Some people find their jeweler and then find their person. Alexis did it in that order.
She already knew Valerie Madison's work, and she already knew that when the time came, this was where her ring would be made. That decision was in place before she met Théry. So when the two of them planned a weekend trip to Seattle, the visit to our studio was not a detour. It was the destination.
What followed was a custom design that took its time, changed hands more than once, and ended up shaping something the couple had not expected it to shape: where Théry chose to propose.
A ring she knew she wanted before she knew him
Alexis came to us with a clear idea of what she did not want, which is often more useful than a Pinterest board. A traditional diamond ring was not what she was envisioning for herself.
That is a sentence we hear more often than people assume, and it is one of the reasons we built our practice around not just diamonds, but including alternative stones such as sapphires.
Flying in for a weekend and walking into the studio in person changed the shape of that first conversation. There is a version of custom design that happens entirely over email, and we do it well for clients across the country. But sitting down together, with stones on the table and light coming through the window, moves the process a bit faster. Alexis and Théry got to have that experience with us.
Designing Alexis's custom sapphire engagement ring
Starting with a conversation about color
The first conversation was about color, not about setting styles or budgets or carat weights. In the couple's own words, they explored "earthy sapphires" in greens and pink and orange hues.
Sapphires are one of the few gemstone families where that kind of conversation is genuinely open. Most people know the blue ones. Fewer know that the same mineral produces teal, green, peach, lilac and pink, and that the in-between tones are often the most beautiful and the least seen. Color is where nearly every one of our sapphire projects begins, because color is the part clients feel strongly about long before they can name a setting.
Waiting for the right stone
Then the process paused.
That is not a failure of the process. It is the process. Alexis and Théry left the conversation with a direction and came back to it a few months later, which is roughly how long a good custom decision takes to settle. When they did reach back out, we worked through designs and gem cuts together until the shape of the thing was clear.
With the perfect timing, Valerie was heading to the Tucson Gem Show where she was on the hunt to find the right stone, and the couple gave her the go-ahead to look. Buying a stone in person, in daylight, with the chance to compare candidates side by side, is a meaningfully different exercise from choosing one from a photograph. It is also why custom timelines are not always predictable to the week. Our custom engagement ring process runs eight to ten weeks once the design is settled, but the search for the right stone is its own chapter.
She came back with several stones in the color Alexis had described.
Choosing the gem
Alexis chose her favorite.
This is the part of the story we would underline for anyone considering custom. The person who will wear the ring every day for the rest of her life picked the stone herself, from real options, in the color family she had asked for. Nothing about that is a compromise between what she wanted and what was available on a shelf.
Designing it in secret
From that point on, Alexis stepped back and Théry stepped in.
He and Valerie designed the ring together over the following weeks, with quiet help from Alexis's best friend. We are not going to spoil the mechanics of how that was managed, partly because every couple solves it differently and partly because the best friend deserves the credit and not the exposure. It is enough to say that it worked, and that Alexis did not see the finished ring until Théry wanted her to.
Why the ring shaped the proposal
Here is the detail from this story we keep coming back to.
Théry and Valerie had built elements of nature into the design. And once the ring existed, it started making decisions of its own. When Théry began thinking about where to propose, the ring narrowed the field for him. A nature-forward ring wanted a nature-forward setting, and that ruled a lot of possibilities out before he had to weigh them.
Usually it runs the other way. Couples pick the place, then wonder what to wear and how the photographs will look. Here the object came first and the location followed it. That only happens when the ring is genuinely specific to the two people involved, which is the argument for custom design stated more persuasively than we could state it ourselves.
What they would tell a couple on the fence
We asked Alexis and Théry what they would say to someone deciding between going custom and buying something ready made. Their answer was two quick words long before it was anything else.
"Do it! Take a leap. For us, nothing beats having something shaped by our own love story. We would definitely recommend it if you are considering it."
"No one else in the world has this ring"
Months on, Alexis described what it is like to wear it. She said she loves looking down and knowing that the love of her life was intentional about creating a ring that reflects her that well. And she said she gets giddy thinking about the fact that no one else in the world has this ring.
She also said something we did not ask about, and it is the part we want to leave you with.
Supporting a Black and woman-owned business mattered to her. In her words, it is important for the world to know that jewelers like Valerie are making beautiful and stunning pieces of jewelry.
We are one of the very few Black-owned fine jewelry studios in the country, and that is not incidental to how we work. It shapes who feels welcome in the room, which is most of what a first jewelry appointment is actually about.
Design your own custom engagement ring
If any part of Alexis and Théry's story sounds like yours, here is what the road actually looks like.
It starts with a conversation, in the studio or over video, about what you are drawn to and what you are not. From there we source the stone, which is where the waiting usually happens and where color-led projects like this one benefit most from patience. You review the design in CAD and we adjust it with you before anything is cut or set. Then our jewelers build it. Custom engagement rings take eight to ten weeks from approved design to finished piece.
You do not have to arrive knowing what you want. Alexis arrived knowing what she did not want, and that was plenty.
Start by browsing our sapphire engagement rings to see the color range, or look through our engagement ring collections more broadly.
If you would rather talk it through, book an appointment at our Seattle studio or through a virtual consultation call anywhere in the world.
You can also read how Manju and Ruchir designed their custom ring, or find out how long it takes to get an engagement ring if you are working backwards from a date.
Congratulations to Alexis and Théry!!!