Monday 24 October 2016

A story about a ring.



When I was 16, my mum gave me this little silver ring which used to be hers. I wore it on the middle finger of my left hand until I was in my thirties, by which point my fingers were no longer lithe and teenaged, and I couldn't take the ring off any more.

Last year, I went to a wedding and popped a cocktail ring on the same finger. I pushed it down too far, foolishly, and it got stuck over my silver ring. I had to get both rings cut off at Minor Injuries. It was not my finest hour.

I threw the cursed cocktail ring away and left my mangled silver ring in a jewellery box, thinking I'd maybe fix it one day. We moved out of our flat, and the jewellery box was buried in my Granny's attic with the rest of our things, waiting for us to buy our house.

A few months ago, my boyfriend went through the attic and found the ring. He got it resized, mended and cleaned.

Then, when we were in Scotland recently, he showed me the ring. He told me what he did. And he got down on one knee. And asked if I would consider wearing the ring on a different finger for a while, until we could choose one together.

And that's how I got engaged.


I posted the above story onto Facebook and Instagram on Sunday, and the reaction absolutely blew me away. I’ve been blogging for a long time and have met some wonderful people and made some amazing friends, but I wasn’t expecting such an outpouring of love and support. Thank you, thank you everyone. You’ve made my week.

It’s a relief to finally talk about it! It’ll be three weeks tomorrow since Matt popped the question in our cosy living room in Carradale – we didn’t intend on keeping it a secret this long, but we wanted to tell people in person where possible and it took a little while to get around them. Nothing beats a face to face reaction, to be honest. I’ve had tears, screams, gasps, been nearly knocked over by hugs… the best.

We’re in the middle of buying a house, so it’ll be business as usual for a little while, but next year we’ll be throwing ourselves into wedding planning properly with a vague plan to get married the Spring after next. While weddings won’t take over the blog entirely, they may become an underlying theme for a while – I’ll be sure to share some of my thoughts and learnings along the way.

I can’t wait to get to the really fun stuff like dress shopping and the hen do (I’m currently torn between a big country house or an amazing weekend in Italy eating all the cheese and wine we can - and if we're on a budget, at least there's a Holiday Inn in Rome) but we should probably find a venue before we do anything else. If anyone has any amazing recommendations for DIY barn venues within about 2 hours of Hertfordshire, hook me up and I’ll add them to my nerdy spreadsheet.

 ~+~
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9 comments

  1. Congratulations again Sarah and Matt! I'm absolutely over the moon for you both, what an adorable engagement story too. As for barn-like venues, come to the dark side! Plenty in Knebworth, Hitchin, Letchworth kinda areas that my friends have also considered! (:

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  2. omg congratulations! This is such a wonderful story.

    Abigail Alice x

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  3. Ohh, congrats! Such a special, special story too, so thoughtful! I'm having a super long engagement and will be getting married in Oct 2018 so looking forward to any wedding posts you do! x

    NINEGRANDSTUDENT: A Lifestyle Blog

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  4. Amazing story and very unique, I love it!! Congratulations!

    My friends got married at Priory Barns in Wymondley (a village near Hitchin). It's just under an hour from St Albans and you can made it your own.

    x

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  5. Such a wonderful story! Congratulations :) Our friends got married at Milling Barn in Hertfordshire and it was wonderful, the bride (my friend) got to do a lot of DIY stuff. Might be worth a look :)

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  6. I've said it already but CONGRATULATIONS!
    I went to a beautiful wedding at St Patricks Barn on Chiddinglye Farm in September. They decked it out absolutely beautifully, it was totally magical.
    Cx

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  7. HUGE congratulations! What an absolutely lovely story behind the engagement, too. Ah I would lie and tell you wedding planning is SO much fun and such a wonderful experience, but as I mentioned on Twitter I've mostly found it sort of tedious! But only because we are on such a limited budget so it's tended to be a case of "oh that's lovely... never mind, can't afford it"!

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  8. This is such a lovely story, and I have to say, it's beautifully told - you have a particular way with words that really brings across how magical a moment this must have been!

    Congratulations! xx

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