Shopping for the Perfect Ring

It was sometime in university when I discovered it.  When I realized that the definition of all things romantic, sparkly and beautiful were contained in one place.  In one blue box tied with a white ribbon.  Tiffany & Co.

I always loved their jewellery but I never really thought I would ever own anything from there.  Then in 2007 I met up with two of my girlfriends to run the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco.  The setting was beautiful and the Ghirardelli chocolates served on the course were delicious!  The icing on the cake was that race medals were beautiful silver necklaces from Tiffany’s.The fact that handsome firefighters in tuxes were handing out those trinkets in little blue boxes of course had nothing to do with it…Mr. Gazelle knew when he saw the excitement on my face about my new Tiffany’s necklace that there was no other store that he would one day want my ring to come from.

Fast forward a few years we were driving home from work one day last summer.  We were planning a quick trip to Vancouver in August before Ironman.  Mr. Gazelle turned to me in the car and said, “I think that when we go to Vancouver we should go ring shopping.”

Me: “Okay…!”

Mr. Gazelle: “I was thinking we could start at the top and go to Tiffany’s.”

Me: “Really?  Are you sure?  But then we can go to other stores after that.”  For as much as he wanted to look at rings from there I never thought we would actually be shopping there seriously.

Mr. Gazelle began perusing the rings online trying to pick the right one for me.  Excitement ensued and he could barely contain himself when he thought he found the right one.  While a part of him wanted to surprise me, another part of him wanted to know if I liked it.  He caved and showed me and it was perfect.  It was exactly the one I would have picked for myself!

After that Mr. Gazelle spent about a month or so e-mailing back and forth with a lovely rep at Tiffany’s Vancouver store.  They discussed all things budget, design and quality.  She walked him through the 4Cs of diamonds, a topic that can be really intimidating and confusing.  Then as the big day arrived she had the rings in store that met his criteria.  She made him feel comfortable and knowledgeable about the big purchase.  As we left the store on a sunny day we both felt like it had been a one of a kind shopping experience.  I was a little sad that the ring was a tad too small and that we had to leave it behind.  It would be FedExed to Calgary later after it was sized.  I was still able to walk out with a little blue bag of jewellery  cleaner though, and this would give Mr. Gazelle a chance at a surprise proposal like he had been hoping for.Did you shop for an engagement ring with your fiancé or was it a surprise?

*All personal photos.