My Sparkly Engagement Ring

About a year and a half ago, I was in the Cape Town winelands with some friends. In one of the wineries, the lady behind the counter, had the most gorgeous sparkly diamond ring. I fell in love with it instantly.

A couple of months later, I emailed her and asked her to send me photos of the ring, which she did. So I always had the design in mind when, one day, Mr Right would come along.

So when Nathan proposed, I showed him the design I had in mind. And so began the journey to get the ring….which amazingly only lasted a week and a half. I now have the gorgeous sparkly bling sitting on my finger only a few days after we got engaged.

We started off at the Diamond wholesaler who got us a great deal on the most magnificent diamond. In about one hour we learnt so much about diamonds – cut, clarity, colour and carat so when we actually bought it, we pretty much knew what we wanted.

We then went to the jeweler and I can only say amazing things about Jeff Einstein in Double Bay. They were consummate professionals and perfectionists.

I showed them the photo of my dream ring and they had actually made one up very similar a few weeks ago. As I slipped on the sample ring, I knew we had come to the right place.

They hand-made the ring in one week and we went to collect it yesterday.

When we arrived, Jeff came into the room armed with a camera. He said as tradition, he would like to either take a photo of me opening the box or he’ll leave us for a few minutes and then come back to take some snaps.

We opted for the latter and alone in the small room, Nath got down on his knee for the 2nd time and I got another beautiful proposal – this time with the ring. He opened the box, slipped the diamonds on my finger and we were in awe of the beauty.

Jeff returned and took photos of our beaming faces and the even gleamier ring. I couldn’t have been happier. My dream ring with my dream fiance.

Our Engagement Celebration

So we’re engaged! Woo Hoo… So what does a girl do when her wonderful boyfriend pops the question? She starts planning of course. The night of our engagement, my mind was whirring with ideas. By the time the sun rose, I had it all planned out 🙂 I think Nathan was quiet bemused by my nocturnal organising.

We wanted a celebration with our family and friends but we were leaving for Thailand two weeks later so that left one weekend and 6 days to plan a party.

And so…our engagement party started to take shape. We decided on a champagne high tea and after a tour of the Eastern Suburbs parks, we picked the magnificent McKells Park in Darling Point. It’s a very popular spot for wedding ceremonies and photos and has a lovely view of the harbour. We designed the invites, sent them out, made a menu, ordered the cakes, made the quiches, cooked the fudge and bought the drinks and champagne.

I had been in denial about the weather the entire week. Even when the weather report doomed us to rain, I thought ‘sun sun sun’. The word ‘Rain’ was banned from my vocab. On Sunday, we woke up and I could no longer deny the heavy skies. Nath zipped off to put plan B into place. This consisted of three gazebos which would hopefully keep the food and guests dry.

Nath, being a proud DIY-savvy Aussie, got to work with the gazebos and I set up the food. We were both in new clothes – me in a brand new white dress and Nathan in smart-casual beige parts and white polo shirt. Literally minutes before everyone arrived, we had it all set up. It was all pretty in pink and colourful.

Tamara made us the most fun cake – lavished with smarties and jelly beans and topped with our photo – and to top it all, is was scrumptious.

The food was gobbled down – the sushi and the quiches were especially popular – along with the choccy fudge and the cakes (nut laden tiramsu ; lemon meringue and Bon Vivante).

Nath said a lovely heartfelt speech and we had a toast and a champagne cheers.

It was so special to share our happiness with both Nath and my families as well as our close and wonderful friends.


It was a day full of warmth and love, despite the rain pelting down. (thank goodness most people had left by then and it was only a few of us who got drenched.

What a memorable day.

More Pics

We’re engaged!

(Click on the pics for larger versions)

I know it’s been ages but this post is worth waiting for.

Let me come out and say it: “Nathan and I are engaged!!”.

It’s been such an exciting 2 weeks and we’re both elated and on this natural high – I don’t think we’ve stopped smiling 🙂

This is how it all happened:

About 6 months ago, we booked for the Lionel Richie concert in the Hunter Valley. Finally, on 7 December, it was time to head for our weekend away. It was somewhat of a harrowing drive – potholes, mist and darkness but we found our way to Olive Grove Cottages. Of course, I cracked open the port as soon as we arrived – nothing but a bit of mulled wine to calm the nerves.

Our cottage was an upmarket self-catering place fully equipped and stocked with pristine kitchen appliances and lots of food.

The next morning, we had a leisurely brekkie and then took a drive to the Hunter Valley Gardens. We walked through the different themed gardens – Japanese, Italian, even nursery rhymes – and strayed into the orchards where we picked tiny apples and rock hard pears (and got completely muddy as a result).

We then stopped off at the local deli to get some goodies for our picnic.

Our next stop was Bimbadgen estate where the concert was going to be held. We arrived at about 3:30pm and waited in line until the gates
opened at 4pm. We rushed onto the huge lawn and settled our blanket down as close as we could get to the stage.

Looking around, we then noticed that a whole bunch of people that we know from Sydney had settled down next to us – this was going to be a good party!

We just started to relax, when Nath produced a pressie from his backpack of tricks. I opened it to find a gorgeous photo album. The album was a creative showcase of photos of all our adventures over the past 7 months. It was so beautifully done and I was in awe of how much fun we had had together.

All the while I was looking at it, I was thinking – “Wow, what a special 7-month anniversary present”.

When I got to the end of the album, there was an envelope. I opened it and there was a card. In the card, were the life-changing words: “Will you Marry Me?”

I don’t think I’ve ever been more surprised in my life. I totally didn’t expect this…which is amazing since I am such a mega-planner.

I had a quick hyper-ventilation session as I grabbed Nath and we walked a few metres away from our curious friends next to us. Nath topped off the romance by getting down on his knee and proposing.

What a surreal feeling but so magic and better than I could ever have dreamed. Of course, I said Yes!!!

We then returned to our picnic party to a flurry to congratulations, hugs and kisses. Apparently they had taken a quick peak at the card when we left so they knew all about our good news.

Nath then produced a bottle of (sweet-yum) champagne and we toasted our excitement. I was still trembling with surprise and it took a good few hours to absorb everything.

Vicki had a chat to the cameraman and we suddenly were making our debut appearance on the giant screens with the text “Congratulations Lisa and Nathan” typed under our grinning faces.

We went off for a couple of hours to make some phonecalls and share the excitement with our friends and family.

Lionel Richie was awesome but I guess even Marcia Hines seemed top class – in the ecstatic moods we were in.

The next morning we headed home early chattering about all our plans for our future.

What a magical weekend and the start of Chapter Two…..