I never did write a post about our rings so now seems to be a good time.
We knew we wanted our wedding rings to (a) reflect us and (b) be a little bit different, and we searched for a long time to find what we wanted. We thought a vine leaf engraving pattern with a stone in the middle would be interesting, and eventually we came up with a design on the back of the Evening Standard on the way home from work one evening (wedding planning tip - always keep pen and paper in your handbag!). We decided that as the main colour in our wedding would be blue, sapphires in our rings would reflect that.
Our first stop was the place we bought my engagement ring, as the lady who helped us design it was so lovely and helpful and we had loved the result.
A shame, then, that the experience this time round was so awful. The man we spoke to was of the 'yes this is what you want, most people have one like this' conveyor belt attitude and it made us feel unspecial and rushed. Alan had never worn a ring before and really wanted to try lots of different shapes and thicknesses, and this guy just wasn't interested. We had also decided we wanted some engraving, and were told that unless we had the exact specific design, they couldn't do it in case we didn't like it.
Well.
Some friends of ours recommended Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design for personal designed jewellery so having spend hours browsing her website in excitement we decided to make an appointment. We chose the branch near Hertford - they also have a workshop up in Cambridge.
They were running really late, which wasn't a good start and made us nervous as they shut at 4pm on a Saturday. However, they did make us plenty of drinks and certainly didn't seem to be clockwatching as we were there far later than 4pm in the end.
We met Sarah, one of the designers and explained what we were looking for. She was fantastic and both Alan and I were able to ask plenty of questions and try on lots of different types of rings. She drew out our design in a much more technical fashion than my bit of newspaper for us to approve, did lots of different costings based on various factors such as metals, stones. We even got to look at and examine the different sapphires and choose which ones we wanted.
This was great fun until the tweezers went 'ping' as I was holding them. Cue five or six people in utter silence, on hands and knees looking for a tiny tiny blue sapphire on the floor. Luckily it was found - I've rarely been so embarrassed!
We left the workshop at well past 6pm and were really pleased that they'd stayed open for us. We were already looking forward to seeing our rings!
When we finally picked up our rings just before Christmas 2012, we were overjoyed. We were blown away that they'd managed to make our little design and associated ramblings into two beautiful rings, with no fuss and plenty of creativity. Amazing.
We've since been back to the workshop a couple of times for resizing and polishing and we've always been made to feel so welcome. I love visiting their workshop - some of the pieces on display are stunning. If you want a special piece of jewellery made, I would highly recommend Harriet Kelsall Jewellery.
Not sponsored in any way - we just love our wedding rings so much it was time we shared them with you.
