"We just picked up my engagement ring!! I can't wait to show it to you!" my friend Liz enthused over the phone.
"What does it look like?", I asked.
"It's gorgeous. A brilliant cut diamond, half a carat, in white and yellow gold. The band comes up around the diamond and wraps around it...."
As Liz continued to described her ring (this was before the days of mobile smart phones where she could just snap a pic and text it to me) I looked down at my hand to admire my own own engagement ring, except it wasn't there. Maybe I left it by the sink in the kitchen or in bathroom. I got up and looked in both places but it wasn't there. Maybe on the dresser in the bedroom? Nope. At this point, I'm starting to panic and I'm not even listening to Liz anymore.
"I gotta go" I said into the phone. "I think I lost my engagement ring! I'll call you back later."
"Wha..."
I hung up on Liz in mid-sentence. Not one of my finer friend moments, I'll admit.
At this point, I'm starting to tear the house apart in search of my ring. I had done laundry earlier that day. I frantically ran downstairs and started pulling things out of the dryer - no ring. Maybe it fell off in the washer. No luck. At this point my (soon to be) husband finds me and wants to know what is wrong... I'm not gonna lie. I did occur to me to not tell him. We were getting married in less than a month and I couldn't manage to hold onto to my ring until the wedding. I just lost something that worth a lot of money, especially when we were just starting out. What was he going to think? Would he still marry me? How upset would he be? In the end, I did the right thing and told him it was missing. He was upset, like I was, but fortunately, not angry with me.
So over the next few days I retraced my steps from that Saturday, contacting every business I had been in that day. I also contacted the police in case someone had found it and turned it in. My husband took apart the washer, the dryer and every drain in the house. We emptied the vacuum cleaner bag. We looked in every cupboard and every drawer. No ring.
So why did I lose it? Well, it was just slightly too big. It was a size 6 and I should have had it down-sized to a 5.75. But I loved it so much in the store and I wanted it right away. I figured it would be alright. I thought my fingers might swell so I didn't want it to be too tight - at least that was my excuse. What I forgot about was that in cooler weather, your fingers tend to shrink a bit (or not swell as much as they do in warmer weather). We had purchased the ring in the spring. I lost it in late-September, just as the weather was starting to cool down. I figure it must have just slipped off while I was out running errands that morning and I never noticed.
Now I am acutely aware of how important it is to have the correct ring size. While I was at a show this spring, a lovely woman named Dina came by and tried on one of my moonstone rings. She loved it, but it was just slightly too big. I mentioned that I could make one in her size for her. At that point she wasn't sure. A couple of weeks later, she came by my booth at another show and tried the ring on again and wanted to buy it - it was still too big. I told her I wouldn't sell her that ring and that if she really wanted it, she would have to let me make one for her in her size. I then told her my lost engagement ring story and she then agreed to let me make one for her. Although she had to wait a few weeks to get her ring it was a perfect fit.
Every time I work with a client on a custom ring order I am overly concerned about making sure it fits properly. In some cases, I will even schedule a fitting before I set the stone as it much more difficult to resize a ring after the stone is set. Of course, there was that one time when I did a custom ring for a woman in Northern Ireland and we had to figure out her size remotely which is even more difficult given that different countries have different ring sizing standards. In the end, I made the ring, sent it overseas and held my breath. Amazingly enough, it actually fit!! I'm still not sure what I would have done if it hadn't fit. Luckily I didn't have to worry about that.
Years later, my own ring never turned up. I did always hope I might find it somewhere in our house. Even when we moved and cleared out the house, I still held out hope that we might find it. But no luck.
My husband also lost his wedding band a couple of years after we got married. I used to think that maybe our marriage was doomed, but I am happy to report that we just celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. I also made us new, matching wedding bands a couple of years ago, and we both still have them. I also made sure they fit us both really well.
If you ever order a ring from me, I am going to seem a bit obsessive over the sizing, and now you know why.
You can check out available ring designs.. I can make any of them in your size. I can also use different gemstones in each design. Just send me a message and we can talk about your specific requirements.
If you're not located in North America, have a look at the ring size chart that translates sizing from different countries to North American sizing, so you know which size to request.
Never forget, when it comes to rings, size really does matter!