So you sly devil,
you are going in for the surprise proposal!
Kudos! You’ll be figuring out things like what stone shape she likes and her metal and setting preferences, but along with these you will need to get an idea of her finger size, and this can be tricky!
To help you keep the surprise exactly that, we have come up with a few spy worthy tactics to help you get it!
1, Daylight robbery.
Borrow one of her rings. If you are lucky enough to have a girlfriend that wears lots of rings, she’s going to make things easy for you. Take note of her rings and what she wears on which fingers, and then as soon as the opportunity arises, snag the appropriate ring finger ring. If you can borrow it long enough to bring it in with you, we can get an accurate measure from this ring. If however, she is the type to notice and turn the house upside down in looking for it, there are a few things you can do at home.
- Download our Ring Sizer and print it out at 100% (that is very important), and use “The Secret Test” to find a match. The match should perfectly fit along the inner edge of the ring with the full circle visible on the inside of the ring. If parts of the circle are not visible, try the next one down.
Again, it must be printed at 100% to scale. Some printers automatically change the print size, so please be diligent when checking this, as it will sabotage your efforts if misprinted!
- Push her ring on to your fingers and mark where it gets snug. Start on your pinky, does it fit? Is it loose? Then try your own wedding finger, where does it get to before it gets tight? Make a pen mark. Then try your middle. With these marks on your fingers, come in and see us!
- If she doesn’t have a ring that she wears on that finger, it’s okay, we can make a close estimate based on another ring, so if she has a pointer or middle finger ring, take note of which finger this is for and do the same sleuthing. We will be able to get you close.
2, Call in the allies.
Girls dream and girls talk, so there is a good chance she has discussed the idea of a proposal with one of her nearest and dearest. If you can trust them, it’s time to enroll them! There are a few ways they will be able to help.
- They may have actually gone shopping together already. This usually happens when one of their circle is getting engaged or is close to it, and often girls like to explore their options and have their own sizes taken while shopping. So ask her bestie/ sister/ partner in crime if this has ever happened.
- They may have tried on a friend’s engagement ring or other rings. The best friend usually has an idea of their comparative sizes, if her jewelry fits your lady for example, or if she is smaller or bigger. This is a good place to start.
- If you really really trust one of her crew to play this cool, ask her to casually pop into a jeweler the next time she is out brunching with your girl. Perhaps one of her crew is getting engaged or married soon, and she can ask your lady to accompany her while shopping, and nonchalantly ask if she knows her size while at it. And if not “you should get measured, I feel like that’s something that’s good to know”. Now, not all can pull this off, so you have to use your intuition here as to which of her friends has the best poker face!
3, Spike her dinner with Nyquil*
*Disclaimer, we are ABSOLUTELY just kidding, do not spike her dinner with anything! However, the next suggestion is very risky, and will only work if your wifey to be is a very deep sleeper!
- The string test. While she’s sleeping, use a fine thread or piece of string and wrap it around her wedding finger knuckle, not too tight. Marking where the string overlaps, measure the length on a ruler. Our Ring Sizer has a conversion guide to help you.
- The paper cut test. Again, this will only work with a heavy sleeper. If the string test appears too vague, we have an alternative that might help. Print out our Ring Sizer (again, very important you print at 100%) and cut out the ring sizer under “The Paper Test”. Make a small slit where the guideline suggests. Wrap the sizer snugly around the widest part of her finger so that the numbers are visible to you, and insert the pointed end through the slit you made. The number that aligns with the slit is going to be close to the proper size.
5, Guestimations and Calculations.
- Now we are getting down to guesswork, but all these details help. The average New York woman’s wedding ring finger size is 5.5 to a 6. This differs a lot across the US and Globally, but in New York, 5.5-6 tends to be the most common size. So knowing that, how does your girlfriend compare to her friends? Is she slimmer or shorter than most? Is she especially petite or especially tall and curvey? Does she have small or strong hands? Again, ask her friends, does she fit their rings?
- Next, compare her hands to your own. Take her hand during your next Netflix and Chill, and study hers in relation to yours. Which of your fingers looks closest in size to her wedding finger?
6, Let us handle the rest.
Bring in photos of you and your girl, and any good shots of her where you can see her hands, and we will be able to guess closely from her proportions. This is vague, so we like you to have tried some of the earlier solutions also, but remember, we can always resize your ring after the proposal. Some jewelers will tell you that you can’t, or that you can’t resize micro-pave, but this simply isn’t true, and we can.
So we’ll get you close for your surprise proposal, and then we’ll get it perfect right after!
Do you need guidance on choosing the stone shape, setting style, and metal preference for your ring? We think these blogs might help!
Where to begin – The three questions that are more important than the 4C’s.
How to avoid costly mistakes when shopping for a ring
The same mistake too many men make.
Ring Sizer
