a ring to cherish

After finding out what worked and didn't work with E's man-band, I finally got around to mine. I had a million ideas and ended up finding some really neat props and backgrounds around my parents' house to use. It was amazing to me to see the ring transform with the background, so I chose not to limit my photos to one or two as Anne Ruthman suggested.

This shoot was really meaningful to me. It almost felt like a rite of passage: me and my ring have a life-time together ahead of us. I have no hopes or expectations of bigger, better bling 5, 10, or 50 years down the road. I LOVE this ring.

This ring will stay with me through my first year of marriage: the fights, getting used to living to someone completely opposite me, becoming a 'couple'. It will stay with me even when I swell up with a baby, when babies spit up on it and drool on it, when i send my first child off to pre-school, and when I'm at my baby's high school graduation. It will be on my hand in the good times and the bad, symbolizing our commitment to eachother on a day that is now just 6 months away.

I look down at it 10 times a day and think of my love who is sooo far away right now. I look down at it and remember the incredible surprise proposal--the surprise ring, and the incredible man who made it happen so perfectly. I look down at it with anticipation of what's to come.
It will be on my finger for every memorable occasion in my life from this day forward.

So, without further ado, my engagement ring.

I have the played the piano since I was 7 years old. I love my parents' piano. I love the modren look, contrasting colors and lines.

These are wild flowers from summers long past. My siblings and I used to pick flowers for our mom and then she always kept and dried them. This bowl was in her china cabinet filled with old wildflowers.

an old marble egg holder from my grandmother

an antique bell from my great-great grandmother circa 1900's?