Saturday, July 18, 2009

ring browsing adventure

The first time we went "ring shopping" we decided to hit up the local independently owned shops in our central Phoenix neighborhood, and forgo the mall. We started at Louix XV on Central.

After getting "buzzed" in, we were met with a powerful gust of cold air conditioning, and the soft warm light dancing on the jewels in sparkling glass cases. I had no idea what I was in for. This jewelry shop was no shop, it looked like a museum or something. Individual spot lights emphasized specific necklaces and rings and it was quite a site. We knew in about .25 seconds that we were in way over our heads. But what the heck...

Eli came up and introduced himself as one of the master jewelers, an incredibly friendly young man. My Guy asked to see eternity rings...to which we found out they don't have any. Then we asked about solitaire engagement rings...just to see what they looked like on. Ummm...they don't carry any diamonds less than a 2 carat either.

OhhhhhhK.

But Eli was so cool, he told us that most of their pieces are custom orders...and people purchase heirloom jewelry and investment pieces (investment pieces? what does that mean in terms of jewelry?). He encouraged us to look around at some of their creations. Many of the jewels on the necklaces were HUGE. Like, HUGE. I think perhaps my jaw was on the floor the whole time. Everything was so elegant. Not really my taste, but undeniably beautiful and fancy!

Eli walked over to us with a handful of enormous diamond rings for me to try on. Just for fun. (Bless you Eli was what I was thinking the whole time!) The first one was a 7 carat yellow diamond rimmed in tiny white diamonds. I about croaked. When I took it from him I put my index finger RIGHT ON TOP OF THE GEM leaving my freakin' nasty fingerprint on their beautiful ring...I felt like such a tool. But I tried it on anyway. It was super heavy and reminded me a lot of Paris Hilton's engagement ring to that Greek guy...you know which one I'm talking about right...obnoxiously big and ridiculous for real life? Yea. It took up my entire proximal phalanx. It was pretty amazing. Then we found out it was a 2 million dollar ring. WTF? Seriously Eli? Who the hell comes into this jewelry shop and buys a 2 million dollar ring? I don't understand.

Tried on a few more, I felt like a celebrity! It was a bummer handing all of those beauties back when we left.

Needless to say, we didn't go ring shopping for a few months after that.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fun trip anyway. :c) You should check out the Shane Co. They are locally owned and even though their commercials are terrible they do some cool custom stuff and have some really unique pieces (can you tell I got my ring there? I adore it).

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  2. haha amazing story. i woulda hightailed out there at that .25 seconds.

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  3. "proximal phalanx." That could only come from the mouth of a medical student. :)

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  4. Sounds like you did have an adventure. Ring shopping is so hard these days with all of the choices you have. When we started wedding ring shopping we did a lot of research online so if we decided to go to a brick and mortar store we wouldn’t waste our time on a place that didn’t suit our taste or budget.

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