A Love Worth Waiting For, Worth Nurturing, Worth a Ring of Its Own

The following is a true story, told without embellishment. To protect the privacy of the people involved, all names have been changed as usual: the groom is Yi Shi, and the bride is Lingshan Hong. All photos in this article are real photos provided by the groom; the animated-style images are real photos that have been processed with AI.

Notes from our bespoke jewelry consultation

I no longer remember how long I talked with this soon-to-be-married couple that day, but their story spanned a very long stretch of time.

“Lingshan is precious to me. I feel more at ease with her than with anyone else.”

“She has such a loving heart. Beautiful, warm, and kind—a rare and wonderful girl. I’ve kept these words in my heart for ten years, and somehow I think it was all for today, when we’d design our wedding rings.”

“Our wedding rings don’t need diamonds, but I hope they can use the horizontal and vertical strokes of a cross to say that I love ‘you,’ and you love ‘me.’”

“The cross where they meet represents us, and it also represents the faith and beliefs we share.”

“Yi is so much fun—sunny and healthy! And because he loves the Lord, he’s an optimist. He’s smart and creative, too.”

“To me, he’s the prince I imagined when I was a little girl: confident, sunny, and smart!”

“And he accepts my flaws completely.”

The story begins in 2000, when both of them were still students. The first time Yi saw Lingshan, who was working at an art museum, he was deeply drawn to her. Unfortunately, she already had a boyfriend, and out of personal principle, Yi felt he shouldn’t pursue her. Three years went by, and the flutter in his heart hadn’t faded one bit. He couldn’t help telling himself, “Surely it’s okay just to be friends?” So he worked up the courage to ask Lingshan to grab a drink after work and chat. Full of anticipation and nerves, Yi finally waited until she got off work—only for her boyfriend to show up unexpectedly that very day, and the meetup had to be canceled. Yi took this as a reminder from God: now was not the right time. And so he decided to stay true to his faith and values and set his longing aside for the time being.

Life quietly flowed on. Three more years passed. Yi was studying in Australia as an exchange student when Jenny, a mutual friend, shared a poem Lingshan had written: “No matter how fierce the wind, how wild the waves, they will never wear down our rugged, unbending spirit!” It brought Lingshan back to his mind. So in 2007, when Yi returned to Taiwan to perform with his alma mater’s Red House Poetry Society, he invited Jenny and Lingshan to come see the show. “Watching him perform, I felt a bit like a little fan,” Lingshan said, looking back—but Yi had no idea at the time.

Red House Poetry Society performance

It wasn’t until 2008, when he invited Lingshan to a Peking opera, that the two spent time alone together for the first time. Nearly eight years had passed since he first saw her, and Yi had finally waited until Lingshan was single.

How could a longing that had been brewing for eight years not ferment into something? Yi began keeping in close contact with Lingshan—messages, phone calls, trading books and sharing their thoughts on them. Over the next few months, they went on a handful of dates. The weekend they visited the National Palace Museum together felt like a date scene God had scripted just for them out of an art-house romance. On a Friday in early spring, in the cool of March, Yi asked Lingshan to come with him while he performed magic at a kindergarten, and afterward they had dinner. The next day, they went for a walk on Yangmingshan and then visited the National Palace Museum, where they talked the whole afternoon away.

Performing magic at a kindergarten

“We spent the whole afternoon at the museum looking at just one painting, Along the River During the Qingming Festival. Her imagination, the things she noticed—I found it all so captivating!” Yi had fallen headfirst into a vat of nectar he’d spent eight years brewing from longing. What he didn’t know was that Lingshan had quietly started to feel something for him that day too: “Wow! This guy really does love kids. And who else would look at a single painting with me for an entire afternoon?”

Neither had confessed their feelings, yet both were secretly, rapidly falling. They signed up for a road race together, training side by side and talking about more and more things they never ran out of. Once, the conversation turned to one of Yi’s hidden talents: the Rubik’s Cube. A skilled amateur, Yi could solve one in just over a minute. Amazed by how fast his hands moved, Lingshan excitedly said she wanted to learn. When the girl you like says she wants to learn the Rubik’s Cube, how could you say no? But a new skill is hardly something you pick up overnight. Since they couldn’t see each other every day, these Rubik’s Cube lessons went on “remotely” over the phone for a good two weeks—teaching the cube while baring their hearts, which laid the groundwork for knowing each other more deeply. “Even I was getting fed up with myself for being so slow to learn, but how could anyone be this patient?!” Lingshan recalled. And it was right then, without Yi noticing a thing, that Lingshan quietly promised herself: “This is a man I could marry.”

The Rubik’s Cube lessons—featured on the cover of their wedding photo album

By now, you’d think the story was about to wrap up and move on to a happy, blissful relationship, right? He was interested, she was interested—what could possibly stand in their way?

