Shiny Hands, funky feet, and a license to wed

Thought I'd formally introduce you to our rings! The left one is my engagement ring. The middle one is my wedding band, and then right one is husband2be's wedding band.

My engagement ring is a little more than 1 carat Aquamarine stone all the way from Thailand and custom-cut into a modified Asscher cut. The filigree on the setting is hand-cut and wraps half way only halfway around the bad with the stone almost bezel set except it's open on the bottom instead of completely enclosed. It was designed and purchased through Christian Bernard Jewelers of Georgetown.

My wedding band is a white-gold right hand ring with very small accent diamonds. It was purchased at a Helzberg Diamonds and was the brilliant suggestion of a sales consultant when we couldn't find anything that complemented/matched my engagement ring. It also was a whopping $100!!! Talk about a steal!

His wedding and is a diamond cut/engraved band (design is eternity-style, meaning it wraps clear around the band) and was also purchased at Helzberg Diamonds. It is a combination of white gold around the rim of the top and bottom and yellow gold in the center.

He will be wearing his ring traditionally on his left hand but I will be wearing my right-hand/wedding band on my left hand and then my engagement ring on my right hand (European style). We had to do my rings like this because the design of my engagement ring is so unique that we couldn't find anything that could be paired side-by-side with it. It works out nicely though because I like having both my hands show that I'm spoken for! :)

And then there's my feet. They pretty much say outright that I'm a "black sheep"/non-traditional bride...



As you can see, we are very non-traditional folks when it comes to rings and things!


The Converse are because of the fact that 1) I wanted to wear sneakers and 2) my family has a "thing" for Converse. (Husband2be is actually also joining in on this ridiculous "thing" and changing into his own Converse for the reception. I will be wearing mine the entire time.)

And as for the "Beauty and the Beast" ankle Kiddie socks? That's an homage to my little sister who died when she was a little more than two and I was just entering my freshman year in high school. Not a moment goes by that I don't think of her now and wish that she could be a part of this day. The butterflies that we are putting in the wedding here and there are also in memoriam of her - we always have seen butterflies at very special times in our life and we feel like that's her presence. But as for the Beauty and the Beast thing - it was her favorite movie ever and she used to watch it constantly!!!! As soon as I saw these socks I KNEW that they were what I had to wear!

And the final thing is that yesterday we got our marriage license!!!! This is a serious miracle because we were THISCLOSE to not getting it for a myriad of ridiculous reasons. We have until next Wednesday that we could have gotten it but the fact that it's now already done is a HUGE weight off our shoulders. We technically didn't wait until the last minute to get it but it sure was close enough. Advice to all: get yours earlier than we did!!! AND make sure that you know where all of the required paperwork is that you need so you're not up until close to 1AM the night before trying to find it. :-p