Katherine & Ben's Rebellious Engagement

While you might think that the title of this blog is a bit generic, it's anything but. We specifically used the word "Rebellious Engagement" because this is a title deserving of a couple who has been reading RB for quite awhile. 

<Photography by Brooke Baker & The Undefined Photography>

Every little milestone in our blog is special to us. We remember the very first reader who emailed us, the very first bride who submitted her prenups & wedding, the very first reader who sought out our help, our very first Wedding Agency client, and of course--Katherine is no exception because she's probably our ONLY reader who always, always takes the time to leave a comment in our posts. 

As you will see in Katherine & Ben's engagement photos and story, there's no doubt that they are crazy rebellious. But what really, really caught our attention is the fact that Katherine invented "The Engagement Watch" for Ben--and why not? Last time we checked, a wedding is about TWO people--the bride AND the groom so why haven't the guys received their own engagement tokens too, right? Brilliant. Just brilliant. 

Katherine being an avid RB reader, took to heart in writing her own blog post for this feature. It's an awesome write-up so please do take the time to read it! You'll learn a thing or two about anti-diamond engagement rings, more about Ben's watch, and their wicked engagement story! 

Katherine Shares:

"We  discussed getting engaged long before Ben proposed and when the conversation turned to the kind of engagement ring that I would want, I realized that it didn't seem fair that I should be the only one to get a tangible symbol that celebrates this milestone in our relationship. So I brought up the idea that it would be nice if I got him an expensive piece of jeweler and later on we decided on a watch. We did a lot of research and he actually had some very definite ideas on the elements that he wanted on his watch – Roman numerals or markers on the dial, silver metal band, and a black watch face. We visited several stores and eventually found a Tissot watch that fit all his criteria.

As for the engagement rings, I knew that I wanted a large center stone and that it would be set in a yellow gold band. I initially focused solely on diamond rings because we were of the mindset that engagement rings had to have diamonds. However, we soon came to resent that perception and realized that we had issues with the diamond industry, especially with regards to their marketing. So we started searching for other alternatives and once you look beyond diamonds, there is a whole world of different and equally beautiful gemstones. After a lot of hours spent searching on the Internet, I finally stumbled upon Avarra gemstones on betterthandiamond.com. They are lab-created gemstones that have identical chemical, optical and physical properties as their natural counterparts – the only difference being is the latter are mined. Through the site’s forum, I came across Amcor Designs, who custom-made the sapphire ring, and MoissaniteCo, who custom-made the emerald and moissanite ring. It was so wonderful to find companies that offered an alternative to the mainstream options. We were only planning to get the sapphire ring at first, but because we had come way under budget with it, and because Ben knew how much I loved emeralds – we eventually decide to commission the emerald ring as well.

With our prenups… we had the first one back in January with Brooke Baker. Now Ben and I are both avid horror movie fans and this shared love has been present in a lot of key moments in our relationship. The first movie we watched together was “Friday the 13^th”, and the first time we said “I love you” to each other was while we were watching “The Exorcist”. Ben even proposed at Eli Roth’s Goretorium in Las Vegas.  He had organized for us to take the tour by ourselves after we had dinner at CraftSteak in the MGM Grand, and the staff had kindly arranged for him to propose at the wedding chapel. So upon entering the room, we saw a zombie “priest” and a zombie bride and groom at the altar, and we actually thought that we had interrupted someone’s wedding. However, the “priest” then called us forward by name and as we ventured down the aisle, we realized that while some of the people in the pews were real, a number of them were just scary-looking mannequins. When we got to the altar, the “priest” asked Ben if he wanted to ask me something, and then he got down on one knee and proposed. To celebrate the occasion, the zombie groom then proceeded to cut the zombie bride’s arm off and we were splattered in blood... and it was honestly one of the best and most romantic moments of my life - as crazy as that sounds.

Anyway, we knew that we had to include horror elements into our engagement shoot. Ben came up with the idea to incorporate the plot of the film “Natural Born Killers” into the theme because he wanted to do something different from the prenups that feature the couple being chased by zombies, monsters, etc. We wanted to be the villains. 

I need to take the time to thank the both of you for your awesome blog. I visit it everyday, hoping for new entries, and I’ve gotten so much help and inspiration from it – especially with regards to my choice of having a coloured wedding gown and our decision to showcase our love of horror films and Game of Thrones in our wedding choices. Plus, it was through your feature on Sigrid that I found out about Michi Calica. So thank you so much Kai and Mica :D

The credits for our prenup shoots go to our photographers: Brooke Baker (http://brookephotomagic.com) and The Undefined Photography (http://www.theundefined.co.nz). We would also like to credit Westpark Marina, Bill Thoms and Chris Schuler for giving us access to their private properties. Ben and I wore our own clothes, and I did my own hair and make-up.

 Thank you again."

All the best,

Katherine

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