I'm With the Band

Alternative title: He Went to New York, and She Went to Jared

We've been searching for our wedding bands for a couple months, and a few weeks ago, each of us finally decided on the rings we were going to with, ordered them, and finally have them in hand!

You may remember my engagement ring: it's a vintage replica of a 1930's ring with a ton of personality and the little details that I just love (milgrain! scrolling! art deco!).  It was and still is the perfect ring for me, but when we started the hunt for a wedding band, I began to despair of ever finding a band to go with the contours of my ring.  I was looking for something that matched the style of my ring without overwhelming it; I was looking for a delicate wedding band. 

We looked everywhere: from local jewelers to national chains like Kay and Ben Bridge Jewelers, no one had what I was looking for. Pretty early on, I figured out that my band would need to be contoured to accommodate the curve of the center stone, so we focused our efforts only on bands that would fit, and struck out at nearly every store. 

On one hand, shopping for my band was easy.  "Do you have something like this?"  I would ask the sales people. "No," they replied.  Then we'd walk out.  Pressure to buy was just about zero.  But after being discouraged so many times, ring shopping wasn't fun anymore, and Mr. Goodlaff and I began to consider the custom ring route, going so far as to get a ballpark estimate for the ring I wanted.  It was a big ballpark: anywhere from $500 to $3000, depending on details and diamonds and whatnot.  There had to be a better way. 

And there was. We went back to the source, so to speak.  Mr. Goodlaff purchased my engagement ring from Leigh Jay Nacht at http://www.antiqueengagementrings.com/, so we browsed the website and came up with a few strong contenders, though none of them struck me as "the" ring.  We emailed the jeweler to see which band he would recommend, and to our surprise, we got an email back with pictures of a sample of my ring matched up with each of the bands I was interested in, plus a few more.  One of the rings that I loved, and the one that matched up best, wasn't even listed on their website, and it turned out to be the perfect ring.  A few more detailed pictures later and my ring was in production.  It was way under our budget, and it's stunning.

Mr. Goodlaff, on the other hand, had an easier go of it wen it came to ring shopping.  He really liked the matte look of a brushed finish, and was originally looking at Tungsten.  But in talking to a jeweler, we found out that Tungsten can shatter if it's hit just right.  The image of his wedding band shattering on a tile floor was enough to send Mr. Goodlaff straight over to the white gold ring section, where he eventually made his choice.

One weekend, during my everlasting wedding band search, we ended up at Jared, the Galleria of Jewelry (seriously, that's how they greet you when you come in the door...). After I struck out in the wedding band department, we decided to see if there were any viable options for Mr. Goodlaff.  In about five minutes we had a winner: a very affordable 10K white gold brushed band.  He took a week to think on it, then decided that ring was it.  We picked it up this weekend, and he couldn't be happier.

He's going to wear it around the house for an hour or so every day to get used to it, and I'm just counting down the days until I get to add my wedding band to my left hand!  So exciting!

I love that Mr. Goodlaff has found a ring that he wants to wear forever, but I'm really thrilled about the fact that I can say, just like all the commercials, "I went to Jared!"

Was it easy for you and your fiance to choose your wedding bands?