Just as the two were caught in what was basically a staring contest to see who would laugh first—that is, who would confess first—Yi received his draft notice. When he enlisted, he resolved to write Lingshan a letter every week and planned to tell her how he felt on the day he completed one year of service. But plans can never keep up with life. Unexpectedly, not long after Yi enlisted, their friends kept nudging them so hard that the two started dating early. Yet Yi had always held one hope in his heart: that the person he dated would also be a Christian. The gap between that hope and reality caused friction between them, and after just one month, they broke up. When they parted, they agreed not to see each other until Yi’s one-year mark in the military, giving each of them time to face their own hearts and think things through calmly. During that time, Yi kept writing Lingshan a letter every week, one after another. By the time the letters reached 52, Yi had completed a full year of service! He asked Lingshan to meet him, and to bring all 52 letters.

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After a long time apart, the two sat down in a café, the air around them wrapped in layer upon layer of anticipation and nerves. Yi nervously asked, “Did you bring the letters?” Puzzled, she nodded and set all 52 letters on the table—and that’s when Yi discovered… she hadn’t opened a single one!!! “I think I completely turned to stone,” Yi said with a wry smile, recalling the moment. But what was done was done. He asked Lingshan to open the letters one by one, lay them all out on the table in order, and then read the last character of the first line of each letter in sequence… Now it was Lingshan’s turn to turn to stone. “So his feelings for me had been this steadfast, this deep, all along…” No amount of resentment or pride could hold out against such sincere devotion, and the stone-still Lingshan quickly melted. Nothing could stand in the way of their feelings for each other anymore. This time, they officially became a couple.

Real love stories are rarely wrapped up with a simple “Happily ever after.” As they dated, the two still had their share of arguments and friction, big and small. Steadfast in their commitment, they worked through it all in conversations both gentle and heated. Yi prayed for Lingshan without ceasing, and God quietly worked in their relationship. Finally, two years and eight months into their relationship, one of Yi’s greatest wishes came true: Lingshan was baptized.

By then, the two had known each other for more than 11 years, and Yi was ready to take the next big step. Oh—no, not a proposal. Their church recommended that couples go through premarital counseling before marriage, and Yi felt that inviting Lingshan to premarital counseling was practically a proposal in itself. He believed she deserved a formal, heartfelt “pre-premarital-counseling proposal.” So he decided to knit a scarf by hand, 186 centimeters long—the same as his height—symbolizing giving all of himself to her. (Let’s not dwell on why he wanted to give a scarf in June, right before the height of summer. It really was such an old-fashioned, romantic gesture!) “I didn’t actually know how to knit, but I believed that if I was willing, I could do it—just like I’d never been married before, but I believed I could be a good husband!” Knowing nothing about knitting, Yi built his own loom out of cardboard, wooden sticks, and other materials. He used red yarn for the warp to represent Lingshan (because her surname, Hong, sounds like the word for red), and multicolored yarn for the weft, “because she’s the one who has made my life so colorful.”

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Once the scarf was finished, he carefully planned a romantic dinner date. The two laughed and chatted, enjoying the kind of romantic evening they treated themselves to now and then—but this time was a little different. At dessert, the restaurant brought out a special “dessert.” Watching the curious look on Yi’s face, Lingshan slowly opened the box, full of curiosity. Inside was the scarf, rolled up like a cake, as Yi shared the heart behind his “pre-premarital-counseling proposal.” Later, after the two successfully completed nearly six months of premarital counseling, they talked it over, and Yi prepared to formally ask Lingshan’s parents for her hand.

A scarf as long as he is tall

By this point, you might be wondering… wait, what about the actual proposal? This one, of course, was just as heartfelt. While planning it, Yi remembered something Lingshan had once told him in passing: being a rather low-key person, if anyone were to propose to her, she’d want it to be “not with a lot of people, not too showy, but still with the blessing of all my family and friends.” Faced with that, even the endlessly creative Yi was stumped. “That expectation felt like a real challenge. No big crowd, but the blessing of everyone she loves?” But as he’d said before, “If you’re willing, you can definitely do it.” Remember their date at the National Palace Museum before they officially got together, when they looked at Along the River During the Qingming Festival? That day had always stayed with Yi. After some research, he found that the museum sold a set of 24 postcards that together form the painting. So Yi reached out to 24 of the most important people in Lingshan’s life—family, siblings, best friends, girlfriends, her boss, close coworkers, and more—contacting each of them one by one and asking them to write, in the space of a single postcard, why Lingshan should marry Yi. Then he collected them all and gave them to her. With years of friendship and love, all the life experiences they’d shared, Yi’s thoughtful planning, and a boost from 24 of her nearest and dearest, of course the proposal was a success! (Being able to rally dozens of the other person’s friends and family to help pull off a proposal like this—you have to admit, Yi is truly well-liked!)

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The 24 postcards that form Along the River During the Qingming Festival, carrying the blessings of 24 loved ones who supported Lingshan marrying Yi

Afterward, the two came to BCAG, hoping to create bespoke wedding rings drawn from their love story.

“She has such a loving heart. Beautiful, warm, and kind—a rare and wonderful girl. I’ve kept these words in my heart for ten years, and somehow I think it was all for today, when we’d design our wedding rings.”

