It was December 23. I had driven back from San Diego to my parent's house in LA to spend the next several days with family. Around 8:30pm, I got a call from Shant and he declared:
"The game has started. Here is Clue #1. Be at the location where we had out first date and I gave you the Play-doh in 15 minutes".

Generally the first thing that you have to plan for a wedding is the ring! Well it really depends on the couple. Some guys completely surprise the girl so she has no chance to pick out her ring. Other couples mutually decide to not have the girl involved with the picking of the ring. And other couples agree to have the girl be involved with the process. What you choose is completely up to the couple.

In my case, Shant and I had talked about getting married at some point, so I knew he was planning on proposing in the near future. Shant asked me if I wanted to be involved with the ring selection and I said yes. I figured it's a piece of jewelry that I'll be wearing for the rest of my life, so I would like to have a say in what it looks like.

The first step was to go ring shopping just to get an idea of what's out there. We ended up going to a few jewelry stores and educating ourselves on the 4 C's - Cuts, Carats, Clarity, and Colors. (For more information on the 4 C's and other guidance about rings, visit the Vanna K site).

I decided that I liked the round cut best, and I liked the pave style (when you have diamonds around the band).

About a month after our first outing, Shant called me and told me he wanted me to get my ring finger sized. He also told me where he was planning to get the ring from - Vanna K Bridal!!! I was so excited! Vanna K is a leading bridal and fashion jewelry designer and was one of the Platinum Sponsors of our bridal show. Vanna K Bridal is known for its extraordinary quality, beautiful designs and one of a kind jewels. I was absolutely in love with all their jewelry.

So I made an appointment with Vanna K Bridal and took 2 of my closest friends for a private and exclusive viewing of the Vanna K Bridal Collection (of course I wasn't going to go to a jewelry designers office alone!) Not only did I get my finger sized, but Arch and Nareg of Vanna K Bridal gave us a private tour of its facility and let us into their vault where we got to try on over a 100 rings! It was surreal! So many diamonds!

Overall, Vanna K Bridal was so great to work with. They not only educated me about rings and the different settings, but they made the whole process a whole lot of fun!

After a few hours, I ended up selecting about 10 rings that I really liked, and as Arch said, the rest was up to Shant.

Next up, the proposal...

Hi everyone - my name is Marineh and I am one of the co-founders of Harsanik.com. After working on Harsanik.com for over 3 years, it's finally my turn to plan my own "harsanik"!

On December 23, 2009, Shant, my now fiancé, proposed to me. It was one of the most exciting days of my life, and since then, I've been in full wedding planning mode.

I have decided to blog about all my wedding planning. adventures. I plan to share all my wedding planning highlights with Harsanik.com readers -  the good, the bad, and the ugly! I plan to blog about everything from the ring, the proposal, the engagement party, the wedding dress, and much more!

I hope you find this blog interesting and hopefully you are able to learn a few new things about the whole wedding planning process.

Come back often as I plan to post something on a regular basis.  For now, here is a picture of me & Shant from New Years Eve!

It's hard to believe that it's been six months since our wedding! It feels like just yesterday, I received an e-mail from Harsanik.com that I had won their contest to feature our wedding and blog about my wedding planning experience. I can't tell you all how lucky I feel to have been chosen to do this. So for my last blog, I wanted to take a minute to thank some people and give last minute advice.

Photo Source Lark Wedding Photography