The Engagement ring

From my brother to Kat

My brother is probably the least romantic person I know, who had absolutely no intention of ever getting married.  So it came as a major shock to us all when he proposed to Kat. I remember squealing down the phone with delight! It also came as a major shock to Kat who made him wait 48 hours for her reply... 

Dave actually proposed with a silver ring that he bought from me as an apparent Valentines gift - this alone was an extremely unusual romantic gesture, which I questioned. I remember sitting on the bus, on the phone puzzled asking several times "you want to buy a Valentines present? Really???" Unbeknown to me - and the rest of the bus - this was to be a 'holding' engagement ring until Kat received her 'real' one.

Kat had quite a bit of input in the design of her ring.  She was very much set on a simple platinum design set with a LARGE blue sapphire. I remember Kat and I discussing the design whilst my brother checked though his emails on his phone... to say he was uninterested was an understatement, but Kat didn't mind cause he was also oblivious to cost!

On a separate trip to London with a friend I showed Kat an array of sapphires - different shapes, colours, sizes - she was like a kid on a sweet shop! In the end she chose a suitably large stunning deep blue oval. 

A few weeks later my brother collected the ring to give to Kat. But there was one little surprise she wasn't aware of - inside the ring were two engraved dates: the date my brother proposed ... and the date she said yes! Well he had to get his own back some how ;)

The fitted wedding ring

The design of Kat's engagement ring required a fitted wedding ring which swept around the sapphire, and Kat also wanted it to be made in platinum to match. However, she also wanted to incorporate her late mum's rings, but they were all yellow gold. 

The solution was to melt down her mum's yellow gold rings and make a 'sleeve' that fits inside the platinum ring. This meant from the outside her wedding ring was platinum, but on the inside her mum will always be with her.