By fall of 2011, the Road Trips were firmly in the “we have an understanding” period of pre-engagement. We easily talked about ideas for the wedding and laughed at the antics of the Bridezillas on WE’s Wedding Sunday shows. I was devouring wedding planning books and magazines like they were going out of style–after so many years of thatain’tevergonnahappenagain I was intent on making up for lost time, apparently.

We’d seen a commercial for a Bridal Show in mid-September but I was in the middle of something and didn’t catch the url to order tickets. Mr. RT had, though, and ended up ordering the tickets for us that week.

(Now, we’re not the type to really keep score or anything, but if we were, T would have earned major brownie points on that one. I’m still grateful and amazed at his enthusiasm for wedding planning.)

At any rate, we attended the show, enjoyed ourselves, got several tips and ideas from the various vendors, and signed up for every drawing or mailing list there was. Hey, we’ve got 2 years to go and nothing set in stone, yet, but the date–we were up for almost anything.

Imagine my surprise when, a couple days later, I get a call from a jewelry store that T had talked to about maybe designing a ring for me: I’d won a prize from the Belle Etoile collection they carried! Since T had wanted to stop by their store, too, he went with me to pick up my prize that Saturday (I chose the Art Deco ring–which wasn’t really what I won, but they let me “exchange” it and pay the difference) and he browsed while I shopped. Nothing in their cases really appealed to him (style- or price-wise) so we left and I not-so-subtly suggested we go ring-browsing since that’s sorta what we planned to do anyway!

(Yes, I realize I was sort of failing on that “I don’t want to pick it out” statement I’d made earlier on, but oh well.)

That’s when Todd tells me he’s got a ring in mind, at a jewelry store in the mall, but he wasn’t sure it was “enough” for me. But maybe if I wanted to see it, I could decide if I liked it and, if so… well, that would be that and we’d make it official!

And there it was, the OMG, this is it! feeling. I think I blushed a bit, I know I had a goofy grin on my face and there were happy tears gathering in my eyes. I was giddy at the jewelry store. The ring was just right for what I wanted, T bought it and it was immediately sent off for sizing.

It wasn’t mine just yet, wouldn’t be for another week, but the moment was there.

Did you see the ring before the proposal?
Did you pick it out or let him choose?