Off Topic Part Quatre

[TimandJoyce 1]

Awwww all these adorable stories made me tearie eyed!!!

David proposed to me long before we got the ring. in fact it was the first week i had went down to chicago to be with him. there was this one night, his roomate finally left us alone at the apartment. cold and dark. we had been talkingg for hours about ourselves and things that happend to each of us. and i just opened up to him and bawled my eyes out and told him about my past etc. and he hugged me started crying and said he would take care of me forever and that he didn't want me to go back to Canada, and he asked if i would marry him. i'll remember that night forever. the lights were off and the moonlight was shining in the room on us as we sat on his bed holding each other and crying.

the next day we went to the county hall and got a marriage certificate. unfortuneately we had planned for a january 10 2009 wedding, but i went back to canada to get my dogs and that's when the "your not allowed into the usa" bs started. we have been separated ever since january 2010 now and still not married..which is why i guess i'm emo this month

blargh didn't mean to put a damper on this thread..so don't mind me.

awwwww ((((((((((((kimbear)))))))))))) I guess you'd be emotional!! But then you'll have your visa..and you will be able to cross, and be married and be together!! I hope it's all quick for you!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I've got an engagement ring story . .

I am not a big jewellry person although I like gems for themselves. I generally only wear a simple necklace, although the stone will vary. Right now it is an amethyst. I have never been a ring person. The month after my husband proposed (when I was visiting him in Atlanta) he came up to visit me in Canada. It was also my birthday and he said he wanted to buy me a piece of jewellry for my birthday. We spent the morning going from jewellry store to jewellry store and had fun doing it, but couldn't find anything that said 'me'. I was looking for a small emerald or sapphire or even ruby that could be worn as a necklace.

Just before lunch we stopped at a private jewellry store where the owner made the jewellry himself. Right next to the necklaces and pendants were the engagement rings, so I looked because so many of them were so pretty. Theyalso had a few nice rings and a few nice pendants that I wanted to look at closer. When he took out one of the rings it was right next to an engagement ring that really caught my eye. Now, we weren't engagement ring shopping because I really didn't like wearing rings and I have never liked diamonds, but I liked the setting on this ring and pointed it out to Joe. He said it was a lovely setting as well. So, I tried on the other rings and looked at the pendants. There was one ruby pendant I really liked and was leaning towards but really wasn't convinced. That diamond ring, though, seemed to call me and I kept going back to look at it. When he put the other rings back I asked if I could see that one. I tried it on and looked at Joe, and he looked at me. He said "I know we weren't looking for rings, but that one looks so perfect. If you want it, I would like to buy it for you.". It really did look perfect but it was far more money than I was expecting him to spend so said, "Let's have lunch and talk about it".

So we did, and Joe basically talked me into agreeing to let him buy me the ring by saying it would be my engagement ring and if it made me feel better, I could also think of it as a joint birthday present! (it was only the cost that was making me reluctant - I had already fallen in love with the ring). So, after lunch we went back and bought the ring. It is a single marquis diamond on a raised bridge with a small diamond chip on either side in gold, very traditional looking and yet, it is a one of kind ring designed and made by the jeweller.

Interestingly enough, a few months later that same jeweller won over a million dollars in the lottery. When I stopped in to congratulate him he was so excited because now he could afford to buy some of the beautiful gemstones he had never been able to afford before and make even nicer jewellry. I thought that was so perfect. So, I have an engagement ring that was made by a millionaire .

Edited January 9, 2010 by Kathryn41

[coldwatersurf 5]

the next day we went to the county hall and got a marriage certificate. unfortuneately we had planned for a january 10 2009 wedding, but i went back to canada to get my dogs and that's when the "your not allowed into the usa" bs started. we have been separated ever since january 2010 now and still not married..which is why i guess i'm emo this month

hmmm my husband proposed on valentines weekend and he wanted to go to the city hall the following weekday. I told him i wanted at least a family or friend to be the witness so we waited 3 weeks.lol. But, i never had problems crossing the border as a fiance or a wife. But, they always grilled me with questions and i made sure to answer them w/o getting into details cuz that just leads to more questions. There was 2 or 3 times where the officer told me I wasn't allowed to cross the border. i would disagree with them and start mentioning a bunch of the forms and i was really persistent too. i guess mentioning the forms by their numbered names just confused them or convinced them that they can't trick me! im a VJ member! LOL! i had to travel by bus one time as a last minute trip for christmas and I had no return ticket and that was the only other time i was close to being denied entry. I almost cried in front of them. i told them i would never "just" leave my awesome job to steal the american jobs while the economy wasn't doing well.

so the lesson... prove to them that you're coming back to canada & not moving illegally

[Marilyn. 340]

my hubby proposed on a whim a few weeks after our first meeting...

he had come up to Canada about 3 weeks after I flew down to Cali to meet him for the first time... it was on the day he was going to go back home and we were hugging and he looks at me and says "Will you marry me, Marilyn?" of course I said yes....lol I got my ring a year later though...

