Both Jared Haibon and Ashley Iaconetti thought, “Perfect” when they laid eyes on the Neil Lane engagement ring he would propose to her with on June 17.
“After talking to production and Neil Lane, and figuring out what I wanted and what Ashley wanted, as soon as I saw a picture of it, I knew it was perfect,” says Jared.
The Bachelor couple, who announced they were officially dating in an instantly-iconic 44-minute video after years of will-they-won’t-they across a range of the franchise’s series, got engaged while filming the latest season of Bachelor of Paradise in Mexico earlier this summer. For this very important relationship milestone, Jared turned to the ABC-beloved jeweler to bring Ashley I.’s dream engagement ring to life. Before actually popping the question, though, Jared didn’t get much time alone with the Neil Lane ring—only about 15 minutes, he says: “I had pictures sent to me. The ring was being sent down to Mexico before I got there.”
PHOTO: Noel Vasquez
Other than Jared, the first person to see a picture of the ring was Ashley’s sister, Lauren. “I was at [Ashley’s] on Friday—Lauren knew we were getting engaged, and I received the first picture of the actual ring, and showed [it to her] in the kitchen while Ashley was in the bathroom,” he says. “Lauren was like, ‘Holy shit, that ring is perfect. I have to show you something.’ Earlier that day [she and Ashley] were getting their nails done—apparently, somebody who was engaged was sitting next to Ashley, and Ashley tried on her engagement ring that looked exactly like that, and Ashley was like, ‘This is the perfect ring. This is exactly what I would want.’ And it was the ring I was going to present to her two days later.”
It all went down shortly after Jared and Ashley I. arrived in Mexico to film Paradise. “They separated us before we actually went down there, and that was the first time I got the ring,” he remembers. “They gave me a couple minutes alone with it to really let it sink in… It was just a moment you always dream of as a guy, having the engagement ring, the moment before you propose. This is symbol of your love for Ashley, and you’re gonna get down on one knee and present this to her and ask her for her hand in marriage—all those things were just going through my head on the beach where we first met. It couldn’t have been more perfect.” (Ashley I. chimes in: “I love that Jared says things like, ‘This is what guys think of their whole life.’ Like, how sweet?!”)
When Ashley I. saw the platinum ring—which features a 2.4 carat radiant-cut diamond, according to People— she remembers thinking: “Welp, that’s it—that’s exactly what I requested.”
PHOTO: Noel Vasquez
Though the couple says they didn’t look to celebrity engagement rings for inspiration in the design (only the occasional Pinterest sweep, admits Ashley), Jared says he “looked at previous Bachelorette and Bachelor contestant rings for [an] idea of what I think looked good, what didn’t look good… It all came down pretty much to what Ashley wanted, and I talked to production about it.” The final product was a combination of her desires with his research—like the 86 full-cut diamonds forming a halo around the center stone, for instance: “She didn’t really want one, but they said, ‘Listen, I think this would look really good around the diamond,’ so I said alright. I Googled JoJo [Fletcher]’s ring, because I think she doesn’t have a halo, but Rachel [Lindsay]’s does—so I was comparing, and I thought it looked a lot better with the halo, so I said, ‘Put that on.'”
In the end, Ashley thinks he made the right call. “The first thing he said was ‘I know it has a halo, I know you didn’t want a halo…,'” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Believe me, it’s just fine!'”
Oh, and as for the wedding? They’re thinking “within the next fourteen months”—next summer, ideally. Yes, they want a beach-y wedding. (“Not Paradise beach-y, like sailboat-beach-y,” says Ashley. “I would never get married in a cold season.”) No, they don’t know if it’ll be televised yet. (“We have no idea,” explains Jared.) If it’s anything like their The Story of Us entry, we’ll definitely be tuning in. Until then, Paradise!
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