This amazing sapphire ring totally had me at hello. I love the way the sapphire dangles from the setting. So incredibly cool! There are tons of other amazing styles over here, and a very special thanks to Brklyn Bride for bringing them to my attention!

My fiancé gave me an engagement ring that I absolutely love. It is a unique eco-friendly band accompanied by a nice rock which is really just icing on the cake and just that. What I really value is the artistic design of the band itself as no two designs are alike.

When I shared my new engagement ring excitement with a girlfriend, I explained to her the artistic design/eco materials’ significance of the ring. She interrupted and asked what size my rock was. Upon learning that I have a 1carat diamond, she then complained to her man for not getting her a diamond of such size. She appeared to have no interest in my story of the ring design itself and was only concerned with rock sizes. How do I politely school/check other people who are obviously unappreciative of art, eco-friendly design and are more concerned with what is on top? —Rebecca

First, a slight caution: you’re walking a delicate line when call attention to something (in this case a ring) and then get frustrated when people don’t admire it in the ways you want. You add an extra layer of complexity when you discuss the size of the diamond you supposedly don’t care about.

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An excerpt from the book recently ran on Elle Canada’s website. Granted, it was pretty sanitized (I curse a lot in the book — I guess Elle readers aren’t as foul-mouthed as I am), but you can check it out over here: The ring with the bling: Who needs an engagement ring?

We don’t want wedding bands…ever. So we decided on tattoos, but this leaves us “finger-naked” for the ceremony. I thought I hit a home run with the idea of using ribbon and “tying the knot” to symbolize the damn thing, but he wasn’t too thrilled about that. Got any ideas? —Roan

To help me answer this question, I decided to pull on the expertise of two wedding officiants — my parents! They’re both Internet-ordained ministers, and between the two of them they’ve married dozens of people, often helping couple craft their ceremonies from scratch. They have different styles of officiating, though, so may I present to you the first edition of DUELING OFFICIANTS!

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