Here's some context for you. GG designed and purchased my engagement ring at a local Pittsburgh jeweler. He had a marvelous customer-service experience, receiving a lot of one-on-one attention with the company's owner, who guided him through the engagement ring process. Pretty much since we got engaged, he hasn't shied away from oohing and aahing over the entire experience, so I was excited to finally visit the store and have the same type of fun when selecting our wedding rings. GG was interested in a medium-width, yellow gold ring with a beveled edge, like this one:
As for me, I was using my engagement ring for some inspiration. My e-ring's band is actually a wedding band that GG added a center stone setting to. Here's a glimpse at my e-ring:
personal photo
While shopping for the e-ring, he really warmed to the idea of me using another of the same band, without the center stone setting, as my wedding band. The band is pretty thin, and I'm looking for a bit more oomph on my finger in terms of width, so I decided that I wanted not one but two of that same thin band, to kind of sandwich my e-ring.
However, the reality is, the customer service was a little average. I tried on officially one wedding band (the one I wanted, but still... I kind of wanted to look around a smidge more), and GG tried on three. In addition to the rapid-fire ring shopping, we also got blindsided by the prices. We were prepared to pay what we considered to be a pretty penny for these rings, and let's just say, our selections came out to be about 2 or 3 pretty pennies. Between the blink-and-you-miss-it ring selections and the budget-busting price tags, we got gun shy. No ring purchases for us that day. Instead, we retreated back to our apartment to lick our wounds and re-evaluate.
What parts of wedding planning were disappointing or off-putting to you? How did you recover?
I actually had a similarly crappy wedding band shopping experience (the sales lady was pushy, and basically ignoring what I was saying I wanted and trying to convince fi he wanted a gold band even though he already knew he wanted Tungsten) so I ended up going a custom route with an Etsy seller (lots more on that on my blog) and fi happened to stumble upon a sale on slickdeals.net (coolest website ever) for a band that he loves (brushed tungsten with a beveled edge) and it was only $15!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletePS - your engagement ring is beautiful!
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