My wedding ring designed by Cyril is the first piece of jewelry I’ve consistently worn, and I’m struck by how much symbolism it holds, how empowered and secure it makes me feel. There’s an intimacy to the design, what counts is on the inside. The rings feel like our bond manifest. I take comfort in knowing they will outlive us, evidence of our love.

The rings have, at times, been a great conversation starter–but the truth is the diamonds could never see the light of day, a secret between the two of us. After all, isn’t that what makes diamonds so special in the first place? That they are buried beneath the Earth, molded by the magic of the world and have nothing to prove to us of their existence.

I think about how lucky we are as a gay couple to not have any expectation for what our engagement, our marriage, our wedding rings, look like. How lucky we are that our rings match each other’s. How we wore our set of rings from our engagement through our wedding. On our wedding day, we exchanged rings we had already been wearing for a year. Our rings are simple, singular, and written by our own rules.