[Rhiannercakes 14]

Anyone bored and wanna read a few short-ish long stories?

This one gets pretty creepy toward the end, so don't read it in the dark or if you're going to go to bed. Make sure you look at the pictures, it really adds to the story:

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/page1.html

This is SUPER SUPER long, make sure you have at least 30 minutes to read it. The last line is ironic. It's been called the longest joke ever. Don't skip to the end, you'll just ruin it

http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com/vb/sho...mp;postcount=96

[lgg 2]

I LOVE Broken Social Scene and Feist! That's rocking.

My story is not at all 'down on the knees' kind of thing but I'm not that kind of girl. We were in the Bahamas and sitting on the beach just as the sun went down -- we were eating ice cream cones and we decided then that we should get married. Easy-peasy, sweet and nice. Just how I like it.

That trip was a blast. We rented a car and drove our butts all around Grand Bahama island exploring it. We found our own private beach and played in the sun and the sand and the water.

I don't wear a lot of jewellery and I did not want an engagement ring at all.

To me? It was all pretty darn perfect.

Mine proposed to me before a broken social scene show in Toronto.

It wasn't super romantic, but then again neither am I.

This was back in the day when Emily Haines and Feist were a part of the band... that makes it cool in my books.

I didn't even want a ring because I don't wear jewelery, and I hate diamonds, so he got me an emerald instead... for many reasons - its my birth stone and anyone who knows me, knows I absolutely LOVE the wizard of oz.

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

I LOVE Broken Social Scene and Feist! That's rocking.

You know, I'm a big Metric fan (which is fronted by former BSS member Emily Haines), and like some of Feist's last album...but I've never been able to get into Broken Social Scene themselves. I wonder why? I'm a big New Pornographers fan too, so BSS should be right up my alley. Maybe I should go out and buy an album and listen to it a few times to see if it sinks in.

My story is not at all 'down on the knees' kind of thing but I'm not that kind of girl. We were in the Bahamas and sitting on the beach just as the sun went down -- we were eating ice cream cones and we decided then that we should get married. Easy-peasy, sweet and nice. Just how I like it.

That trip was a blast. We rented a car and drove our butts all around Grand Bahama island exploring it. We found our own private beach and played in the sun and the sand and the water.

I don't wear a lot of jewellery and I did not want an engagement ring at all.

To me? It was all pretty darn perfect.

Aww. I like your story.

What I didn't really specify in MY story is that my wife is very much in the same boat in terms of not liking jewelry. She doesn't even have her ears pierced. I didn't actually BUY her engagement ring. The story is this: we knew for quite awhile that we were going to get married. We pretty much had a tacit agreement the first time we met in person (I can even find emails from the first month of our relationship mentioning marriage... ). In the Summer of 2008, my now-BIL was in a serious relationship with a girl...someone that my now-parents-in-law didn't know very well etc. It was pretty hasty, by the looks of it. Anyhow, my BIL asked my MIL about his late grandmother's engagement ring, because it was currently in my MIL's possession. My MIL gave it to him for the purpose of proposing to his girlfriend...which he did. When my now-wife found out about this, she was very upset, because she had been quite close to her grandmother, and she was in a serious relationship with ME. I guess there had been an understanding in the family that the first to get engaged could have the ring...

As it turned out, my BIL's engagement lasted a grand total of a month before his fiancee got very sudden (but very visceral!) cold feet. They broke up and the ring went back to my BIL. Shortly after that, my wife called her mother and asked, "Soooo...does that mean the ring is available?" Meanwhile, my wife and I had been talking about getting engaged etc., and she was strongly urging me that if I was going to propose at some point (again, it was really a foregone conclusion), I do it with that ring. I really felt squeamish about doing so, because it had always been deeply ingrained in me that a guy is supposed to spend a month's wages on a ring etc. etc., and I thought that if I DIDN'T do that, I'd be seen as a cheapskate. So I wound up having an email conversation with my MIL about it and she told me, in no uncertain terms, that the dollar value of the ring really didn't matter...and that the sentimental value of the family heirloom would trump any monetary value of a store-bought ring, especially since my wife doesn't wear jewelry to begin with! So I arranged with my MIL to get me the ring...and the rest is now history.

