The Wedding Diary By Jessie: Rosie Clayden Engagement Ring

I wanted to pre-empt a busy engagement season (hello sparkly rings under Christmas trees, New Year proposals and Valentines declarations of love incoming) with the next instalment of my own wedding diary - THE RINGS!

I was proposed to with an heirloom sapphire and diamond engagement ring from my husbands family, which included a full set of earrings and necklace. It was beautiful, but much loved and upon inspection for repair (a diamond fell out of it while swimming in Thailand) we discovered the main gem stone was quite badly damaged.

I was devestated and didn't want to not use something so personal and cherished, so I set about finding someone to help me.

After much looking around and consultations, I was delighted to meet Rosie Clayden at Home House in London, where I trusted her with my full set of gems and off she went to get designing for me.

Rosie is based in Brighton, and I chose her not only because I thought her portfolio was beautiful, but also because she specialised in elegant and ethical jewellery designs. She uses fairtrade gold and helps hand pick gemstones and diamonds.

For my project Rosie suggested using all of the gold and most of the smaller diamonds from the set I was handed down to create a set made of three rings - the engagement ring, the wedding band, and an eternity band. I just had to choose a replacement sapphire (much harder than you think - I love the paler blue versions, but in the end went with something in between so it was more classic).

This was the initial sketch and visual of my design created by Rosie, which was almost (but not quite) as exciting as choosing the central gemstone itself. I couldn't wait to see the final product. It felt strange being engaged without wearing my ring for a while but I knew it would be worth it.

I actually used the plain gold wedding band when we exchanged rings in our UK ceremony and then the diamond band for our exchange of vows in Marrakech (more on that soon!).

And here it is! My beautiful set made with gold and diamonds from the heirloom set, and a hand picked sapphire stone in the centre. I still have a handful of sapphires from the set left and need to decide what to do with them. Maybe a bracelet. I can't decide.