A boy, a girl, a few spotty dogs and a 3D printed diamond ring

Virginia Waters is the location of our first date nearly a year and a half ago. It’s a stunningly beautiful place steeped in history. On our date we walked for hours, laughing, chatting, smiling, and enjoying every second of each other’s company. We went for coffee and sat on a bench looking out across the lake, both quietly hoping we would meet again. Needless to say we have – nearly every day since.

Sunday February 21st was mild, bright and it was Matt’s birthday (21 again!). We set off with Rose our young dog in the car and headed for Virginia Waters to meet up with her Mum Lucky, Dad Rambo and Brother Pharaoh for a long-awaited reunion.

We met at the entrance and all strolled off together in the direction of the woods, with me completely oblivious to what Matt had planned. The dogs were running around and playing like puppies, chasing sticks and leading each other into the deepest muddy puddles they could find. We were all catching up and it was wonderful to see the spotty dogs having so much fun together.

There was a breeze blowing through the trees in Virginia Waters park, ripples on the lake and the roar of the waterfall was enchanting. The sun even popped out to say hello! The walk was coming to an end, feet were aching, dogs were tired and full (after Rose helped herself to a sandwich from a child at the ruins) and we were in definite need of a coffee.

We said our farewells, where we’d all met, and went our separate ways. Matt and I headed to ‘our bench’ where we had shared our first kiss and I went to order some refreshments. On my return we were joined again by our friends who had decided that some lunch was a great idea. I was loving catching up with them and sharing Dalmatian stories, but they had to head home and so did we. Matt left us briefly at the bench and came back to find a group of children with a puppy who had come over to meet Rose, an ongoing problem with owning one of the 101 Dalmatians.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to spend some quality time alone in our special place we headed back to the car. I strapped myself in and turned to see that Matt was looking at me, and he said he had to do something before we could leave. Trembling slightly with nerves, Matt pulled a red heart-shaped box from his pocket, opened it to reveal a large ‘silvery’ ring with a diamond crown and asked me if I would do him the honour of being Mrs Anderson. I of course said YES, then promptly cried – a lot.

On the journey home he revealed the story of how he had been planning for months, that he had spoken to my Dad over 5000 miles away, to my Mum and Stepdad to ask their permission for my hand in marriage. He explained that he had been trying to get me the ring of my dreams (spotted when working on a project for one of our lovely Grain clients, Devotion) but how he’d decided to have a bespoke piece designed for me to our exact specification here in London. He told me how he had been in cahoots with Madelyn and Christoph all along and that they had created the most wonderful 3D-printed placeholder ring for the proposal. Blown away doesn’t even get near to how amazingly lucky I was feeling.

Christoph took on the challenge to design the ring and print it on the 3D printer knowing that I would think this was just awesome! I’m fascinated by this technology and what you can do with it…now I know that you can even make diamond rings! The ring itself is apparently constructed of two separately printed halves carefully joined together (Christoph would have to tell you how he got it to work), but all I know is it fits perfectly (apparently I am a size N, as Matt surreptitiously let Christoph and Madelyn know) and I just LOVE it! So clever. I could not be happier – thank you guys.

Here’s a ring sketch and the 3D printed ring lovingly created by Grain, before delivery to Matt.