It's possibly a bit silly, a bit lame, a bit gooey of me,
but I just keep staring at my ring! I love it, it's absolutely perfect.

We have a tradition on the maternal side of our family where engagement rings
are concerned. Must be diamond. Must be square. I absolutely loved my
grandmother's ring, but unfortunately it disappeared. I don't know when or
where; when she was taken into hospital in November 2001, the only jewellery
she had on was a Victoria half crown on a rose gold chain and her wedding band.
I found her eternity ring in the back of a drawer, wrapped in tissue paper,
after she died. We never did find her engagement ring.

It was kind of art deco, my grandfather designed it himself and a jeweller in
the family made it. 18 carat gold, with the diamonds set in a square of
platinum. There's a ring quite like it on the H Samuel site now, except it has
a central sapphire and the pattern is a little different. 

Mum's ring is mine, now. I had to have the band replaced as it was too small
for my podgy fingers and the original band was paper-thin at the bottom where
it had been worn away over the 37 years she'd worn it. That has a round diamond
set in a square of platinum, on 18 carat gold. My brother wanted her wedding
band, so he has that. 

I suppose I'm breaking with tradition somewhat, having a white gold band with a
square diamond, but the important thing is that it is a diamond, and it is
square. It looks a lot more expensive than it is! The Americans seem to have
bigger houses for their money, and bigger diamonds, too. 

I wish my parents could be with my on my wedding day. I cried when I saw myself
in The Dress; I could feel my mum there in spirit, but I wanted her to see me
and to be there to tell me how beautiful I looked. On the day itself, my brother
will be giving me away and my other mum (my lovely friend Barb) and mum's
friend Alison will be substituting for the mother of the bride! 

The OH's two sisters and his son will be with us; my brother and his wife and
their little boy, her two teenagers from her first marriage and her mum, sister
and brother in law and their daughter. Isn't it lovely how marriage makes
families bigger and brings disparate people from opposite sides of the world
together?