Love At The Ranch: Finding the Perfect One (Part Two)

After not finding The Perfect One online or through a friend who's a jeweler, I decided I would hit up some consignment shops while home in Los Angeles a few weeks back. I'd seen some online consignment shops by googling "Estated Wedding Bands" or "Estate Rings." Stores like Sylvia's Antiques, Antique Jewelry Mall, Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry, and many others popped up but none had anything I liked within my price range (reminder: it's $300 for my ring and $100 for Mr. CB's).

My first inkling was to go to a store called The Paper Bag Princess in Los Angeles which has consignment wedding dresses, shoes, clutches, jewelry. You could get outfitted for your whole wedding right there. But, before I ventured in there, I stopped by a consignment shop in San Luis Obispo (while visiting a friend). It was called Hamilton Estate Jewelry.

The cool thing about this shop is that they price the items when they come in. So, say a ring came in at some point in the '80s when the price of platinum was low. No matter that the price of platinum is high now, the ring still costs what it did 20 years ago.

I found a ring there that was about the same width of my engagement ring. It was platinum, one-fifteenth of a carat in full, round cut G-color diamonds. Price? $490 plus tax.

I liked it, but the fact that it was the same width as my engagement ring made it a little bulky. I'm pretty petite and need a thin band.

I didn't find anything I liked at Paper Bag Princess but they referred me to a store called Wanna Buy A Watch? on Melrose. Prior to their separate locations, these stores had been a part of a group of estate jewelry sellers in one building called the Antiquarius Center. That building burned down, scattering the vendors all over Los Angeles.

At Wanna Buy A Watch? they have some gorgeous bands. I actually fell in love with quite a few.