I remember the feeling of pure joy and terror melding as Alec slipped my shiny new engagement ring on my finger. At the time, it was two sizes too big! At the top of Vulcan, I could just picture it falling to the ground never to be seen again. I nervously held the tip of my ring finger until we were safely on the ground and I soaked in that moment of joy! I was finally going to be a bride!
As any newly engaged bride does, I loved seeing it sparkle on my finger. It was all I could look at! The more I wore it, the less shiny it got, which called for a free cleaning at the jewelers. Well… I may have gotten a little carried away. We both lived and worked within minutes of the jewelers and I would often drop my ring off for cleaning. What no one mentioned was there are two types of cleanings:
- Full Cleaning- This involves steaming the ring, buffing the gold to get rid of scratches, and all the other typical cleaning. They recommend this every couple of years when your ring is truly disgusting.
- Partial Cleaning- All they do hear is steam the ring and make the diamond sparkle again. This is best done in between full cleanings.
I happily went in every 2-4 weeks for a FULL cleaning… I did this for over a year. With each cleaning, more gold came off, until one day a prong snapped right off. I was petrified and confused as my ring was still pretty new. That’s when the jeweler realized what was going on and warned me. I immediately stopped, but by then it was too late. By the time we’d been married 4 years, I had all 4 prongs break off at one time or another. Each time they were repaired and made stronger.
My original engagement ring from our anniversary shoot back in 2018!
Well, you think that would have been enough. Nope. I somehow managed to make things worse and I totally destroyed it.
4 years into our marriage, I was chatting with Alec. We were building our home and having a serious conversation about our mortgage. As we talked, I took off my rings to complete a nightly ritual of putting on hand lotion. I then proceeded to paint my nails. Then, without thinking put my rings on while still deep in conversation. I was extra careful to not mess up my nails, but what I didn’t think about was putting it on my left hand.
Yeah, I pretty quickly realized I had forced my rings onto my right hand. Apparently, if you’re right-handed, your muscles in your fingers make them more fat than your left hand. No matter how hard I tried or how many ring removal tips I used, nothing worked. I iced my hand, used lotion, conditioner, I even tried the dental floss trick and holding my hand above my head for 30 minutes. Nothing would work. I frantically called my jeweler and found out the heart-wrenching news, they would have to SAW my ring off.
Talk about terrifying, no one imagines having to have their engagement ring sawed off their finger. It was a terrifying experience, but thankfully our awesome jewelers knew exactly what to do! They had a special saw made to safely remove it from my finger. They had it off within minutes and what was left looked so sad. I had effectively destroyed my engagement ring.
Thankfully, they repaired it and it looked better than before!
That lasted for a while, but this past November I broke off a prong for the 5th time. They had to take it back into the shop and completely replace the head. Since my engagement ring is Alec’s grandmother’s original diamond, we made the tough decision to keep it locked away. I couldn’t bear the idea of it being destroyed to the point I lost my diamond. It’s now my ring for special occasions.
On the bright side, that meant I got to upgrade my engagement ring! Alec bought my original setting when we were totally broke for $600 total (thankful for that heirloom diamond). So, this upgrade was huge for me! I chose a gorgeous emerald cut diamond with a halo. I had never thought about this cut of a diamond until one of our sweet couples had one and I fell in love. Needless to say, I totally love it and I will not be getting it fully cleaned any time soon 😉
Blessings,
Katie & Alec
P.S. I hope you laughed along with this story. Looking back now I giggle at how silly I was. If even one bride can learn from my mistakes then sharing this was well worth it! Hopefully, no one else will have their ring destroyed as I did!
Want to see more of our lives? Check Katie’s recent trip to Santa Barbara here! Or, read all about our love story here!
