kara:

http://www.dyeableshoestore.com/dyeable-shoe-store/dyeable-shoes/dyeable-flats/kara-1-2--heel.asp

3/4 inch heel height named Dance:

http://www.dyeableshoestore.com/dyeable-shoe-store/dyeable-shoes/dyeable-peep-toes/dance--3-4--heel.asp

2 inches heel height named Carmen:

http://www.dyeableshoestore.com/dyeable-shoe-store/dyeable-shoes/carmen-2--heel.asp

2 5/8 inches heel height named Olivia:

http://www.dyeableshoestore.com/dyeable-shoe-store/dyeable-shoes/dyeable-peep-toes/olivia--2-5-8--heel.asp

Will any of these shoes pass the scrutiny of my MOH, bridesmaids, and our in-person tests? Do any of them pass *your* test?

In search of perfection

Before I got engaged, I told friends that I didn't want an engagement ring. I was not a ring wearer and hated the thought of having to wear a ring every day for the rest of my life. It was enough that I have to wear retainers every night! But as you know, when the search for the perfect ring started, that obsession went on and on for months.

Then when I got engaged, I told my friends how much I dreaded wedding planning and how I just wanted to elope. As I had already mentioned in a previous post, I thought weddings were all the same and boring. Why waste money to throw an event that no one will even treasure or remember? Then, as I delved into the details, I fell in love. I've always been a planner. And so it was fitting that I would love to plan my own wedding. I still think it's true that people may not care nor remember the details of our wedding. But I definitely will and that's what matters most.

But what did I really dread? The dress. In fact, I put it off for a good 7 months. As each month slipped by, I repeated to my friends, I am so not looking forward to dress shopping. #1: I am too fat right now. #2: Why would anybody spend so much money on a dress they're only going to wear once? Well, now that I'm near the end of the dress quest, I must say I was wrong once again. I loved dress shopping. I was driven by the need to find THE dress. It may not be the prettiest nor the most expensive, but it has to be the one and only. And the moment I laid eyes on it on the front page of a wedding store website, I fell in love. I emailed the owner asking which dress that was, but she was smart and asked me to come in for an appointment instead. Since the store was too far away, I ended up browsing through all 8 websites of the brands listed on her website, before I found out the maker and style. Later on, I even went so far as to personally contact 20 or so real-life brides who bought the same dress. Luckily, I loved it in person too.

But alas, I am one of those picky people that even after finding the perfect dress, still needs to try on a hundred other dresses just to be sure. So to this day, I still have 2 more stores to visit before making the final plunge. The same thing happened with the ring, the venue, and just about everything wedding-related. It's ironic that I am actually marrying my FIRST boyfriend!

Is there anyone else out there who's in love with obsession?

Playing dressup for my bridesmaids

Though I definitely have some bridezilla tendencies, I like to think I'm a considerate bride. And hence instead of dragging my bridesmaids all over town with me, I decided to go try on some dresses myself first to narrow down the choices.

And the result? Voila! (please pardon my ugly shoes)

I even went so far as to edit the pics next to my future wedding dress. I won't show the actual wedding dress here because I don't want kyzen8 (or guests) to see it, but imagine one of these pics for each of the dresses above (the actual wedding dress I pick will probably have a sweetheart neckline instead):

Furthermore, I wanted to see what the bridesmaid dress would look like in THE color. Here's a picture of the correct color (lavender) and material (satin) from the same maker (Sophia Tolli):

And so now I have a pretty good idea what the day-of pictures would look like if I pick dress B in that color. :)

In fact, I sent the pictures to my bridesmaids and B was among their top 2 choices. Actually, I have to say, I had my "OMG THIS IS IT" moment with dress B. It was definitely my favorite of the bunch. The corsette lace back (which matches top contender wedding dress) made me look so skinny. I remember telling the sales lady "This is like THE dress, except for the bridesmaid instead of the bride!" Heck, I'm a little jealous of my bridesmaids.

So in all likelihood, B (Sophia Tolli BY2991T) might end up being it. The only thing I wish it had was a real sweetheart neckline (because my future wedding dress will have it unless I change my mind). I entertained the idea of adding a sweetheart to all the dresses, but due to varying boob sizes and logistics of BMs living all over, I've decided to keep the original if we go with it. Only thing that needs alteration is the length which will probably be knee-length or right below the knee.

I'm going to take my bridesmaids to a couple shops before making a final decision. Hopefully they will all look good in B or whatever dress we decide on.

By the way, my mom is so cute. When I sent her the pictures, she forwarded them to my dad and wrote: "look at your daughter, she is so cute!" I'm glad my mom likes the dresses.

Did you have a "this is it" moment with your bridesmaid dresses?

Balancing heights with shoes

Is it borderline or outright bridezilla behavior to want everyone in my bridal party to be a similar height? The dilemma is I'm 5'1", my MOH is 5'5", and the remaining 3 bridesmaids are 5'2", 5'2.25", and 5'2.5". Well, I don't need everyone to be the *exact* same height, but for pretty pictures I'd like us to at least be similar, say +/- 2 inches.

Since MOH is so much taller than the 3 other bridesmaids and myself, I wanted her to wear flats. But I didn't want her to feel too left out from the crowd. So began my internet search for the perfect bridesmaids shoes.

