Every Kandace begins with K

Today was productive. After sleeping in until almost noon (!) we finally quit dragging our feet and headed out for an exciting day. Our first stop was Al's Formal Wear, where in about 30 minutes we had everything picked out for what all our handsome men will be wearing. The exception being my dad, but I'm going to let him choose what he wears to walk me down (within reason, and within the contraints of the rest of the wedding decor.) After putting a down payment on all three tuxes (because Jason is generous like that) they just need measurements from the guys and we are good to go until we pick everything up two days before the wedding.



This is what Thomas and Arthur will be wearing, except the tie will be solid purple. Jason will be wearing the same thing, but in all black. Everyone will have the same black jacket, pants and shoes, and the white wing-tip shirt with black/silver cufflinks. How dashing they'll all be!








After that productiveness, we headed over to the Zales outlet store to peruse wedding bands. [Note: here's where it gets tricky. I don't know how many of you know this, but Kandace is allergic to nickel. No, not the coins (which aren't even made of nickel!) The actual metal nickel. The metal that comprises a majority of jewelry out there - everything from ___-plated jewelry to various alloys, including white gold, contain varying degrees of nickel. For this reason, I don't have a college class ring. I'm not sure what the extent of my allergy is (the higher the karat of gold, the less nickel in the mix) but it was such an expensive investment to purchase the highest karat they offered (18) if I wasn't sure it would be pure enough.]

But that's not the main focus of this story. Jason was wonderful enough to purchase my engagement ring in platinum so that I might enjoy it for all our long years without redness, swelling, itching or scabbing (gross, sorry.) So when we went into Zales today we had a pretty clear idea of what we needed. They showed us some stuff both for me and for him, and it helped us decide even more what would work for us. I fell in love with ring wraps. Ring wraps are essentially enhancers that tack on to the engagement ring, making it look as though you are wearing one ornate ring. They come on a separate band, but have a gap in the middle so that your original stone "nests" inside, creating a unified piece.

After talking about pricing and various other details, we decided we weren't quite ready to drop that kind of money yet. We thanked the saleslady (who had the audacity to ask us if we were kidding when we said we didn't want to buy today, and then guilted us because she had already cut the tag - BFD!) and we headed out the door. Even if we decide to go with those choices from Zales, we will definitely be visiting a different person at a different location!

From Zales we headed to Kay Jewelers in Southlake Town Square. Three lovely ladies helped us patiently, throwing out ideas, making suggestions, giving opinions. Much better than Zales. I fell in love with a ring wrap there as well. I know it's perfect because while looking at the other options besides that one, I pointed to another one that I liked that was in a yellow gold - come to find out it was the same ring in two different golds! The only downside to this whole ordeal is that they're not sure they can get it for me in platinum. They are going to do some research, call their vendors and their craftsmen and see if they can have it cast in platinum for me.

Below are the pictures of the concept of ring wraps:


This is the exact wrap I want, but in platinum. Notice the wide gap in the middle and how it drops down lower than the back of the band. This ensures that the two pieces fit together and look like one solid ring.





This is what it would look like with my engagement ring in the middle. The thick sides help hide the fact that it's two different bands. Isn't it gorgeous???





Very similar to the one we are looking at for Jason.







Fingers crossed for good news on Monday!