Sandi's wedding band is finished!

Here is the finished pair... wedding band and engagement ring together! We had it custom-made based on some designs I liked and the artist's talent. I had to send my engagement ring back to the artist to be re-sized because Doug stole a ring that I wear on another finger to get the size for my engagement ring. I've really missed my ring, but I'm glad they got to have their pictures taken before they come home together!

The artist is Val Kasinskas, an ethical artisan/metal-smith in Portland OR. Click here to visit her wonderful Facebook page.

Here is a picture of Doug's Wedding band, made by the same artist. He got it early because while he was in New York he wanted a physical reminder of our engagement for himself, so he's been wearing it on his right hand.

...our first dates

Our first date was about... 14 or 15 hours long I think. We originally planned to just drive up and try this new coffee house in East Nashville which dared to call itself Portland Brew Coffee, and then maybe head over to REI and the Fresh Market next door, and then come back down to Bell Buckle.

Our journey to Nashville began with me tying the bumper up onto Doug's Rav4 with a piece of nylon cord. One side of it had somehow become disconnected from the rest of the car and had a tendency to flap wildly at 80-mph speeds. At least, that's what I envisioned happening; it was quite saggy and mobile and floppy when tugged upon. Doug was completely unperturbed. That same knot is still holding that bumper steadily in place, more than 2 years later. My farm-girl skillz come in handy that way.

So we drove up to Nashville, got coffee (which Doug declared to be adequate), and while we drank it we picked up a Nashville Scene and discovered that the independent film festival was happening right that very minute. We decided that we should see a real movie in a real theatre! We bought tickets to a late afternoon movie and since it was only noonish headed over to REI. Then we got hungry and decided to have a picnic. So we picked up some wine and cheeses and prosciutto and crusty bread and headed over to my favorite park, Percy Warner, to have our picnic on the stairs.

It was pretty sweet and romantic in a wonderful high-school sort of way. Only with wine.

We went to see our movie, Hipsters, a Russian film. It was perfect. There were awkward and hilarious Kama Sutra scenes! Like, actual illustrations from the Kama Sutra laid over during some of the love scenes. Hilarious.

After our movie we still weren't tired of each other's company, so we decided to go back to Bell Buckle and walk. We meandered around the town and wound up sitting on a blanket on the soccer field until the wee hours, watching fireflies and feeling like mischievous kids.

Our next date was a couple of weeks later, it lasted even longer, and we had an amazing time with each other and saw another wonderful film, The Secret of Kells. This date was slightly more remarkable because we somehow managed to drive all over Nashville blissfully unaware of (and barely escaping) the horrendous flood of 2010. We were literally driving and walking around in places that, just a few hours later, were many feet under floodwater.


But we survived. And we never stopped talking.

Once we got started, it wasn't long at all before we fell into a wonderful and natural rhythm of deepening friendship and sweetness.

The Proposal, pt. II (the presentation)

I had considered making the proposal in November, when Sandi came for Thanksgiving. But since the ring wasn't nearly ready by Thanksgiving, the proposal would have to be the next time I saw her. Since I was going back to Tennessee for the Winter break, it would have to be some time then. Or, Christmas, New Year's or some other random time. But since I could not stop talking about all of my going about finding a ring, I told Sandi that I was working on her “Christmas Present,” and figured I might as well just follow through on what I was telling her all along, that I would be getting her a very special Christmas present. So now the presentation... I wanted it to be a real present, something to be placed under a tree and unwrapped on Christmas. But I also did not want something as obvious as just keeping it in the box it came in. And I didn't want to really say anything or do anything overly cliched such as getting on one knee and making a speech. So the alternative would be to write something out. In lieu of trying to come up with something myself, I decided to use the proposal scene from her favorite book, Jane Eyre. Abridged, it reads:

And your will shall decide your destiny, I offer you my hand, my heart... I ask you to pass life by my side—to be my second self, and my best earthly companion. My bride is here... because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me? Will you be mine? 

And I would sign it as Kostya, one of the protagonists from Anna Karenina, my favorite book. Initially, I was going to find an old copy of the book and cut or photocopy the text, but the Strand never seemed to have a sufficiently vintage copy and even if they did, it wouldn't really be worth destroying a book and wouldn't hold up well to abridgment. Typesetting it would be lack-luster, but professional calligraphy is also very very expensive. So it fell on me to write it out long-handed. I have experimented with some crude calligraphy before, so I felt reasonably comfortable tackling to task myself. I bought a fountain pen, but that wasn't sufficiently calligraphy-like, so I tromped downtown to a calligraphy convention. There I found some good calligraphy paper and bought a used calligraphy pen. After much practice, I came up with a good working copy.

But a single small rectangle does not make a very good present. Luckily, I found a wonderful vehicle for note delivery when I was combing through wedding blogs looking for ring designers. Putting it all together:
 

With everything ready, I was prepared to pack it all up for Christmas. But I was determined to hold onto the ring itself, so it was not wrapped with the note itself. I still wanted to be able to present her the ring myself. 


All ready: