Moissanite <3 — light & wildflowers

Okay life has been BUH-NANAS lately but I’ve been wanting to write this little blog for a while, so here we (finally) are!

I know some of you are familiar with Melissa Tyson Designs, but some of you are not! Melissa and I connected many years ago on Instagram. I am pretty selective of who/what I follow on social media but I started following her because I really loved her work with jewelry. Her style was different than what I’d seen and I loved what she was doing with hammered materials and unique stones, specifically. You can view so much of her beautiful work here.

I had to have some of Melissa’s pieces, and my rings with moonstone, citrine and aqua are to this day, some of my favorite pieces to wear. They have held up beautifully over the past 8 or so years!

Now, as I mentioned on a previous Instagram reel, I’ve had a bit of a journey with wedding rings! Back in November 2010 (nearly 14 years ago GASP!!!), my husband proposed with a gorgeous ring of my choice. I was in LOVE!! (With my ring AND him, obviously. (; ) I still remember waking up the morning after the proposal and just staring at my ring in disbelief, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world… and I truly and honestly still do. <3

November 5th, 2010 (don’t you love this editing style?! Long live sepia tones hahaha!)

I knew it was coming but I was still absolutely shocked!

We were just 23 and 24 year old babies!! <3

The center of my ring was a 2 ish carat-sized cubic zirconia stone that we had decided on, and planned to one day replace with a diamond. The band and halo had the most beautiful tiny diamonds all around. But… I am blessed with big knuckles (thanks Mom (; ) and was very self-conscious about a smaller stone making my knuckles look even bigger. I do not think that I am particularly vain but I definitely did care about this. LOL. (Hey, we all have our things..)

A snap from our wedding. Fun fact… Sam always forgot how to say “tungsten” and often referred to his “tongue-skin” ring. LOL

Over the years, Sam and I just could not bring ourselves to spend thousands on a diamond to replace that size of a stone and as you know, I most definitely did not want to go smaller. Instead, I contacted Melissa to help design a peachy-pink Morganite ring for me for our 5 year anniversary. It was breath-taking and so unique!! I added 2 diamond bands and 2 hammered gold bands to it, and I cherished it for 7 years!

Isn’t it beautiful?! I LOVED the unique peachy color of the stone and it made for the perfect stacking ring. / Photo by Melissa Tyson Designs

As time went on, I realized that if I wanted my wedding ring to become a family heirloom to pass down to my daughter one day, I would need an even stronger stone.

So, guess who I called? (:

Melissa has been such a breeze to work with for my custom rings! She spent time with me and carefully educated me on the quality of stones and on the grade scale, which I knew nothing about, haha! She sent me photos AND videos of stones to choose from and was meticulous with the details to make sure there were no hiccups and that my ring would indeed become my much-desired family heirloom! The videos helped to see how sparkly the Ahna moissanite stone was *swoon*, and did you know that a moissanite is actually more sparkly than a diamond?! Read Melissa’s blog about my ring and about this uber-popular stone. (: SO many brides are opting for moissanites over diamonds now! Also, more info on customizing with Melissa here.

So… as you can see, we went with a classic oval 3 carat Moissanite, set on a hammered gold band (and complimented with one of my diamond bands from the last ring. (My post-pregnancy hands can’t handle all 4 stacking bands anymore haha!) But GAH! It is just such an unspeakable blessing that I will have something this beautiful to pass down to Lucy. Cue the tears as I try not to think about my only daughter getting married…

Anyway, I just wanted to share a bit of my ring journey and say a huge THANK YOU to Melissa who has been such a guide… you have given us such a beautiful blessing and have made this process of custom ring building a breeze!