Okay, so Stefy and I got engaged on October 20. That means I had the ring for a full three months and seven days before I actually popped the question. Here’s a bit of the back-story.
During the July 4 holiday, Stef took me to Tiffany at Somerset to show me this ring she had her eye on. I’ve known for a long time that she wanted a Tiffany engagement ring, but made it pretty clear all along that I probably couldn’t afford one on a state employee’s salary.
Well, the good news was that the ring she liked had an aquamarine stone as opposed to a big honkin’ diamond.
I’ll admit to a certain amount of skepticism when we went into the store to check it out. Like every man in America, I’ve had it beaten into my brain that a diamond engagement ring is the only way to go. But when Stef tried the one with the aquamarine on in the store, my mind was made up. It was gorgeous, it fit perfectly and she loved it.
Being honest, I wasn’t planning to buy an engagement ring for a few more months, but what tipped the scale for me was when the salesman mentioned that the price of all Tiffany engagement rings were going up by 3-5% within ten days.
Granted, I had just bought a new set of wheels in January, but I knew I was going to buy a ring at some point before the end of the year anyway, so I pretty much made up my mind in the store that day that I would have to come back on my own to buy the ring before the prices shot up.
A few days later I started making the phone calls to my parents asking how they felt about Stefy and I getting engaged. Their answers were what I expected (yes), but I just thought it would be prudent to get their take on things before I decided to move forward. Since I wasn’t planning to actually pop the question for at least a couple months, I decided to hold off on consulting the Spiros (that’s another story).
The Tiffany salesman had given me his business card when we were at the store, so I dropped him a line and asked him to hold the ring for me.
That next Friday Stef and I were planning to go to Ohio to visit my folks, so I left work a few hours early so I could go to Somerset beforehand and buy the ring.
The salesman at Tiffany was great. He offered me a drink, took down my information, polished the ring, and got it all wrapped up with the little green box and the bow and everything. They even threw in a free mini bottle of champagne — definitely a nice touch, but it did leave me wondering… couldn’t they have sprung for a full bottle?
Of course, it didn’t occur to me until I started writing out the check that the date was Friday the 13th. Hmmm. Good thing I’m not superstitious.
Since I still had to go pick up Stef for the drive to Ohio, I left the ring at the store so I could come back for it a few days later. Once I finally had it in my possession, I hid it in a very special hiding place in my apartment… inside the TiVo box in my closet. And that’s where it stayed for nearly three months.
So yeah, that’s the story of buying the ring.
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