ring photos--edited

I can't thank Sabrina (AKA blablover5) of The Introverted Bride enough for editing my engagement ring photos for me! What an improvement! She first enhanced AmyJean's photos over at The Relentless Bride and I sent her mine as well. What a talent (that i certainly don't possess!) I might just have to hire her to edit all my pictures. :-)

Here are a couple of my favorites. Check out the rest of the edited pictures here.

a ring to cherish

After finding out what worked and didn't work with E's man-band, I finally got around to mine. I had a million ideas and ended up finding some really neat props and backgrounds around my parents' house to use. It was amazing to me to see the ring transform with the background, so I chose not to limit my photos to one or two as Anne Ruthman suggested.

This shoot was really meaningful to me. It almost felt like a rite of passage: me and my ring have a life-time together ahead of us. I have no hopes or expectations of bigger, better bling 5, 10, or 50 years down the road. I LOVE this ring.

This ring will stay with me through my first year of marriage: the fights, getting used to living to someone completely opposite me, becoming a 'couple'. It will stay with me even when I swell up with a baby, when babies spit up on it and drool on it, when i send my first child off to pre-school, and when I'm at my baby's high school graduation. It will be on my hand in the good times and the bad, symbolizing our commitment to eachother on a day that is now just 6 months away.

I look down at it 10 times a day and think of my love who is sooo far away right now. I look down at it and remember the incredible surprise proposal--the surprise ring, and the incredible man who made it happen so perfectly. I look down at it with anticipation of what's to come.
It will be on my finger for every memorable occasion in my life from this day forward.

So, without further ado, my engagement ring.

I have the played the piano since I was 7 years old. I love my parents' piano. I love the modren look, contrasting colors and lines.

These are wild flowers from summers long past. My siblings and I used to pick flowers for our mom and then she always kept and dried them. This bowl was in her china cabinet filled with old wildflowers.

an old marble egg holder from my grandmother

an antique bell from my great-great grandmother circa 1900's?

his wedding band is here!

I know that this is about 3 months early on theknot.com's ultimate checklist, but i have ordered and received (3 days later!!) E's wedding band.

After being so inspired by the bees' engagement ring photos, I decided to get a little creative with his band (and a little with my engagement ring...i don't have my band yet). Besides, with E not here to see it...I couldn't contain myself, I wanted to show him NOW!

So I took Anne Ruthman's advice for engagement rings and applied it to his band. It will be easier to do at his house in cali because there are backgrounds that would better suited to him and the ring. Bling is easier to photograph I learned...his band is made of tungsten and it is scratch free and indestructible. Unfortunately it is also as reflective as a mirror, so it's hard to see the color of the band when it is on any background.

I have a ton more ideas for my engagement ring....that post to come VERY soon!

But until then, here are just the few pics I took for my hubby of his man-band.