Wedding planning has been on the back burner lately with all of our travels and friends’ special dates and milestones (all happy things), but this weekend we did something that was just for us, and very special. We made our own wedding rings.
We visited Master Jeweler Stephen James Clarke at his studio and he guided us through the process of making each other’s wedding rings. Stephen is an amazing artisan, trained in the old ways of craftsman apprenticeship from another Master Jeweler before him.. he makes custom pieces for many organizations including the NBA, NFL, and NHL, has worked on Marie Antoinette’s crown, and was even asked to remove and reset the Hope Diamond. Aside from being a complete rockstar in the world of jewelcraft, it turns out that he’s also an amazingly nice guy, patiently guiding us and letting us amateur-ly fumble our way around his studio. He didn’t mind me screaming every once in a while also, when I thought I messed the ring up or when I almost set his bench on fire. Sometimes people mind these things.
Our two wedding rings were made from one single piece of platinum, which I think carries a lovely symbolism to it.
After lots of steps, and some almost-setting-things-on-fire, and some muscle (yesihavemuscle!), the blob of metal begins to resemble two pieces of jewelry…
Here is Doug, worriedly examining my ring to see if he goofed. (He didn’t.) There are pictures of me doing this too, but I have to look through them all before posting… I’m alternately crying and laughing hysterically in the pictures, neither of which looks very loving or romantic.
Several hours later, we had lovely matching platinum wedding rings. In case you’re wondering why my ring looks so big, I chose a wide band to suit my personal taste in jewelry — I prefer large chunky pieces of jewelry, and my wedding ring will be no exception! Luckily for me, as big as my hands are Doug’s are even bigger, which allows me to still feel like a petite lady 
All in all, we had an amazing day with Stephen creating these memories, and we now have our wedding rings created with our own hands! And tears, and possibly some blood 
Trying on the rings was a real moment for me. God, I love this man and I can’t wait to marry him <3
I will post a full set of pictures that show the full process at a later date!
Filed under: Uncategorized
that is so cool jeanne! i wish i had thought of that for my wedding bands!
it’s been nice to catch up on your life through your blog after all these years ~ congrats again!
Such a great idea and such a wonderful memory. Thanks for sharing.
[...] shortly after the wedding — look, our hands are all dressed up! Our rings of course are the ones that we made ourselves from a single piece of platinum several months ago. That watch on Doug’s wrist is my [...]