“It’s beautiful, and don’t take this the wrong way, but it looks older, like something my grandmother would wear”. That’s what our friend and wedding photographer, Kim, told me when she looked at my ring. I just laughed, because that’s probably my favorite description of my ring that I have heard so far. I find it amusing because that’s the look we were going for!
A while back, thanks to Southern Weddings, I came across Trumpet & Horn. Trumpet & Horn is passionate about finding exquisite vintage engagement rings that have been loved and passed on throughout multiple generations. I started following them on Instagram and periodically looked at their website, but past that, they didn’t really cross my mind.
Fast forward a few months and Scott and I begin to look at rings. Scott keeps telling me within the next year we will be engaged, but at this point he has no clue what type of ring I want. I love the look of a round diamond solitaire with diamonds around the band, but I have never tried one on. So we spend a day going to each jeweler at the mall trying to find the ring I created in my mind, to no avail. Plus every ring I tried on, did nothing for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I still love the look of a round solitaire, but it didn’t look right on my finger. So we left, knowing what I didn’t like, but still not what I did like. (Cue the female breakdown driving home, because how am I suppose to get engaged without a ring and he’s just going to have to pick one and I might not like it and I’ll be stuck with a ring I don’t like for the rest of my life! Dramatic, I know.)
Trumpet & Horn puts new jewelry on their website each Tuesday. So I was looking through their pages of rings and found this beauty – The Riverview. It’s an emerald cut center stone with baguettes on the outside.
Now remember, T&H looks for rare estate jewelry, so each piece has a story. This ring is from the Modern era jewelry (mostly from the 1950’s) which reflected post-war prosperity and economic growth by featuring an abundance of gemstones set in flashy, dramatic designs, with a focus on diamonds, diamonds, and more diamonds. I loved it! The only problem… it’s $21,500! (cue the let down music, that’s a downpayment on a house! or if you’re looking at HUD homes, it’s half a house!) I pinned the ring to Pinterest anyway and looked at it from time to time.
Scott and I were running errands one Saturday and I asked him if we could stop by the mall so I could look at emerald cut rings, because I liked the picture but may not like an emerald cut on my hand. We head to Kay’s Jewelers and as we round the corner we see A LOT of people in the store. They had a designer there who was making custom pieces. Knowing we weren’t in the buying market, we slipped in the side to just look. A sales rep came out and I told him I wanted to look at and try on an emerald cut diamond. Well of course he took us to one of the associates for the designer who was in town. She placed the emerald cut up to my finger and I loved the way it looked, but it was a loose diamond, I still hadn’t tried anything on. So finally I showed her the picture on my phone of the Riverview ring and said, this is what I’m looking for, but we can’t spend their asking price. She took my phone, studied the picture and said “ We can do that, we have that exact same band and the designer only made 30 of them this year so it will be unique”. She got the band, put the diamond in it, placed it on my finger and I turned to Scott and said “I love it”. We tried on a couple other bands with it, but none of them were right!
So now I have found my the ring I love, only problem…The jeweler is only in town for that day!! Stay tuned for part 2 of how Scott actually bought the ring!