September 18, 2019

Engagement Feature: Ashley & Jake

Spring is in the air and it is proposal season! Meet our latest feature couple, Ashley & Jake. Their romance began in high school and they have been together ever since.

Ashley and Jake came to Cassandra looking to create a unique engagement ring for Ashley. Ashley's custom piece was inspired by the Mother Ring from Australiana collection. Cassandra created a sparkly 18ct yellow gold oval diamond engagement ring with stunning halo design.

We caught up with Ashley to look back at her proposal and put the spotlight on her gorgeous diamond ring.

Photography: Mary Heath

How did you both meet?

Jake and I actually meet in high school. He came in the last term of year 8 so he was the new kid all the girls liked.

He was very quiet back then so I guess he seemed mysterious to me.

We had a friendship, even though we both kind of liked one another for years.

We started dating officially just before we started year 12 (Jan 2008) and have been together ever since.

Share with us your engagement story.

Our engagement story is a little different.

We've been together for so long and accomplished so many things together already like travel, buying new cars, a house, several fur babies and even starting a business (Little Cafe on Churchill) that there was one major thing left for us to achieve.

One day I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw a picture of a woman proposing, and I thought to myself...I'm going to propose to him!

We ended up going away camping down at the Coorong for New Years with our friends and I had told one of them (the photographer) that I was going to do it and she said she wanted to capture it all...and she did!

He said yes...reluctantly!

Later he shared that he was just in shock as he was also looking to propose soon to me.

And that's when the journey to Cassandra started.

What drew you to Cassandra Mamone pieces?

I had followed Cassandra Mamone on social media for years after seeing a friend's piece and instantly falling in love with all her pieces from then on.

So it was actually the first place we went together to and ended up designing a ring.

Tell us all about the details of your ring, what was the process like for you, what are your favourite aspects of the piece?

Jake knew what he would like to see on my finger forever.

Whereas I'm the type of person that can't picture it, I usually need to see it.

Our inspiration was Cassandra Mamone's 'The Mother' opal ring from her Australiana collection.

We swapped out the opal for a diamond and made one of the halos a little larger with bigger diamonds to keep it roughly the same size as the Mother Ring.

The design process was so easy and Veronica was such an amazing help! I love this ring so much!

I especially love the shape, and that it even sparkles in the darkest of places, it only needs a speck of light to shine.

Do you have any wedding plans yet?

We are currently in the process of planning our engagement party with hopes of a wedding in late 2020.

We found both a celebrant (Alix Corry Civil Celebrant) and photographer (Goldlight Photography) already, just looking to find the perfect wedding venue.