I tried googling "bridesmaids heels different heights" and variations of that search. Turns out some companies make very similar shoes in different heights, but I had to play my own game of memory by scouring hundreds of images in different heel categories and then playing matchup. There were a few friendlier shoe sites that recommended similar shoes that sometimes matched my needs. Finally, I found 2 pairs that might work:

This one here is a 5/8" heel height. But because Colorful Creations measures their heel height differently, in reality it will increase the girl's height by about 1".

http://www.dyeableshoestore.com/dyeable-shoe-store/dyeable-shoes/dyeable-flats/amanda-5-8--heel.asp

And this one here is the corresponding shoe with 2 1/4" heels (in reality, more like 2.5"):

http://www.dyeableshoestore.com/dyeable-shoe-store/dyeable-shoes/pretty--2-1-4--heel.asp

I am still not 100% satisfied especially with the flat version of the shoe, but there really isn't that much variety for flats unless I want to venture into flip flops or ballet shoes. With these shoes, my MOH would be 5'6" and the other girls would be 5'4.5", 5'4.75", and 5'5". I would probably wear around 3-3.5" heels, putting me between 5'4" and 5'4.5". This meets my +/- 2 inches criteria.

My shoe dilemma brought to mind an interesting revenue idea. Could this be an opportunity to create a specialized bridesmaids shoe company that has various styles with customizable heel heights? Then bridesmaids could potentially end up being the *exact* same height (if they weren't more than 4" difference to begin with!). Would there be enough demand?

Side Note: If I do end up going with these dyable shoes, I'll probably have them custom dyed to match the bridesmaid dresses. But haven't decided for sure yet.

What were your criteria for bridesmaid shoes?

My dream wedding

The benefit of getting married late is having lots of experience under my belt. From college onwards, I've been to 17 weddings in all, was a bridesmaid in 3 and MOH in 2. The pitfall of this much experience though is you can feel jaded when it is your turn. Some weddings were definitely more fun and memorable than others, but in the end, they all had the same elements. To tell you the truth, mine may for the most part fall into the same bucket as all the other weddings. But in order for this planning experience to be fun for me, I desperately wanted something different, something more me.

And so was born this drawing of my perfect wedding ceremony:

I showed it to my close friends and family and they had a good laugh. I really was determined to have a body of water, floating planks for the guests to sit on either side, and for my dad to row me down the aisle in a canoe like this:

I searched literally every single venue in and near bay area and los angeles. Every venue that listed a lake or pond was contacted by phone or email to ask if they had a body of water in which I could have my dream ceremony. I started researching what would be feasible for the planks. I discovered the world of "floating docks" which are used to anchor boats and often times appear in movies:

There were a couple promising companies that quoted me on the order of $5000+ just to rent these babies. I went into talks with a couple venues regarding where the truck could load off these dock pieces. Each single piece is SOOO heavy that the weight of the truck might crush the pathway. But the truck has to be able to drive up right next to the water or else it's just too much lifting work for the guys. The water needs to be the right depth and have the right flooring to be able to anchor the docks. These docks can't be lopsided when guests walk around. We need to be able to place rows of chairs without the legs getting caught. The main issue was liability--whose responsibility would it be if a guest slips and falls into the water?

What is your dream wedding like?

The proposal story backwards

kyzen8 started creating our wedding website which is currently just a picture of the eiffel tower with the words "it started with a promise..." at the bottom and some piano tunes of our favorite songs playing in the background. He spent a lot of time making sure the picture resizes automatically if you change the window size! When I sent the link out, my cousin commented that the website captivated him like a korean drama. What promise, he asked? I thought kyzen8 made up some cheesy words as filler space. But when I asked kyzen8 about it last night, it turns out there is a deeper meaning...

Let me backtrack to the beginning of 2009. As I told you guys already, the proposal was not expected to be a surprise. I did however tell kyzen8 to keep the destination of our March trip a surprise. Of all places, he chose Paris! :) We had the loose diamond but no setting because I couldn't make up my mind. His parents advised him against bringing a loose diamond into Paris for various reasons.

On the night of March 19 (technically March 20), we were riding bikes in the park right in front of the Eiffel tower when we noticed a patch of grass with 2 ducks wandering around. Ducks have a special meaning in our relationship because we fed them bread on my first trip to Atlanta. And seeing a pair is like seeing the 2 of us. So he suggested stopping to check out the ducks and admire the eiffel tower. We saw the light show that happens every night at 1am. And then immediately afterwards, he started talking about how many different countries we've traveled to together. Smelling something fishy, I exclaimed "Are you going to p now??" (<-- way to ruin the moment!). He said "maybe" with a smile, got down on one knee, and proposed to me with--surprise!--a heart ring from Tiffany's. :)

I was thinking to myself, "How come there's a hole in the heart?" But he quickly explained, "The hole signifies we need to travel more, learn more, and love more." Sigh, I'm sad he didn't replace one of those with "eat more."

And alas, I found out last night that he calls this the promise ring. We had a slight disagreement because I thought promise ring was what a boyfriend gave a girlfriend if he wasn't ready to propose yet but wanted her to know he would in the future. So then wouldn't it mean he didn't actually propose to me in Paris? (Just like he didn't actually ask me to be his girlfriend on 3/16/03?). Now I'm left wondering whether that was the day we actually got engaged! I think so though because he did ask "Will you marry me?" to which I shyly squeeled "yes" with a slight intonation at the end, almost as if asking a question. Oh by the way, we also disagree about whether the man who witnessed our proposal from a bench in the park was homeless or not.

What does a promise ring mean to you?