Mean Something

I knocked something loose in my engagement ring at work the other day, so yesterday we stopped by the jewelers to get it fixed and look at wedding bands.  (It was something fun and happy to do after looking at care facilities for my dad. Another sad blog for another day.)  Since I have a marquise cut, a skilled/experienced jeweler has to work on my ring and not just some lay person (who works with diamonds!) in the back. So once again I had to once again hand over my beloved shiny and wait for it to come back.  This is what I get for wanting wear my ring all the time.

Well, anyway, since we were going to go to the jewelers, we decided to look for our wedding bands while we were there.  Which, squeee!  I'm sure it's no surprise that I'm excited about that, with the wedding practically planed and all, but still. It's the our rings part, that makes it meaningful. I knew it probably wouldn't be that hard to find something for me, since we have the engagement ring to start from. Sometimes engagement rings even come with a matching wedding band. Which it did, so it was really easy for me.  But for Mike's ring, we didn't really have a physical starting point.

It is Mike's wedding ring, so it really is his choice as to what he wants.  But that didn't stop me from putting in my own 2 (or 8, whatever) cents worth.  Fortunately, we have similar tastes and liked a lot of the same things.  After he tried on a few different band widths, metals, and slightly different subtle designs, we found one we liked.  The only question now was what metal to go with, white gold or palladium.

I for one, had no idea what the difference is.  So I asked, and turns out palladium is an element on the periodic table right next to platinum (it was not one of the 70 I was supposed have memorized for chem 107, so you bet your ass I didn't learn that). So it's almost chemically the same as platinum, won't change colors or need to be re-dipped in a few years, and it's super durable.  It just happens to be worthless.  So as the jeweler is in the back figuring our the price difference between gold and palladium, Mike and I are debating which metal he wants.  They look the same to us, but if palladium was significantly less money, then it would be more practical going the cheaper (but worthless) route.   
And even though Mike tends to be much more practical about money than I am, (see: I want a volvo and he keeps saying no) this was one case that he was leaning towards spending a little extra.  Because his wedding band symbolically means a lot, he wants the ring to have at least some worth.  (I know, awww!)  But turns out, for the ring Mike's getting, the prices are the same between metals.  So, white gold and meaningful it is!