When Joel and I got engaged two years ago I borrowed a ring from my mother, a vintage yellow gold band with an emerald at its center and a surround of tiny diamonds, and told myself that we would eventually get the engagement ring of my dreams. The only problem was that I had no idea what my dream ring looked like.
When I began working at Turtle Love Co., I recognized that it was the perfect environment in which to figure out what kind of ring I wanted as a symbol of my engagement. Because TLC sells a wide array of vintage engagement rings and artisan-made rings I had a lot of room to explore what appealed to me. I had my borrowed engagement ring to start with for inspiration and right off I knew that, although yellow gold is nice, it doesn’t fit my personality as well as silver does. In the time I’d been wearing my mother’s ring I’d also grown tired of it getting caught on my clothing and I decided that my ring would need to have a low, smooth setting so I wouldn’t have to worry about it getting hooked on my sweaters.
Turtle Love Co.’s Nested White Topaz Engagement Ring
While I was going through the engagement rings listed on our website one day I decided to search by gem stone. The first one I entered was my birth stone, topaz, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the Nested White Topaz Engagement Ring by Jen Burrall. There are many reasons why this is the perfect engagement ring for me. First, I am a big believer in buying local whenever possible and Jen Burrall’s studio happens to be a few blocks away from my apartment, which makes it buying very local indeed! Second, although the name suggests the ring is reminiscent of a bird’s nest, it struck me that it looked like my favorite flower, ranunculus. In the Victorian language of flowers, ranunculus means “I am constantly amazed by your charms,” which when combined with my birth stone is the perfect message for my engagement ring.
A photo taken at Aubin’s recent wedding of her and her husband’s wedding rings on either side of her ranunculus bridal bouquet (photo by Katie Martell)