Finding the Perfect One

I have to be honest. Our ring budget is small. Veeeerrrry small. Like $400 for both of us. Luckily, Mr. CB was feeling generous one day and told me I could have $300 and he'd take $100. Well, to be honest, $300 doesn't get you very much at all in the land of diamond and platinum.

I like to think I'm very resourceful. I find bargains on everything I can, and that includes my wedding band. My first thought was to find a jeweler to make the ring. Luckily, I had a friend of a friend who happened to be a very talented jeweler: Katrina Lapenne. She doesn't necessarily make wedding jewelry, but she makes some very cool stuff and I had faith in her that she could make a great wedding band.

We chatted about my budget and what I was looking for and I started sending her inspiration photos. I also sent her pics of my engagement ring so she could try to create something that matched.

The first ring I loved was Ms. Perfume's first ring. Even though Ms. Perfume didn't love it.

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The next ring I found that I adored was by Anne Sportun. She designs "experimental jewelry" so if you're looking for something unconventional, check out her designs. I found the ring below on a site called Persimmon, Handpicked Objects.

Since the above ring is over $1,500, I thought I'd look for something without diamonds. Apparently, that isn't the answer either. Check out this beautiful, diamond-less $2,845 ring I found on Clay Pot.

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Finally, I came across this untraditional eternity band on Sundance. It's the Stardust Diamond Ring. It's just under $1000 which means, it's still way out of my budget.

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After e-mailing back and forth with Katrina, the jewelry designer I knew, we couldn't move forward. What I wanted was too specialized. It would take too much time for the price I could pay. She offered to buy me a ring off a wholesaler site (since she's a business) but I never found anything I really liked. I really wanted something unique (surprise, surprise), so I moved along.

Were the wedding bands you wanted way out of your budget? How were you resourceful in getting what you wanted?