With these rings,

we will be wed!

Over the holiday weekend, Mr. Ly and I decided it would be a good time to get an idea of what we wanted for our wedding bands. We both had some ideas, but we wanted to see them in person to be sure. The halo of my engagement ring isn't raised, so if I wanted a ring to lay flush, I would have to get a curved band. I don't want a curved band, so I am embracing the gap.  Although right now I can't imagine not wanting to wear my engagement ring, but if there does come the time, I want to be able to wear my wedding ring by itself.

When Mr. Ly and I first went to look at engagement rings, my mom recommended a jeweler that one of her friend's sons used to buy his fiance's engagement ring.  Little did we know that this jeweler would become one of our favorite vendors to work with.  From the moment we met Tom, we felt welcomed like we had been customers there for years, not just a couple of kids looking for rings for the very first time. We were treated so well, and Tom was nothing but helpful, letting me try on and try to describe the ring of my dreams. I was so pleased when I found out Mr. Ly actually bought my engagement ring there, and there was no question in our mind that we would go back to Anthony's Jewelers when it was time to purchase our wedding bands.  I strongly recommend them to any South Jersey bees who may be looking for a piece of jewelry - no matter how big or small - just ask for Tom!

That's Tom, our new family jeweler (how cool is it to have a jeweler??)

Originally, the ring I thought I wanted was very similar to my e-ring, except the split shank, isn't split.  I can't find the actual image but it's something like this, except I wouldn't want diamonds all the way around:

Endless Love Eternity Band / Image via Ritani 

And, I still like this look, but the actual one I saw on a previous trip to the jeweler's wasn't in stock.  So, instead of letting Mr. Ly have all the fun, I kept looking at other options!  I found a new lovely, that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since:

Image via Anthony's Jewelers

I love everything about this ring - especially the details on the side.  It's a bit pricier than the original band I was looking at, but this is the ring I will wear forever.  I don't think a few hundred dollars should be the deciding factor.

Mr. Ly found that he liked something different than what he thought he wanted as well.  First and foremost, he definitely wants an alternative metal ring. Originally Mr. Ly was drawn towards dark metals like tungsten and titanium.  His brother, both his brother-in-laws, & most of our friends all have titanium or tungsten rings and are mostly dark in color. So, he originally thought he wanted that too.

Mr. Ly wearing a tungsten ring (and showing off his quirky tee - we haven't seen one of those in a while!)

 But he found that as much as he liked the dark ring, he wanted something... different. So he tried on a lighter metal.

Mr. Ly trying on a chrome cobalt ring with the tungsten ring

Much to his surprise, he found he liked the shinier, brighter metal. After this discovery, he did try on some white gold rings, and some pricier metals. I have no photographic evidence of this because my ring had just come back from being cleaned and I was way too distracted taking pictures of this, instead:

I'm easily distracted by my clean, shiny ring! 

Mr. Ly eventually decided that the chrome cobalt ring was his favorite, and we had made our decisions. Our shopping trip was successful, but we each found something different than we thought we wanted.  We haven't actually purchased them yet, but in a few weeks we're planning on going back to Anthony's to make it official!

Our rings! Don't the look nice together? 

Anyone else get some wedding related shopping done over the long holiday weekend?