I. Gorman Jewelers

Last Friday night, the Man took me to the jeweler where he'd had my ring designed so that I could meet Venita, his sales associate.

It was like no visit to the store I'd experienced in recent years.

I.Gorman Jewelers is located at 1133 20th Street, NW, in downtown D.C. As we walked through the glass doors and stepped across two brightly colored round floor mats (that seemed to jump out at you since the rest of the store appeared to be neutral toned and....well....shiny), there was an enthusiastic, singing voice that greeted the Man by his first name.

Hm.

My eyes followed the direction of the sound to land on a beautiful woman in her 30s or 40s, dressed expensively and adorned minimally, but with jewelry that spoke with her.

Venita exchanged pleasantries with him and had I not known better, I'd be POSITIVE that they'd been old friends for years. She then turned to me, greeted me as some woman she'd been dying to meet and, with a knowing smile, she congratulated me as she reached for my left hand.

"Let me see your ring," she said. And as I extended my hand, she smoothly touched the white band and asked, "Mind if I clean this for you?"

Again...hm.

Venita offered the Man and I a drink. "...a glass of champagne? Beer? Bottled water...?"

My "Hm." was now accompanied by a raised eyebrow. I could hardly remember such personal customer service. I half expected her to ask me about the Boy and how school was going...

Anyway, she introduced us to a visiting jewelry designer from Germany and his collection. The Man and I thought it the perfect opportunity to look at wedding bands, so we did. Mr. Conservative "I-just-want-a-plain-platinum-or-white-gold-band" began eyeballing a beautiful contemporary design. After he tried on about twelve [non-plain, mind you] rings, he realized that he was most charmed by a pulchritudinous (lovelovelove that word) palladium band with three stones channel-set between two etched lines along the outer circumference.

Hmmmm.....

Meanwhile, I shared my dilemma with Venita of trying to find a wedding band for myself that would sit flush up against my own three-stone ring and asked her if I should just have it custom-made (since the Man had custom designed the engagement ring with her). Her response was that doing so would leave me with a band that, when worn alone, would always look like it was missing its other half (a custom band would have to have horizontal grooves to fit into the prongs of the engagement ring and by itself, the grooves would look random and arbitrary). So, I tried on a few bands myself and was pretty satisfied with a channel set diamond eternity band. There were different widths, but the widest ones, while sensational worn alone, distracted from my engagement ring, so Venita suggested a thin band with a flatter surface (to snuggle a little closer to my ring).

(Hmmm...I wonder if I can get it with alternating diamonds and yellow sapphires....)

By the way, when Venita returned my ring to me, I seriously thought she was showing me another three-stone, because it looked BRAND NEW. My mouth dropped at the sparkle. She informed me that I was getting lotion and oils and soap all around and under the ring and that, over time, it was covering it up. Afterward, she handed me an iGorman jewelry cleaner bottle and invited me to come back any time for a cleaning.

I can't remember having so much fun at a store that didn't require my taking off and trying on different pairs of shoes and boots...!