Road To Wedlock IV: Lord of the Rings!

February 1, 2007

They’ve arrived! The wedding rings are in-hand (but will have to wait 2 more weeks to settle on fingers).

We ordered the rings online via Gillett’s Jewellers – a company out of Australia that has a very slick Website with loads of helpful information regarding rings, wedding rings, different metals, various gems, etc.

We decided to go the online route as we – rather “I” – trust jewellers in China saying “it’s real” as much as I believe the DVD dealers that say the same. The fact is, it’s just too commonplace for jewellers here – even the ones that look respectable – to pawn off “plated” as “solid”. And sadly, I’m not up enough on my high school science to play Archimedes.

Ordering online was a snap. Gillett’s accepts PayPal, and so it was basically as simple as selecting the rings we wanted, customizing them to our specifics, and clicking “order”. The money was sucked from my bank account, funneled through PayPal – Zhao’s your uncle and we’ve got rings.

The only complicated thing was that the rings were shipped via FedEx and we moved on the day they were to be delivered. For some reason for us to change the delivery address the Shanghai office needed photocopies of passports, ID cards, ass cheeks, a blood and urine test, fingernail scrapings, a hair sample and an answer to a skill testing question. Lucky for us the Suzhou office just needed us to let them know that we’d pick it up at their office – which I did this morning.

I wasn’t sure what the duty would be, as this was the first time I bought something and had it delivered to China, but I was happy enough with the 10% they charged me. Actually, come to think about it – I think it was more like 8-9%, but perhaps my Chinese–>US conversions are off.

weddingring.jpgOur rings are quite simple yet unique, and I think in this way they well-represent us and our relationship. We bucked tradition and didn’t get gold, but instead went with titanium; light and strong (little symbolism for our love there). They are matching (but for size) and both feature a single, modest diamond.

Because of the move my camera and computer are in different parts of the city, but I managed to scam the picture here from the Gillett’s website. Ours are a little different as they have a satin finish on them to cut down on noticeable scratches that inevitably form through natural wear.

Two weeks today (incidentally, Valentine’s Day) we’ll be in Hainan! I can’t believe my family is going to be in China so soon.

Oh, and one more thing. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that’s taking part in the online stag and doe – we both really appreciate all your kindness. And remember, if you play the Goodie Raffle, please don’t forget to include what item(s) you want your tickets to go to in the provided box. Thanks again guys!

6 Responses

  1. Wow. Small world.

    I went to high-school with some of the family who owns this store.

    The 10% GST should be for sales & services granted within Australia. Unless you were physically there to purchase it, I’m not sure you could have gotten a refund for the tax paid (like when you leave an Australian airport).

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  2. Looke nice and a little bit like ours. Titanium too, and no patterns. Only a single cut down where you have the diamond. My wife got a brilliant but I managed to slip around the diamond though. No need to enhance my pimp style further 🙂

    Lots of luck for the wedding!

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  3. I’ve heard about titanium jewelry, but never seen saw any in person. It should hold up pretty well though. An alternative (albeit an expensive alternative) is platinum. It does scratch some from general wear and use, but it is very dense and does not bend easily. I’m very hard on rings and mine is round as the day I bought it.

    I bought my wife’s engagement ring online. Very easy. No need to haggle since the price was good and the ring came through flawlessly. The only downside is that I had to wait for them to make the ring. I chose the diamond, setting and material. They then made it all to order. I was kind of nervous having a big ticket item shipped through UPS, but it made it safe and sound.

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  4. BTW two weeks tomorrow (incidentally, the day after Valentine’s Day) we’ll be in the hospital delivering a baby! At least that is the plan; she’ll come out when she feels damn ready to. What a small world.

    Again, best of luck on the wedding! Don’t forget to post some pics/video.

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  5. My Titanium ring also has scratches and wear written all over them. You cant avoid it, and even though I may have found this a bit sad in the start, my view has changed to: Now my marriage doesn’t look like a spur-of-the-moment-decision thing anymore.

    So I kinda like it. 🙂

    So Ryan, prepare living with some wear to your ring soon.

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  6. @Tim: Sorry Tim, I should have been more clear – the 10% was duty paid to the Chinese government for them letting me bring things into their marvelous nation. I didn’t have to pay any Australian sales tax.

    @Peter: I was actually partial to the ‘wear’ing of the rings showing the character (and longevity) of the marriage too – but Maggie disliked the idea of having noticeable scratches – and so we went with the satin finish. The one problem with Titanium is it can’t be resized. We went to great lengths to get our proper measurements – but they still came out just a fraction too big. If it’s not just because our apartment is generally quite cold (something that will be fixed when we put them on in Hainan)… we may opt to exchange them after the ceremony.

    @Shaun: Congrats on the little one. And, yep, I’ll definitely be posting photos/video here after the honeymoon.

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