After talking about marriage off and on for nearly a year, in late Summer 2006, we began discussing it more seriously. Together, we decided that we were ready to be engaged. We began premarital counseling sessions with a wonderful couples' therapist, as well as reading books together and doing written and verbal excercises to strengthen our already communicative and loving relationship.

As for actually "getting engaged"... we were walking down Broadway on an audition trip to New York City in early September 2006. As usual, upon passing a jewelry store, Lori gravitated towards the window. To her great surprise, Joseph suggested they go in and try on an antique ring that caught his eye in the window display. It was quite unexpected, since normally, we'd just look for a minute in the window and then continue on our way.

To Lori's great amazement, the ring that had caught Joseph's eye was an Edwardian-style, hundred year old, vintage platinum, 3 carat ring. Unknown to Lori, Joseph had been doing his homework and knew all about the fours C's of diamond buying as well as settigs, etc. He asked the jeweler if we could try on the ring. It took our breath away.

We looked at several other rings that day and kept coming back to the one in the window. Over four days, we visited the jeweler four times! Joseph examined the stones through the jeweler's loop and asked questions about what he saw. He was sure that he wanted to buy a large center stone, at least 2 carats. Lori was amazed at Joseph's knowledge of the the stones, flaws, facets and color.

On the day we were to leave NY, we stopped in the shop one last time. Joseph asked that an appraisal be done and faxed to us back in California. The next day, the fax arrived with all of the specifications, which we compared with other rings of that age and quality, for a sense of the true value. Joseph called the owner of the jewlery store, who, unfortunately, was not willing, in the least bit, to negotiate on his price at all.   At first, we were sad, but knew that we couldn't, in good conscience, pay more money that it was worth just because we were emotionally attached to it.

Thankfully, in the end, it was a huge blessing, for we found a beautiful 3-stone pear cut ring that is just shy of 3 carats total weight set in platinum. It's a timless style, representing our past, present and future and better still, we got an incredible deal through a NY wholesaler. It has appraised for 30% more than we paid, which was 70% less than what the antique ring in then window was priced. We now have a beautiful, external symbol that represents the decision that we've made, together, to become a family.