Victoria’s Secret model Dev Windsor didn’t have to look far to find her engagement ring designer. In fact, the recently-engaged beauty first discovered her future jeweler while scrolling through her social media feed.
“We connected on Instagram,” jeweler Nicole Wegman, the founder of Ring Concierge, tells The Knot. “She followed [us] and we started direct messaging about different diamond shapes.” While the initial discovery was made by the 24-year-old model, her boyfriend Johnny Dex gallantly stepped in to complete the design process.
“Johnny took over when it came time to actually select a diamond and design the ring,” she adds. “So everything was a complete surprise for Devon.”
Dex proposed this weekend in the Bahamas during a romantic, swoon-worthy aerial moment on a private plane. At the time, Windsor thought she was en route to a photo shoot, but her fiancé instead signaled for her to look down at his sweet message inscribed on a patch of sand below. It read, “Will You Marry Me?”
The entire proposal required careful planning, which by then was a common theme as the center stone of Windsor’s ring–a large oval-shaped diamond–took quite some time to source.
The stone itself was set in platinum—a design element that took over a month to craft by a master bench jeweler.
“It’s covered in 171 micropavé set round brilliant diamonds that were painstakingly calibrated to perfectly match each other in both color, cut, and size. We wanted every angle of the ring to sparkle, hardly any of the platinum shows,” Wegman adds. “It looks like hundreds of tiny floating diamonds wrapped around her finger.”
“This was a long project, but the result was well worth the wait,” she muses.
For those who are currently in the market for a ring, the pro suggests asking for a triple micropavé row shank with a hidden halo and fine claw prongs. “It’s crucial to have it made by an expert bench jeweler to ensure you won’t have constant issues with the micropavé diamonds falling out,” Wegman suggests. She adds that the same style could work with a round brilliant diamond or a cushion-cut stone.
“This is perfect for the couple who wants something unique yet sophisticated,” she concludes. “Ovals are one of the most flattering shapes because they elongate the fingers… For everyone who fell in love with Blake Lively’s rose gold oval ring, this is a more modern version.”
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