So what exactly makes this pair of wedding rings so unique—or rather, what makes the men’s ring so unique, as hinted at the beginning of the story? Here’s the answer:

Beyond the many design concepts, forms, and meanings quoted at the start of this story that they hoped to bring into the rings, Yi had one more request.

“I have a somewhat… unusual request. I’m not sure if it’s possible?”

“I’d like my wedding ring to be worn on my index finger, as a wide band, and for it to fit… into my ear… right here in the hollow of my ear (gesturing with his hand) XD”

“In ancient times, the rings worn by scholars—the word for ring, jiezhi, literally ‘refrain-finger’—meant refraining from pointing fingers at others. Whenever I catch myself pointing a finger at someone, I want to pull it back and reflect on myself instead.”

“As for putting the ring in my ear, that’s just a weird habit of mine! When I’m thinking, I tend to take my ring off and tuck it into the hollow of my ear…”

A truly one-of-a-kind habit

And so, among more than three hundred bespoke pieces BCAG has created, this became the only wedding ring for which we measured not just the ring size, but also the inner diameter of the ear.

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One of the few BCAG bespoke wedding ring pairs with two completely different designs

Finally, let’s talk about the design concept. This pair of wedding rings is named Awaits.

Beautiful love is not only worth waiting for—it’s worth nurturing.

The name embraces their long courtship, their waiting for each other, and a love and friendship that never wavered.

The women’s ring captures the pivotal moment when Lingshan, learning the Rubik’s Cube from Yi, silently promised herself, “This is a man I could marry.” The raised and recessed surfaces of the band create a meeting of heights that subtly forms the image of a cross—the meaning both of them hoped their wedding rings would hold:

“Our wedding rings don’t need diamonds, but I hope they can use the horizontal and vertical strokes of a cross to say that I love ‘you,’ and you love ‘me.’”

“The cross where they meet represents us, and it also represents the faith and beliefs we share.”

The form also makes the resulting cross look like a radiant beam of light.

“Yi is so much fun—sunny and healthy! And because he loves the Lord, he’s an optimist. He’s smart and creative, too.”

“To me, he’s the prince I imagined when I was a little girl: confident, sunny, and smart!”

The finished Awaits matching rings

The men’s ring uses a distinctive, precise technique: on a unique band that curves along two axes, we carved an openwork cross that visually appears to be formed by two intersecting straight lines, expressing Yi’s patience, determination, and perseverance—the kind that wears through stone drop by drop. In addition, because the ring’s inner diameter had to match his ring size while its outer diameter had to fit the space inside his ear, without a special design the ring would have far exceeded the thickness and weight suitable for everyday wear. So we gave it a special cross-section profile, allowing it to meet the large difference between the inner and outer diameters while keeping its actual weight as light as possible, so it stays comfortable and easy to wear, and still fits perfectly, nestling right into his ear. Two ridgelines along the surface protect the inwardly curved face of the ring that bears the openwork cross. These design details embody what Lingshan said—“And he accepts my flaws completely”—and also what Yi said: “Lingshan is precious to me. I feel more at ease with her than with anyone else.”

Before this story ends, there’s one more episode. When the wedding rings were finished, Yi came to pick them up. As he opened the ring box, a satisfied, slightly surprised smile spread across his face. But none of us expected that, as he tried on the ring, a memory would suddenly come rushing back. Astonished, he said: “I just remembered—ever since high school, I’ve been looking for a ring with an openwork cross! After all these years, I’d completely forgotten about it, and I never imagined I’d find it now!!”

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After the wedding rings were completed, Yi arranged another warm, romantic proposal

As I said earlier, real love stories are rarely wrapped up with a simple “Happily ever after.” From their wedding to the time I’m writing this story, Yi and Lingshan have been married for more than ten years and have three daughters. Life has given them more challenges than most families face. Their eldest daughter was born with congenital heart disease and underwent four heart surgeries between her birth and her discharge from the hospital—each one a brush with death. It was hard on the child herself, and for them as parents, it was without question an ordeal, time after time. But through their love for each other and for their children, and their faith in God, they entrusted life’s challenges and worries to Him in prayer again and again. Rather than letting life’s hardships wear down their relationship, they grew even more committed to their love and their family. And their prayers were truly heard: their eldest daughter not only miraculously made it through, but is now a young girl in fourth grade!

While their eldest daughter was hospitalized for heart surgery, a LEGO set of “Ron rescuing Harry Potter in the flying car” sat on the windowsill. Though they were in the hospital, the family’s hearts were free and full of hope.

Today, Yi is preparing for the notoriously difficult bar exam, with its extremely low pass rate, and he “is determined to make happy marriages a trend through ways that are fun, useful, and warm!” And the two of them truly practice what they preach, living out their happy marriage in ways that are fun, useful, and warm!

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“Blossoming and bearing fruit” is only the beginning of love. Growing from tender youth to full maturity—that is what love truly looks like.