PW Reader Ring: Alyssa & Zachary!
Alyssa’s ring!
The couple: Alyssa D’Angelo and Zachary Beerger, from Roxborough.
The ring: My ring is 14-karat white gold with a matte finish, with six smaller diamonds on each side of the main stone and two “secret” diamonds along the side of the band. Zach got it made by Bendi Jewelers in Manayunk. He worked with the Sammi, the owner, to create it and kept it a secret from me for five months!
It was a total surprise. We had never gone ring shopping, and I had never shown him an example of a ring I would like. One night, we were watching TV and a commercial for Kay Jewelers’ chocolate diamonds came on, and jokingly, Zach asked if I would ever want one of those for an engagement ring. I freaked out and yelled, “Chocolate diamonds are the worst idea ever!” Then he asked what I would like in a ring to, which I replied that I would want something classic and timeless, something dainty and maybe even a little bit antique looking. That’s all the advice he ever got from me.
The proposal: The proposal happened at my family’s cabin in the Poconos. We had planned to go up there, just the two of us, for my 25th birthday. We had just finished eating dinner, and were relaxing on the deck when Zach asked me if I wanted my birthday present now. He said, “Don’t get too excited—it’s something small.” He then gave me a card filled with the sweetest words, followed by a blue box he had ordered from Etsy. I pulled the top off, and all four walls of the box fell down, revealing all of my favorite love quotes and lyrics from Cole Porter songs and F. Scott Fitzgerald books (I’m a huge fan of love songs from the 1940s), and in the center of the card box, sat a small ring box. Zach picked it up, got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. It was so romantic, and best night of my life. We then popped a bottle of champagne and sat around the fire the rest of the night, so he could tell me all about how he kept this a big secret for five months.
The bands: We’re planning to go back to Bendi to work with Sammi to create our wedding bands. We can’t wait to go work on our dream wedding bands!
Read other PW Reader Ring stories here.
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