I keep making notes about what I want to blog about, and losing them. So here is my hodgepodge of half-remembered thoughts, before Brian and I are away for 8 long days...
Well, first off, my ring is getting fixed. Or is actually done getting fixed, but not back on my finger yet. The jeweler who created my ring has not participated in Project: Priceless to date, but regardless, I have to give a little shout-out here: Gemvara (http://www.gemvara.com) is amazing. I have been so impressed by their service, and their jewelry. First off, my ring is beautiful. Gemvara specializes in customizing their jewelry; so you choose a setting, and can change the stones in a variety of ways, right on the computer screen, until you figure out exactly what you want. My ring, therefor, has two little diamonds in it, and nine little green tourmaline. Well as some of you know, one of my tourmalines fell out and disappeared about two weeks ago, and I was panicked. I figured it would be a pretty tricky thing to try to replace, one very specific size and shade of tourmaline in my ring, with its unusual setting style. Luckily, I found the info sheet that had come with my ring, and realized there is a year warranty on my ring. I called their helpline, and a very friendly woman listened to miserable me, reassured me that my ring was under warranty, and promptly sent me a FedEx thingy so I could send it in the mail the next day.
Barely a day later, I got an email from Gemvara, saying they had my ring and were working on it, and they gave me a date they would send it back to me. I couldn't believe they'd already received it and was thrilled! I noted, however, that the day they would ship back was a day that we would be away (more on this later), so I wrote and asked if they could possibly hold the ring until I got back. Magdalen at Gemvara wrote back and said they'd do me one better: they'd send it back to me before my trip--even noting that she realized I was probably eager to show the ring off on our trip...which of course I was!
If this wasn't cool enough, I ended up writing back to her about a day later and just asking for a quote on resizing the ring. It's a little big, and while I'd rather have a ring slightly large than slightly tight (personal preference), we've discussed getting it resized to a 1/4 size smaller. Well, Gemvara wrote back and said that they would happily do that, that the purchase of the ring gave me one free resizing, and that they would still get it back to me the day before I left! I was amazed and delighted, and we put the resizing request in. Now, unfortunately, Boston got smashed with a snow storm, so FedEx shut down for the duration and refused to ship any packages my way...but even then, Gemvara's Magdalen wrote to me and explained the situation with deep apologies. Hey, I live in Ontario--I know about snow. To my utter relief, Gemvara remembered that I would be away and offered to hold off on shipping the ring 'til my return date. I won't have my ring for my trip, but I don't even mind, and I'll still be bragging on this jeweler the whole time. Anyway, all this to say, I have been super impressed with Gemvara's customer service annnnd the beautiful jewelry, and I think it really says something when a girl is happy with her ring even when it's not on her finger, but miles away. Seriously and truly, as a consumer doing a project involving social media and word-of-mouth, I gotta say, I would recommend Gemvara to you all.
This seems like another good opportunity to remind people to check out our ring project for Brian, up in the 'special projects' tab at the top of the page. We're starting to get contributions of gold, and the next step will be finding a jeweler, so recommendations are welcome!
So we're heading out tomorrow morning for 8 days...my parents' early wedding gift to us begins tomorrow. For those who don't know the story, Brian and I booked a cruise last February for this January, and four days after putting money down, one of my jobs was downsized drastically to one shift a month. With the shifts went all our spare 'play money'. We fought tooth and nail to save up for the cruise regardless, and just weren't making it. So my parents, amazingly, gave us a really incredible wedding present: they paid for the balance on the cruise so we could still go. (They're also going, so really, they get our charming company for a week straight...so it's a win-win.) This trip is wrought with stretch-and-grow experiences, something that I have been trying for the last two years to do a lot more. Mo stopped by tonight to pick up keys for our apartment and the three of us ended up sitting and discussing the scientific evidence on whether or not women on their cycle are more likely to be eaten by sharks, and whether a brightly-coloured bathing suit would deter sharks. (I have a shark phobia, and we are going to snorkel off a barrier reef. SIGH.) We are seriously looking forward to the break; winter sucks, we are both overworked, and I haven't been warm since September. While we're gone, Super Mo is going to be watching out for our wedding project, my chum Mich is watching Darcy, and my derbymate Loco is coaching my derby girls. All is in good hands, so all there's left to worry about is sharks...and plane rides...and 8-legged bugs in the rainforest....oh, my.
And I even need a break from the wedding, quite honestly. It's hard work, and there've been some frustrations lately, all normal but still frustrating to hair-pulling levels. A woman called me 'bridezilla' the other day because I said that while I didn't require the wedding party to wear anything fancy, I did want them to be coordinated with each other. For the twelfth time: just because we're doing this wedding in a crazy, hodgepodge way, doesn't mean that we don't want some semblance of order. I had to laugh, because from anything I've read or seen, bridezillas don't freak out if the groomsmen don't match: they freak out if one single groomsmen has a crooked lapel.
Another reason to look forward to our trip: our Lululemon bags. Lulu Westboro gave us our bags early (you recall, they are donating two pieces of 'luggage' for our honeymoon), and we got permission to start using them now. So Brian has his much-loved Lulu backpack, and I have a bag that I want to be buried with. It is called a flight bag I think? and is grey and black furry, and HUGE and just amazing. I can't wait to carry it through the airport. With today's rather intimate security screening, it may be the only bright spot of the airport experience: showing off my bag. Lulu Westboro, thank you again! We love you.
We do have some offers to update you on, but we're waiting on a couple things, and I'd rather give you a nice list all at once. So patience! And as soon as we get back, we will be refreshed and ready and will fill you in. I may, who knows, sneak in an entry while we're away...but this is good time for me and Bri. We're going to have some real alone time, and get to just enjoy each other. We're planning to talk about our vows, and what we want to say at the ceremony, which is just fun stuff. And I'm attempting to only bring one wedding book on the trip--a new one I just picked up that is mostly wedding trivia, bits of history about the traditions, etc, and mostly useless for planning. When we get back, we begin meeting with officiants, bakers, photographers, and much more...so we'll have lots to talk about, and lots of balls will really start rolling. Which is good, because my wedding website countdown is excitedly reminding me how we're going to be down to just 7 months left when Bri and I get back.
Now, I'm going to go stand outside in the snow for a minute, breathe deeply of the clean cold air, taste the snow on the breeze, and let the chill get into my coat. Because a few days into our trip, when we are sweating like an old cheese in the sun, and I have the urge to complain about being too hot, I want to remember this frigid, horrible climate and...bite my fool tongue.
Stay warm, and stay tuned.
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