#fortheREZofMAYlife: (the making of) The Ring

I was browsing my phone the other day to delete old pictures when I saw our photo while buying our wedding ring. I’ve been wanting to write a blog about it but because of the time constraints while preparing for our wedding, I’ve forgotten about it.

We bought our wedding ring from RL Jewelry in Binondo. It’s the same store where my husband bought my engagement ring (read here the story of his proposal). He read online reviews and dialogues in chat rooms before visiting the store. Knowing him, he wouldn’t buy anything online or in any store unless he is sure about the quality of the product and if the price is reasonable. One million pogi points for my husband for doing “extensive” research about the four C’s, hehehe. I didn’t have any idea what “Four C’s” is all about until he explained it to me. I super appreciated it that he really took time to research about buying rings.

As soon as we booked our wedding date in San Antonio de Padua Parish Church (read here the story about our wedding), we immediately searched for the wedding ring design before we went to RL Jewelry. We wanted to buy our ring while we still have enough budget to avoid compromising the quality and design. Although, we may have more than enough budget for our ring, we still tried to haggle for its price, after all, we both want to hire an excellent photographer and videographer for our wedding (look at our wedding photos). These are the two things that we are willing to spend much money because it will both last forever.

We usually go to their store in the morning right after our shift (we both work on a graveyard schedule). Their hours of operation is supposedly from 8am to 7pm daily but they typically open around past 8 in the morning. Since we are always early, Ate Maricel is the one who would always assist us because the owner (Rico) and his wife (Leah) would arrive after lunch. Ate Maricel is one of their tenured staff. You can tell that she is a seasoned jeweler because she’s able to give us suggestions that is very helpful for making our decisions and she’s also able to answer our questions related to gold, diamonds, and other jewelry-related information.

This is the ever friendly ate Maricel

Three weeks after we submitted our desired wedding ring design was our schedule to pick up the finished product. You may actually claim your ring the same day depending on the complexity of the design you have requested. Of course, the more complex the design is, the more time it will take to finish it. After fitting my ring, I’ve asked Ate Maricel to have it adjusted  because it was too tight for my finger. She gladly took the ring and have it repaired while we waited. After almost an hour our ring was ready for engraving.

They also have tools to confirm if the diamonds are real or just pwet ng baso.

It was a great experience shopping for a ring with my husband. Our time was well spent because we got to be productive and was able to spend quality time together while preparing for our big day.

Happy prep time to all the soon-to-wed couples out there!! :)