the boy & the band

can we talk about something real quick?

how is it that you can stick a wedding band on a boy, and all of a sudden he is 300% cuter? what is it about that little ring of gold that makes me (and a lot of girls) weak in the knees? one word: commitment. and it is damn sexy.

a wedding band screams "this boy has balls!". he's not scared to say he’s taken-hell, he might even change his relationship status on facebook. it's the whole idea that he has found that one girl he wants to spend the rest of his life with...oh, and that girl is me.

i knew that finding paul's band was going to be difficult. i had spent the first few months of our engagement working on convincing him he HAD to get one. "cant i just get a cheap sterling silver one? or one out of a bubble gum machine?". i think my eyes piercing through his skull made him realize this was not an option, and it was time to put his big boy pants on and deal with it.

once he knew what he DIDN'T want, we began the hunt. who knew it would take 5 stores more than i tried to find it. we even started telling the associate's working at the jewelry store that "we want the most plain, simple, non-shiny wedding band you have in the store". it made me laugh to see them have to go to the back room, or the drawer UNDER the display case to find something so boring, they don't even bother to display it. after looking at over 50 rings, he finally made a commitment. and oddly enough, it was the first one he tried on, and was purchased at the same store i found mine.

as painful as it is to deal with his indecisiveness and inability to commit within a reasonable time (ahem almost 7 years of dating before a proposal) he ends up making the perfect decision for him, and i like that. his wedding band is EXACTLY what i had been picturing all along, and looks really nice on him. it is white gold with an unpolished finish and is trimmed with a beaded band on each side. it isn't too thick or chunky, and sits flush on his finger. he hates having it on, but he'll just have to learn to like it now won't he? cause that baby ain't ever coming off.

as much as it doesn't matter to him but totally matters to me, it looks very nice next to mine. almost like a "his" and "hers" set, they are simple but elegant, clean and classic. i had a 20 minute photo shoot with them last night, and couldn't get over the fact that in one month, they will be on our hands.

the last piece of the puzzle is figuring out what to have inscribed inside his band. i have a few options i am toying with, but can't seem to commit to one. i guess i have picked up whatever disease paulie has. we made a deal to inscribe something into each of our bands, and on the day of the wedding, take 5 minutes to ourselves after the ceremony to see what we had put into each of our rings. it's an excuse to add another element of surprise, and spend some time together, just us, to soak it all in.

as you can imagine, coming up with something to put in my band is not as exciting for paul as it is for me. when i first asked him to entertain the idea, he gave me some grief and finally said, in that sneaky jack-ass tone "ok, i know what i am going to have inscribed in your ring. how does 'one ring to rule them all' sound to you?". once i realized the {lord of the rings} reference, i gave him the death stare i have perfected and told him i would be mortified if he ever did that to me and "my precioussss", and would probably divorce his ass the day of the wedding. "how embarrassing would it be for me AND you if anyone ever saw that inside my band?" i asked him.

"oh don't worry" he told me.
"i would have it written in ancient elfish, no one would ever know that's what it said".

kill me now.