How Y’all Can Pick Out The Perfect Engagement Ring!

Hey y’all!

I swear I have looked at hundreds of rings before Colton and I finally picked one. I went to every single store. Tried on tons and took pictures of the ones I liked. Later I would go home and look at the pictures. It was funny to see that I ended up not liking the rings as much as I thought after seeing a picture of it on my hand. There are so many factors to consider when picking out your ring!

FIRST, know the style and look you want. Are you plain Jane and just like solitares? Do you think the bigger, the better and go for the halo? Are you into the 3 stone, past, present, future style?  Try on rings! You may think a ring is pretty on someone on Pinterest, but think just the opposite when it’s on your hand. Once you figured that out, tell your boyfriend!

Second, (this should seriously be first but oh well) establish a budget. What’s the price range? Once he’s told you what your limit is, take him with you and try rings on so he can see what that limit looks like on your hand. He may be happy or disappointed with what that will get him. You can always sway him to bump it up by saying you’re saving him money in the long run by not having to upgrade! Hahaha

Third, what is more important to you? The size of the diamond or the quality of it (the 4 C’s)? Sometimes, you can get both. I wanted my center stone to be 1 carat. So, in order to get that closer to the price I wanted, I had to give up some color and clarity. I have an H-I in color, which means that it might have hints of yellow. I see no yellow what so ever. It’s as clear as water. No matter what lighting or angle, I see no yellow. The diamond is also slightly included. Meaning you might be able to see inclusions to the naked eye. Since I have a princess cut diamond, it makes it harder to see inclusions and I don’t see ANY at all. If I can’t see an inclusion by just looking at it, I’m not worried about looking under a microscope to  find one. I also chose princess cut because 1, I like the name and 2, it tends to look bigger than a round cut diamond.

Lastly, make sure your man likes the ring. If he’s gonna be spending some cash, he better like it. I tried on several rings and once Colton said he didn’t like it, it was a no go. We discussed what cuts he liked. I would go on pinterest and ask if he liked certain styles. He will want to be proud of the ring he puts on your finger.

Thanks for reading!

Starting To Plan Our Wedding!

Yayyy we’re engaged! So now what?

Well originally we planned on having a barn wedding up in Carson on his parents’ new property. I was so excited because I wanted it to look just like the Pinterest weddings. I love the rustic chic look with all the pretty lights everywhere. The venue is free and his mom and her friend were going to do all of our flowers. We were gonna do lots of DIY stuff for it and have pretty little touches. BUTTTTT I realized that even with doing all that to save money, the wedding would definitely average over $10,000. Then I thought about it. We could do so much better shit with that $10 grand. I would rather put that towards a down payment on a house or use it to upgrade our future kitchen with stainless steel appliances and granite.

I used to get SO irritated when my mom would say that expensive weddings are stupid and such a waste of money. I’ve always pictured having a beautiful, Pinterest like wedding. Then, I realized I would be spending over 10 grand on ONE day. ONE DAY then poof it’s done. One day to impress a bunch of people or have them say the chicken was dry. I could find so many more ways to make that 10 grand show for longer than a day.

We are still gonna have a wedding, but for way cheaper. Plus it’ll be a wedding and a honeymoon all in one. There’s no way we would be able to go on a honeymoon if we did the barn wedding. Instead, we are doing a destination wedding in the Bahamas! It’ll be way cheaper and less stressful. The chances of me being a bridezilla have significantly decreased.

The main things I wanted for my wedding were amazing pictures, beautiful venue, and bangin food. Pictures last a lifetime. Having crystal blue waters in our wedding photos would be gorgeous. I would do a trash the dress photo sesh there too! And it’s different than what most unoriginal brides are doing (you know who you are, bitch). If we did the barn wedding, we were anticipating about 160 guests. That’s alot of people to feed, chairs, linens, and tables to rent, more decor needed, and more stress. I would be wasting a crap ton of money on decor that I would end up selling for 1/4 of the price I paid. When instead, I could buy home decor and furniture that’ll last for awhile.

I was thinking about doing next March for our wedding, but you’re supposed to send out save the dates a year in advance. I don’t want to feel rushed planning the wedding. So we might be pushing it back to that fall or winter. It makes it a little difficult when you have to work around hurricane season there. And it doesn’t help that I have to schedule our wedding day around hunting season either! But Colton might have to miss a week and a half of hunting 🙂 he’ll live!