Luxecycle

I’ve always admired the wedding band of my friend Laura. Like most Italian ladies I know, Laura wears a simple, 2mm gold band, instead of a diamond, as her wedding ring. I love the practicality of her ring. It’s so plain that she can sleep in it, weed the yard in it, and travel without worrying about having her finger cut off for it. She never takes it off.

Since I was engaged for a little less than 52 hours, I didn’t have time to buy a ring before my wedding. I was married in my grandmother’s wedding ring, which I love, but is not a ring that I want to wear every day, mainly because I’m a klutz and work all day with my hands. I need a ring that is simple, tough and won’t snag my sweaters. I spent all last month looking for a vintage version of Laura’s ring. It’s actually been harder than I expected. One of the jewelers I spoke to told me that really thin rings only last one lifetime (or they get buried with the original owners) so they are hard to find second hand.

My friend Patty, who I met through The Compact, discovered that I was shopping for a used wedding ring and invited me over to her house to look at three rings: her old wedding ring, her grandmother’s wedding ring, and a ring that she’d found on the floor of a bookstore twenty years ago, that had gone unclaimed from lost and found.

Patty has the daintiest hands so I couldn’t get her elegant, etched gold band on my fat finger. Her grandmother’s wide, rose gold ring, has a beautiful patina and looked great on my hand, but I knew that I would never feel comfortable washing the dishes in an heirloom ring, never mind beekeeping. It was just too perfect that the 14k plumb gold ring that Patty had found on the bookstore floor not only fit me, but is EXACTLY the ring I’ve always wanted!

I’d rather give my friend money than some random jewelry store, so I had gone to Patty’s with the expectation that if I liked one of her rings, I would pay her market value for it. I almost started crying when Patty told me that she, and our mutual pen pal Stephanie, had decided to give me whichever ring I liked as their wedding gift to me!

I have amazing friends.

How great is my new-to-me wedding band? It matches everything. Look how cute it looks on Pinky!