By Megan Wadding, Dec. 4, 2014.
Photo courtesy of propositionlove.com.
Proposition Love, a fine jewelry company that specializes in creating wedding rings and gay pride rings designed for same-sex couples, has released a wedding ring specially made to celebrate marriage equality in Arizona.
Jonathan Tack and Sam Street created the Proposition Love jewelry company back in 2011, as a way to give back to their community and as a way to celebrate the marriage equality movement.
Since then, each time a new state gains marriage equality, Proposition Love releases a uniquely designed commemorative wedding ring created in honor of the state as part of its Countdown Collection.
In an interview with Echo, Tack and Street spoke about the “enGAYgement” rings they’ve become so widely known for.
Echo: What is the inspiration behind the Proposition Love jewelry company?
Tack: Sam and I lived this. We have a story. It’s very important to us. It’s not just another jewelry company targeting the LGBT market. We’re trying to make a beautiful product and we want to give back to our community. When we were getting married, we shopped around a lot and we couldn’t really find anything that we fell in love with. That’s what really inspired us to create our own. We wanted something unique and something that had some pride in it.
Echo: Tell us about how you came up with the idea for the Countdown Collection. What influenced that idea?
Street: Once New York passed [marriage equality] in 2011, and other states started to trickle in a little bit, we thought, why don’t we do this to sort of celebrate each state passing equality. One New York passed we decided to design a ring for each state.
Echo: Part of your collection is being sold on Macys.com. What can you tell us about that partnership?
Tack:It is huge for us that Macy’s took a stand and is recognizing our brand. It was a major accomplishment. Macy’s is carrying an assortment of our wedding rings, our gay pride rings and part of our Love Collection (necklaces, pendants and earrings).
Echo: How did you come up with the idea for the Arizona state ring?
Tack: For the Arizona ring, we wanted to go with a southwest feel, something with really good energy. We try to think about the state and where it’s located. We try to come up with creative ways to come up with a feel for a state and for its personality. We also think the LGBT customer wants something a little unique as well, so we’re just trying to offer something that you can’t get everywhere.
Echo: Proposition Love has officially trademarked the enGAYgement ring, which is very cool. Are you seeing a lot of need these days for engagement rings for our community?
Street:The whole idea of getting engaged right now, what is happening is, as each state passed, everyone wants to run to get married. We’re all getting married quickly. The idea is, in a year or so, when it is normal for everyone to get married, the engagement will start to happen, and then the marriage. We’ve been waiting for so long, so we’re not planning weddings as much as we could. It’ll be more of a process as we move forward.
Echo: It is awesome that your company gives so much back to the community. Can you explain your current discounts?
Street: We’re offering 20 percent off each ring in the Countdown Collection as each state passes marriage equality and that lasts for about the first month (available on the Arizona Ring through the end of 2014). There is a 10 percent discount on anything else that we sell goes to a charity that supports anything that has to do with our community, where we can give back and improve lives. We’ve done everything from HIV/AIDS and antibullying to marriage equality and LGBT youth.
The Countdown Collection is exclusively available on propositionlove.com.
