A Ring Of Truth

You know, its kind of humbling to realise that everyone else is not quite as excited about some things as you are...

Sure, I can say to The Boy that I have never been that obsessed with having my own wedding so now that its finally going to happen, I am not all up in arms about every little detail. Why should that be hard to accept? I can say that although it should be a great day, it is just one day out of the rest of our lives so we shouldn’t worry ourselves sick over it. That would seem logical. I can also look at our day objectively and say that its not vital for all and sundry to actually witness the marriage and therefore, we could just go to Vegas and then come back and throw a massive party with our friends to celebrate. I was seriously contemplating it. What I can’t really do however is transfer other peoples excitement where I want it so now the shoe is on the other foot. And I definitely won’t be getting married in Vegas.

I have realised this because I just got my engagement ring. My formal engagement ring. That may seem completely random and unconnected but its not. At the time that The Boy proposed, we both knew that there was a ring that we wanted to have but that we were not yet in a position to be able to afford it. We therefore went scrounging through all the antique shops we could find in order to buy a less expensive ring that was no less real or official than the one I have now but rather always intended as temporary. This ring served its purpose well for several months and eventually, we were in a position to order what had been our first choice all along.

The Boy and I had been to numerous jewellery stores and seen several designers in our quest for the perfect ring. I am quite picky about what I wear and apparently made it quite clear early on that its best not to surprise me with Jewellery, ever, but to include me in the decision making process from the start. I usually like to see things, touch them and try them on before I decide that I want them and this caused no small amount of difficulty when we were speaking to designers about ring possibilities. I would be asked what I wanted and I inevitably didn’t know exactly because I couldn’t visualise it. In then end however, oddly enough, we did buy a ring that I had neither touched nor tried on my own hand. We selected the design and colour out of a catalogue and paid a 50% deposit upfront for the ring to be made in Germany and shipped out to Australia. Thats neither here nor there however really. It was what happened next that made me think twice.

Because I love jewellery, I was quite excited by the prospect of my formal ring. I knew it would arrive before Christmas and initially I was told I would have to wait to be able to wear it as I wasn’t getting anything else at the end of the year. When The Boy saw how much I loved it though, he totally caved and I got it early. Especially as he was always going to get me something else as a present anyway, he doesn’t know how to do anything but give. So there I was all excited and happy about being able to wear this ring and show it off and the responses I was getting from everyone were pretty much the equivalent of “Oh, thats nice”. Everyone who had seemed so excited to see the first ring did not have the same interest in the second because I was already engaged. That was now old news.

As much as I still am not the type of woman to go into raptures over my forthcoming nuptials, it gives me energy to be around other people who are happy, excited and “into” an event that they are attending. You might argue that a reception is just another party and another excuse for a pissup but I like to think that if people have gone to the trouble of going to an official ceremony to see you go through what should be a significant event in your life then it is different than hosting a night out with free food and alcohol for all who know you. You might know what the “reception” was in honour of but if the event itself becomes removed from the celebration then it won’t be the same for your guests or for the couple. So we’re not nicking off to get married with just the two of us with a minister dressed as Elvis and an organist who looks like she works the strip in her spare time. I do still find the idea amusing though.