What Can You Buy for a Penny? (Or, The Story of the Ring)
The other day, one of my daughters asked, “Mom, what can you buy for a penny?” I replied, “Not much these days.” But then I remembered that the wedding band I wear was bought for a penny (plus shipping and handling). And here is that story…
As I wrote in the post about our wedding, Ryan didn’t officially propose until a few weeks before our wedding. Even though we were planning to get married and had our wedding planned and tickets purchased and reservations made for our honeymoon, he hadn’t actually gotten down on one knee to formalize the engagement. Why? Because he was waiting to purchase the ring. Being a financially responsible individual, he doesn’t buy anything until he has saved for it, and during that time, in addition to getting married, he was going for a week of training to climb Denali and needed to rent and purchase the proper gear and equipment for that adventure. I think, also, that because he had been through two broken engagements previously, he wanted to know for sure that I was going to marry him before he bought a ring!
I had told him that I didn’t want a diamond. To me, the common expectation of a diamond ring is simply because of successful marketing strategies of a diamond mining company within the past 150 years. I tend to rebel against something just because it is conventional…Ryan and I are both rather unconventional! Also, the practical side of me didn’t want to wear something extremely valuable on a daily basis. I wanted a simple, inexpensive ring. If I had found exactly what I wanted, it would have been a pearl ring.
We found an online company that custom-made rings and designed the ring together using stones with personal significance to us. Because Ryan had climbed Kilimanjaro, we chose tanzanite, which is a mineral found only in Tanzania, where Kilimanjaro is located. As the other stone, I chose white sapphire, to represent the month of his birth.
Here is an image produced by Gemvara for the ring that we designed. Apparently this ring style is no longer available, and I see that similar rings on their website cost over twice the amount that Ryan paid for this one!
Ryan wanted this ring to serve as my engagement ring and wedding band. So on our wedding day, I took the ring off and gave it to the best man, who presented it to Ryan for the exchange of rings during our vows. There were times that I mentioned to Ryan that someday I wanted a simple wedding band to wear instead of this fancy one, he didn’t think it a necessary expense at the time.
But after our older daughter was born, and I kept catching her crocheted blankets in the ring, I decided to see if I could find a reasonably priced wedding band. And on Amazon, I found exactly what I had been wanting for nearly three years…and it only cost one cent. The shipping and handling was $8.99, but the listing price was a penny. And so, Ryan ordered me this wedding band, which I have worn ever since. The original ring was put away for safekeeping. It’s beautiful and meaningful, but the practical side of me delights daily in my stainless steel comfort wedding band that doesn’t catch on anything, doesn’t accidentally scratch my children, and if it gets lost…well, we wouldn’t have to call the insurance company to file a claim.
