Starting at the End: It Doesn’t Matter Which Way You Go, as Long as You Get There.
When Amanda Rochon began thinking about engagement rings with her fiancé Yannick Lizé, he gave her carte blanche. “He told me to pick my dream ring, and I knew that I wanted something artistic and extraordinary.”
The couple, who met online in December of 2009, technically got engaged before they even met, claims Rochon, who got a call from the groom’s friend before their first date to tell her she would be getting married. “I laughed it off, but Yannick was serious. We had a ‘verbal agreement’ as he called it to get married in October of 2010. So we began to plan the wedding.”
Not to be robbed of her magic moment though, Lizé officially popped the question during what Rochon calls a pre-wedding honeymoon. During a conference in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, while the two were having drinks on the beach, listening to live music and taking advantage of the light from a full-moon; the timing was just right. “We stood there, smiling, and feeling incredibly content when he asked if I’d like to marry him. It was simple, perfect and remarkably romantic,” recalls Rochon.
Having just purchased a new home, the couple agreed to wait before buying an engagement ring, but that doesn’t mean Rochon wasn’t coming prepared to shop when the time came. “I knew that I wanted something artistic and extraordinary. It was important to me that it be set in Palladium and I wanted a halo setting,” said Rochon, who had been dreaming of her engagement ring for years.
After weeks of looking online, Rochon stumbled across the Verragio website and was instantly enchanted. “I knew that I’d found a company with designs that captured all things majestic and put them into beautiful rings,” Rochon said. “I’d had an image in my head of what I wanted in an engagement ring and your company is the only one who captured exactly that.”
The couple put their heads together and decided on the Insignia-7047 engagement ring, which they found at Raineri Jewelers in New York City. “What truly sold us was the scroll detailing on the shank,” Rochon said after finally seeing the ring in person. “My undergraduate degree is in Art History and it reminded me of vine work in Baroque landscape paintings. There’s true artistry in the design and it’s anything but run-of-the-mill.”
But still they held off on purchasing the ring, and soon Rochon began to worry she would be walking down the aisle before she got the ring, “At the four week mark prior to, I was a little nervous that perhaps he’d forgotten.”
But just like before, Lizé had something up his sleeve, and with a little help from Rochon’s son Jacob, he was able to surprise her once again. “The boys were pretty pleased with themselves and kept winking at each other throughout dinner,” Rochon said. “At one point I’d turned to speak to Jacob when Yannick asked for my attention. He placed my Verragio ring on the table in front of me and asked, again, if I would marry him.”
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| INSIGNIA-7047 by VERRAGIO |
Lizé and Rochon will finally exchange wedding rings on October 10th in Lize’s hometown of Montreal, Canada. The ceremony will be held at Auberge Le Saint Gabriel, the oldest inn in North America, in front of 85 of their friends and family. The bride will arrive by horse drawn carriage where her son Jacob will escort her down the aisle to the man of her dreams. “I have to say that I never thought I’d remarry,” said Rochon. “But I know without doubt that I’d be a fool if I didn’t marry this man.
For a couple that seems to enjoy working their way backwards down the aisle, things are pretty good. And for her part Rochon couldn’t be happier with how things have worked out. “I feel as if my ring was custom made for me and me alone,” she said. “It is truly, as I believe my marriage will be, a masterpiece.”