Deme, Karen's design assistant, recently got married. We want to share her behind the scenes experiences as an alternative bride, and how her unique style led to a new wedding band design, a variation of our signature Tiara Ring.

"Planning my wedding was harder and more time-consuming than I had hoped it would be, even with the help of a wedding planner.  I knew I wanted an outdoor wedding in Austin and I wanted a badass cake.  Luckily my best friend is a pastry chef, and was able to create an unconventional black wedding cake. I chose dried flowers, beer donkeys, and gypsy music for the reception.

My "something borrowed" was a Gladiator Triple Vine Ear Cuff in yellow gold. I commissioned a custom embroidered leather jacket with our wedding date in roman numerals on the front lapels and two skulls kissing on the back to layer over my non-traditional wedding dress after the ceremony. Essentially, every part of my wedding was non-traditional, including the guy who married us (Karen's husband Frank) and of course, the rings.

My engagement ring, which I found before I found my husband, was the Floating Star in 18k yellow gold with colorless rose cut diamonds. Designing my own wedding ring to compliment this ring was the hardest part of the whole process. Knowing that we can do ANYTHING from my experience working with Karen on custom client designs made making a decision even more difficult.

I kept circling back to an idea I sketched while we were designing a wedding band for a client. This rough sketch sat on my desk in front of me. I liked it more every day, so I translated that sketch into a CAD drawing. Still unsure about it, I showed it to Karen to see what she thought. When she said, 'I like it and don't think I would change a thing' I was floored.  Karen NEVER says that on any of our projects, so to hear this from one of the best jewelry designers out there was a huge compliment. I love looking at my wedding stack which is something we want all our clients when we create their custom designs - wedding or otherwise."

So, by now you probably want to know what the process is for starting your custom design project. Each project is unique, including the timeline. Everything about your bespoke design will be discussed in a free design consultation, which is the first step of the custom process. Karen has built her eponymous collection on the reputation of her custom work.

Whether you want to breathe new life into old jewelry or make your dream idea a reality, we work with various precious metals, diamonds, and gemstones and are ready to design a piece just for you. Explore our custom work and book a virtual or in-person consultation - we look forward to hearing from you.