[lgg 2]

Hmmm... I personally think that the 'spend a month's wages on a ring' thing is totally out of date. Again though? It's unique to each person/couple. Whatever makes you happy, right?

I do think an heirloom is a really nice idea -- such sentimental value!

[trailmix 77]

it had always been deeply ingrained in me that a guy is supposed to spend a month's wages on a ring etc. etc.,

This is interesting and a fairly recent phenomenon to my understanding. I wonder which jeweller came up with this marketing ploy

What nice stories you guys!

Edited January 9, 2010 by trailmix

[trailmix 77]

Oh and coffee!!

[Sprailenes 47]

Hmmm... I personally think that the 'spend a month's wages on a ring' thing is totally out of date. Again though? It's unique to each person/couple. Whatever makes you happy, right?

I do think an heirloom is a really nice idea -- such sentimental value!

I really think anyone who expects their husbands to spend loads of money on a ring are selfish... I really do. Those kinds of people really get on my nerves.

I like the heirloom idea too, that is really nice.

My cousin and her husband melted down our grandparents wedding rings and made two... I thought that was really special. He used his grandfathers and she used our grandmothers.

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

Hmmm... I personally think that the 'spend a month's wages on a ring' thing is totally out of date. Again though? It's unique to each person/couple. Whatever makes you happy, right?

Yeah, it is pretty dumb...but I remember when I was coming to terms with the idea of NOT buying the ring I did some proposal etiquette searches on Google, and it looks like the concept is very much alive. I remember reading comments from women saying that if they didn't get a ring that was such-and-such carat, they would refuse...or suggesting that a man isn't really serious if he doesn't spend at least $2000 on a ring etc. Yeah, nothing says "love" like breaking your bank on a small, sparkly rock.

I really hate excessive vanity.

Edited to add: by the way, I DID pay to have the ring resized and repaired -- there was minor damage to one of the settings for the diamonds etc. My wife reminded me of that every time I brought up the hangdog "not paying for the ring" thing. I also bought both of our wedding bands, so I guess that relieves a bit of the deep-rooted concern about being a cheapskate in that regard.

Edited January 9, 2010 by Wyatt's Torch

[Sprailenes 47]

Yeah, it is pretty dumb...but I remember when I was coming to terms with the idea of NOT buying the ring I did some proposal etiquette searches on Google, and it looks like the concept is very much alive. I remember reading comments from women saying that if they didn't get a ring that was such-and-such carat, they would refuse...or suggesting that a man isn't really serious if he doesn't spend at least $2000 on a ring etc. Yeah, nothing says "love" like breaking your bank on a small, sparkly rock.

I really hate excessive vanity.

Edited to add: by the way, I DID pay to have the ring resized and repaired -- there was minor damage to one of the settings for the diamonds etc. My wife reminded me of that every time I brought up the hangdog "not paying for the ring" thing. I also bought both of our wedding bands, so I guess that relieves a bit of the deep-rooted concern about being a cheapskate in that regard.

Excessive vanity is a huge turn off. The thing is I know sooo many women who are like that. One of my friends expects jewelry every Christmas from her husband.

Diamonds are just wrong anyways.

[trailmix 77]

Excessive vanity is a huge turn off. The thing is I know sooo many women who are like that. One of my friends expects jewelry every Christmas from her husband.

Diamonds are just wrong anyways.

What about Canadian diamonds

Actually diamonds and the price of them - I have always found this kind of amusing. If they are so 'rare' why does everyone have one. Now i'm not saying a rock like the Hope diamond isn't rare, it probably is - but short of that -

Anyway, it's the way they are marketed - but I personally do like diamonds.

Edited January 9, 2010 by trailmix

[lgg 2]

Yeah, just not a fan of excessive anything. I also think the 'demanding of' a ring or jewellery or whatever just makes a person look horribly petty. I like to just live and let live -- if you don't like what your spouse or whomever has to offer, you do not have to agree to stay or whatever.

Anyways... to each his/her own. OH and trailmix? Can I get that coffee to go if you don't mind? I gotta shove off to job #2 now...

have a good Saturday everyone and stay warm -- it's -15 here in Toronto today!

Yeep...

LGG