Love Stories | Dayna and Travis
dayna & travis
Dayna and Trav!!! 😍 💓 💌 You two are the literal best, coolest, fun, hilarious….ok are we super fan-ing enough for you yet!? But seriously: you love is beyond special and inspiring and we are honoured to know you and celebrate you. You were one of the first couples we worked with at the peak of the pandemic (quite literally our first zoom consult before we knew zoom existed) and we are so grateful that you put your faith into us during such strange and uncertain times. The most awesome part was that you were determined to push on and lean into love no matter what the odds. This lifted us up then and now more than you know.
Dayna, we loved incorporating your grandmother’s diamonds into your engagement / wedding ring hybrid (aka the "Covid mask ring" ha!), and Trav, your onyx signet with Arizona-inspired turquoise is seriously next level. The turquoise taken of course from the original engagement ring that you both wanted to revive to suit and embody more of your personalities and connection. It was a gift and truly such a BLAST to work with you and your creative visions through our old treasures, new love customization, to bring your bands to life
Looking back to those many virtual consults, emails and safe outdoor hangs on the jewel porch. The pandemic couldn’t stop us from becoming fast pals and your is project and memories that come with it, we will cherish forever. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for choosing us to be part of your love story. We wish you the most fun love filled with all the magic and adventure in the world. ❤️
tell us a bit about you and your love story!
Travis and I are coming up on 8 years together, married for one year. We are two quirky old souls who appreciate meaningful moments and all things vintage. We are each other’s best friends and our days consist of a lot of laughing together. He is the quiet to my chattiness, and I am the planner to his free spirit. Our journey together ultimately started by me (Dayna) “creeping" him on Instagram via mutual acquaintances…keep in mind this was many years ago before Instagram became the social media giant it is today. Text messages were our first exchange. I tried to be witty with a funny question as to why he might be interested in me and Travis’ response was, “I’m just impressed with the fact that you pretty much stalked me” …and so our funny story began.
when and how did you pop the question, or when did you know you wanted to make your love official?
Picture it, it was sunset at the Grand Canyon. Travis was awkwardly lingering and taking photos - he was actually waiting for people to leave (unbeknownst to me). The sun was pretty much set (and the other onlookers had left) so we began to climb back over the rocks to the parking lot when he told me to wait because he had a “rock in his shoe.” When I turned around, he was down on one knee :) There were tears, laughs, and big love hugs.
how did you learn about and decide on Anice to create your love piece?
Travis let me take the reins on searching for the perfect designer and maker because he knew this was very special to me. We wanted to find an artisan-type jeweller who would be able to create our vision and have it come to life.
After perusing countless articles on Toronto jewellery designers, I came across Anice. The small blurb in the article mentioned that one of their specialities was re-creating pre-loved pieces. Immediately I was intrigued because that was ultimately what we were trying to accomplish. When I also read that Anice was named after Britt’s grandmother, I instantly knew it was jewel fate :) Personally, my own Gram was my hero, my rock, and my everything so working with someone who shared such an incredible bond with their grandmother as well just seemed meant to be.
Speaking of pre-loved pieces…
The term “three’s a charm” seems to be fitting when it came to our proposal, engagement, and wedding ring situation. Travis initially proposed with his Mom’s wedding ring. She passed away the year before we met so sadly I was never able to meet her. Although he proposed with his Mom’s ring, he wanted me to have my own so at the time, we ended up contacting my parents’ friends who are goldsmiths. We sent off an inspiration photo and asked that we incorporate turquoise stones into the ring so it was symbolic of the Grand Canyon and Arizona area. For years I wore this beautiful ring but I couldn’t help feeling like it just wasn’t me. When we decided to finally get married after being engaged for over 5 years, we wanted to design a one-of-a-kind ring for Travis and to completely re-do my engagement ring. This was another reason that we felt Anice was the perfect fit!
what was the inspiration behind your love piece?
Travis and I both felt that we wanted statement-type rings and perhaps forego the idea of the woman having both a band and the engagement ring - why not incorporate it into one? We also wanted the rings to have a similar vibe to one another but still achieve our own unique style.
Travis was working with a blank slate and had fallen in love with some vintage-inspired, large stone type statement rings. He was leaning towards that type of design concept as opposed to a typical band. We both loved the idea of a black onyx for the stone, both for the visual and also the spiritual significance of it - for protection and grounding. Travis also wanted the turquoise stones from my engagement ring to be incorporated onto the sides of the black onyx. He also decided he would prefer satin finish yellow gold as opposed to silver. This was sort of shocking but in the most amazing way. Since I was doing the satin finish yellow gold as well, this was the perfect way for us to tie our designs together.
My ring took a little more time to nail down the final design - when the world is your jewel oyster and you are working with incredibly creative people, it’s hard to make a decision. We knew we would be using the diamond from my engagement ring as well as melting down the gold to incorporate it along with some other gold jewellery pre-loved treasures.
The inspiration started with my mom’s engagement ring. It was from the early 70s and had this cool chunkiness to it. Being a creative, I wanted to explore having a not-so-dainty type design that I could wear all the time and not worry about breaking it. There were some gorgeous initial designs created and wax moulds (those were so cool especially when you are a visual person) however in talking with Britt I realized that perhaps I wanted something more simple. I also had this feeling like it was still missing something. This is when I realized that perhaps I would want to incorporate a couple of my Gram’s diamonds from her wedding ring into mine. Britt was all for the idea and immediately started thinking of designs off the top of her head! I had come across a fun ring from a jeweller in Austin, Texas and loved the shape of it. Ironically, we began calling it the COVID mask because quite frankly that’s what it reminded me of. That’s ultimately how the design finally took shape (pun intended). We left all our treasures with the Anice fam to work their magic!
describe your first impression of working with us. who did you work with and what was the process like?
If our memory is correct, we were among the first group of couples who were trying to navigate things during the height of the pandemic. There were emails and inspirational photos exchanged with the lovely Britt and then our first official FaceTime was scheduled. Our first virtual meeting was memorable because Travis had no idea what his ring size was. We thought by holding up our hands that Britt was some sort of wizard and could tell in comparison to my size 5. She actually was almost spot on! We hung up with her and felt an instant connection. She is such an incredibly knowledgeable, caring and compassionate human being who you can’t help but love!
Eventually the government measures allowed us to meet in person on the jewel porch - which was so dreamy and perfect! Talk about an incredible location. We also got to meet more of the wonderful Anice jewel squad who were helping behind the scenes. In-store purchases were also made - by far the comfiest hoops I’ve ever worn ;)
how did you feel when you finally received your love piece?
As you can see in the photos, we were both so excited! We never really realized how a simple item of jewellery can have such meaning and power behind it. Our rings are symbolic to us as people and especially old souls. They visually compliment one another, however they are individually unique, just like us :) We can proudly wear these one-of-a-kind creations and know the love and little memories that were literally poured into each one. We love our rings more and more each day and seeing them on each other’s hands make us smile!
what was the most memorable part of working with Anice?
Anice really encompasses so many qualities that Travis and I love. Anice is a special gem to appreciate and cherish - it's memorable, it’s vintage, it’s one-of-a-kind. Britt and her team were INCREDIBLE to work with! They made us feel so special and were genuinely just happy for our love! The jewel shop has an incredible energy that’s filled with love and passion. Britt even personally drove Travis’ ring to our house (that’s an hour outside of the city) after a minor sizing issue to ensure we had our rings in plenty of time before our wedding. Thanks Anice for being part of our jewel journey, we couldn’t have done it without you!
is there anything else you would like to add?
My Gram would have LOVED my ring.
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