Rings, a second time around - Part 1

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Mike and I both know which wedding bands/rings we want.  We also know our budget.  The major retailers shockingly manage to fall way beyond our means, but gave us good ideas and sent us in the right direction (away from their scary prices).

We headed out to the jeweler where Mike bought my engagement ring. If you had pointed out this little store, located in the corner of a strip mall on a busy highway and told me, "That's where your engagement and wedding rings will come from" I would probably run straight back to the scary major retailers.  The Diamond Exchange USA not only has a generic name but the hole-in-the-wall of a store surely screams "scam."  Except they are everything BUT that.  Why waste money on a flashy website, catchy store name, or ritzy store?  It's obvious this small, family owned store values their quality of work and staff more than all those other things.  And because of that, they were not only able to meet our budget, but create our one of a kind rings for us!
(Or at least we hope.... read on..)

In fact, Mike did exactly that with my engagement ring. First chose the stone: a diamond based on color, clarity, cut and carat.  Then Keith, the jeweler, set it in a band of Mike's choosing.  Essentially Mike designed my ring.

The best part about this store is their honesty.  Mike went into the store knowing he wanted to buy my engagement ring and did his online research first.  Keith directed him through the whole process and the good customer service and good people resulted in a great price and a very happy fiance.

But I digress: wedding bands.
We went back to The Diamond Exchange USA (the whole name is fun to say) and saw their variety of bands.  Keith is able to replicate almost anything on display, at a lower cost.  He's talented like that.  Mike chose a simple band, with no brushing (as he previously liked) but instead with etched rims on it.  It's hard to explain, you'll have to wait until June to see it! We ordered it in palladium, which is actually less expensive than gold now and better quality than tungsten and titanium.

For my ring, Keith will create my white gold, channel set diamond and sapphire beauty.  First we looked at the options in the store, none of which had sapphires in them.  The .5 total carat weight (TCW) seemed to overpower my size 4.5 ring finger.  The .25 TCW left me wanting more.  We decided on 7 stones (4 diamonds, 3 sapphires) of .4 TCW.  When Keith totaled both rings, we were shocked to find out we were over budget.

I was so sad.  I thought for sure everything would work out with Keith on our side.
Then I asked the question that will forever change how I look at jewelry.

 {source}

{Because this post is epic, please see Part 2 tomorrow for the conclusion}