The search for our wedding rings started as early as June. Like my usual SOP and probably like most brides, I always go for my first loves. Hence when I came across MokumeGaneya I just couldn’t stop daydreaming about it until we could get to meet with their jeweller. Their rings are just so pretty!! I can’t stop gushing about it.

Mind you, it’s only the mokume gane rings of Mokumeganeya that I love because I find the mokume gane make of other jewellers a tad scary. The jeweller in Mokumeganeya said that this is because of the silver component of the ring which is the main reason for the “black streak” on the ring. Even from before, I don’t want silver wedding rings and having known this new piece of info from the jeweller, I told him I don’t want silver in our wedding ring.

Oh yes, you couldn’t go as customized as you could get with Mokume gane rings. With this kind of ring, couples can choose what metals they’d like to have their rings be composed of. These metals are then melded together and pounded into one sheet about 8 inches length, cut into two (one for the guy, the other for the lady – this fact is quite romantic don’t you think?) and then made into a ring. Since it originally is a sheet of alloy, naturally there is an obvious line on your ring where the two ends met.

This was the main reason why I decided not to go for mokume gane. I would like our ring to be a seamless and continuous one, endless, without beginning and end.

One other reason though was that our rings would cost around 550,000yen. Gulp. Because I didn’t want the silver component (silver is usually the base material) in our rings, the jeweller said the other alternative for base material is white gold. To achieve the colors, pink, green and yellow gold will then be tossed in. Platinum is added on the inlay of our rings and diamonds added to my ring. Hence, 550k yen.

I was floored with the amount. Although I know Hubbie thinks it’s expensive, he gave me the choice whether to go for the ring or not because he knew how I wanted mokume gane for our wedding ring.

Boy was it difficult! I know that we have major expenses our way, what with the wedding and starting our new home hence splurging is impractical. I asked myself if I can wear that expensive a ring knowing there are other important things to attend to. Of course the answer was NO. And mainly, there was this breakline that I don’t want to see in our wedding ring.

Problem was that I didn’t see a ring that I fell for. We looked at Mikimoto, Michel Klein, 4C (I don’t know how to add the degree sign haha) shops but no “it” factor for me. I browsed Tiffany website but I wasn’t enamored with it. Probably because it seems I am just considering Tiffany because of its name/brand and not because of its designs. So I decided to visit the Tiffany store in Minato Mirai.

But I got intercepted in the way by Lazare Diamond in Motomachi. And there, I fell for our wedding rings. They beckoed towards me and sparkled before me way more brilliantly than Mikimoto did. This is it.

Originally though, I opted for the leaf design of the diamond inlay. But I decided against it because it looked like the shape of a wound. The Virtue wedding band was another choice but I didn’t like the grooves. Ultimately I decided to go for a continuous Pt1000 platinum ring wherein diamonds were simply yet seamlessly inserted that it almost looked as if it was molded together with the platinum band. Of course Hubbie opted for my ring’s partner, a Pt1000 platinum ring without the diamonds. We both agree that diamonds are for women haha.

I don’t think I was able to get a good picture of our rings to give it some justice but for now, this’ll do. Rings, please wait for Dino Lara okay? Then, you’ll have the pictures you deserve.

By the way, since we already had our civil wedding and our church wedding is still months away, we exchanged our rings on Christmas Eve in the old Christ the King Cathedral Church in my hometown in Tagum were I had fond memories of my childhood. Our little private ceremony was so sweet and special that I wouldn’t do our “exchange rings” any other way.