I have. Similar story to sueb's. We were in upheaval from remodeling, and one day, no rings. I had only gone to a gas station that day. (Bad habit of tucking them in coin purse, where I never kept coins, and thought maybe, just maybe, they fell out when I paid.) For over a month I looked everywhere in the house, the car, went back to the gas station several times. No rings. :( Thankfully, I had insured them separately. I went back to the same jewelry store that made them. Same little old Russian man was still there making jewelry. :) He remembered mine from a photo (I had sketched the originals for him). Mine have baguettes on top half of both engagement & wedding band, with a marquis on engagement. Only thing I changed was I opted for white gold. Prefer that, I rarely wear other jewelry, but when I do it's silver. I do wear my pre & post marriage Christmas & Birthday diamond studs daily, they are set in white gold. Back when we got married very little was available or displayed in white gold or platinum. And the marquis is a bit larger, but that was based on what they had in the store, closest to what I had before. (Not a big rock kind of gal.) They don't match DHs gold band, and will never be the same as the ones placed on my finger. I am happy to have them tho, and if not for insuring them I would be up the proverbial creek!

Thanks so much for your candid responses. It is hard to hear the truth, but I really did need to hear it. To answer some of your questions, I wasn't reading into something that wasn't there. When we first met, he made every effort to spend time with me outside of the conference; hiking, going to the pool, hanging out. He would buy me drinks, etc. No, we never kissed and thank god for that. Also, when I told him we should stop communicating, I meant it. And it was he who wrote me months later which started us talking again. There were times even after we started emailing each other again where I would not write for weeks, and again, he would write me to ask me how I am, etc. At the second conference, there were times where strangers mistook us for a couple and he never corrected them, it was me who's like we're just friends. Anyway, we do have to have a professional relationship though, so unfortunately total non-communication is not possible. We will see each other at conferences, know the same people, etc. I do not want to think of him as a con man or a predator although he did misled me on purpose. Maybe I'm too forgiving but I'd rather not get angry.

I'm glad John foumd someone new, and she apparently is more mentally stable than the runaway bride. I wish them all the best.

When I remarried, I walked myself down the aisle. I also liked the idea of the wording of "support" rather than giving. We did something along those lines. sunshine4376 - Both lines were mixed as far as my line was not all female and the other line was not all male. I wanted my son standing up in my line and that is exactly where he stood, on my side. So just because you're dealing with sons does not mean they can't be attendants on your side. We did not use the terms bridesmaids or groomsmen. We used attendants and "Attendant of Honor" for both lines. We used children as young as 7 as ushers. They can handle the responsibility and they feel so grown up. My son (16 at the time) was the head usher as well as in my attendant line. Then we had (2) seven year-old ushers. They did very well and my 16 year-old directed them appropriately. We had 2 ring bearer's. We each had a 4 year-old little boy in our respective families and so we each put them in the wedding. There's no we could leave one of those precious little guys out. It's your wedding ... do what you want and what makes you happy.