Raggatt, 32, had just moved back to his home city of Adelaide from Melbourne when they matched on the dating app, Snowball told Business Insider.

"Our first date was at a hidden blues bar. We found we had a lot in common, like music and our love of vinyl records," she said. "We ran in the same circles and had been to the same concerts."

Though they'd never met until that date, he'd even once watched Snowball walk in a fashion show.

"Since then, we've been inseparable," she said.

Raggatt knew that he and Snowball would one day design an engagement ring using her family's pieces. But he also wanted to surprise her.

Two weeks before their trip, he had the idea to find a Gashapon ring — a piece of costume jewelry from a Japanese toy vending machine — and propose with that first.

Snowball said she "wouldn't leave Olly's side" on their third day in the country, which is when he wanted to sneak off in search of the most "kitschy capsule ring he could find."

Luckily, Snowball chose to take a shopping break at Zara, which gave Raggatt the perfect opportunity.

Within 30 minutes, he'd found a Gashapon machine filled with rings resembling spilled Matcha. He inserted a few dollars, and out came a sage-green ring in a capsule box shaped like a bottle.

Snowball told BI she didn't expect a proposal during the trip until she noticed Raggatt acting nervous at the restaurant.

That's likely because he didn't know he'd propose until they got there.

"I looked around and thought to myself, 'If I were proposing to me, I would propose here.' My brain was racing with thoughts of how, when, where, and is this happening?" she said.

After a quick bathroom break to calm her nerves and text her friends, Snowball suggested that she and Raggatt take a selfie. As she set up her phone, he got down on one knee.

"I held my head in my hands and cried for what felt like two minutes but was probably 12 seconds," she said. "Finally, I looked up and said yes as he tried to put the ring on my shaking hand."

It was pouring rain when the couple left the restaurant, Snowball said, so they took shelter in an empty karaoke bar and called their friends and family to share the news.

"We then sang our favorite songs together, including 'My Sweet Lord' by George Harrison, which is our song," she added.

They then welcomed the company of some Japanese salarymen, or office workers, who had missed their train home. They chose to celebrate with them and buy the newly engaged couple drinks.

The couple left Tokyo the day after getting engaged. On the way out, Raggatt stopped in their hotel's bathroom and found a large, plastic diamond on the floor.

"He came out and gave me the diamond, which I then put on the ring," Snowball recalled. "It fit perfectly!"

She said their creation gave them the idea to design a real engagement ring inspired by the colorful statement piece Raggatt proposed with.

The couple traveled to Osaka, where they found a "full to the brim antique store" called the BB American Village Free Market.

While Raggatt browsed film cameras, Snowball shopped for jewelry. Though she wasn't looking for another engagement ring, one caught her eye.

"I tried it on, it fit my ring finger, and I took of photo of it for inspiration," she said. "Later on, Olly asked again what I think I might like for my real engagement ring. I said I wouldn't mind something like the one I saw in the store."

Ironically, it featured a green stone and a clear crystal — mirroring the green band and plastic diamond on her first engagement ring.

He snuck back to the market the following day and purchased the vintage piece for about $12.

Raggatt quickly worked with a local shop owner to plan another meaningful proposal.

"He had placed the ring in a Mickey Mouse wallet at one of those shooting games where the prizes are all on a shelf," Snowball said. "He is very good at this type of game and shot it down first go. Then he got back down on one knee to reveal the ring from the antique store."

As they celebrated their second engagement, the shop owner serenaded them with a rendition of "What a Wonderful World" on electric guitar.

Not only did the colors of the thrifted ring match the toy ring that Raggatt proposed with, but Snowball's birthstone is also emerald.

So, the couple decided to work with jeweler Kip Wilkins to create another version of the secondhand piece using materials from rings belonging to her grandmother and great-grandmother.

"It all just seemed so right. I never gave it another thought," Snowball said.

The custom ring, which was made for Snowball in a month, features a lab-gown diamond and a green tsavorite garnet stone. They sit atop a bezel setting in 18-carat yellow gold.

When asked if she wears her original two rings, Snowball said she doesn't. Instead, she keeps them both in the matcha-themed capsule box and plans to incorporate them into their wedding day, which they're planning for 2026.

"Whenever I look at the custom ring, I don't just think about how much it sparkles or how cool it is," Snowball said. "I think of how Olly proposed, the typhoon, 'Kill Bill,' drunken salarymen, and that it was found in a tiny Japanese antique store and reborn from my grandparents' gold."

Jay told BI that elongated-shaped stones, including emerald, oval, pear, and marquise-shaped, are becoming more popular.

"Elongated shapes are great because they visually trick the eye into appearing larger," Jay told BI of their appeal.

"I've started to do a lot of pear engagement rings all of a sudden. They're kind of the next step from oval," she said. "And then I think marquise is going to follow."

Recent celebrity engagement rings match Jay's predictions. For instance, in December 2024, Benny Blanco proposed to Selena Gomez with a marquise diamond.

Diamonds will always be popular for engagement rings, but other stones are also becoming go-to's, Jay told BI.

"People are not shying away from diamonds, but I think that we're starting to see more color," Jay said.

Sapphires, rubies, and emeralds are often popular for colorful engagement rings because they're durable. Jay said people are getting more creative with their tinted stones, too, particularly with toi-et-moi rings.

"Over the summer, I did a toi-et-moi where I said, 'Bring me a color that you like,' and we matched the stone, which ended up being a tourmaline, to the color of eelgrass for a client."

"We're allowing ourselves a little bit more creativity, a little bit more flexibility to get the look that we want using colored stones," she added.

"The 80s are back in a very big way," Jay said, which she said means many people are opting for "bigger and chunkier" bands.

Thicker bands are as stylish as they are practical. They are typically more stable than the thin bands popular in 2023 and 2024.

"The conversation I have with my clients is like, 'You're going to wear this for the rest of your life. While we love a dainty band now, it's going to be a headache long term,'" Jay said, adding that making a band even slightly thicker can be beneficial.

"If we can add tenths of millimeters, you're visually not going to be able to tell a difference, but structurally, it's going to be much more sound," she told BI.

Yellow gold has become common for many people's engagement bands, but Jay anticipates white gold and silver will be on the rise in the coming year.

"I think it's going to take two or three more years, but I think we are edging toward more white and silver," Jay said. "Gold is becoming…expensive."

She added that the increase in the cost of gold had led people to wear sterling silver for day-to-day jewelry, making it more likely to select a white gold, platinum, or silver band for their engagement rings to match.

Jay told BI that she's still seeing people embrace small details in their engagement rings, like hidden halos or personalized engravings.

"One of my favorite things to do is birthstones in a band," Jay said, often "discreetly" tucking a couple's birthstones into the setting.

She also told BI that these details are becoming more popular because couples design parts of their custom rings together, and the details allow the proposer to still give their partner an element of surprise in the ring.

"We're involving our partners more in this process," she said. "Maybe we talk about the shape of the stone, but they're not aware of how it's going to be set, when it's happening, or the budget."

Jay also told BI that people will invest their money into a center stone rather than selecting rings with multiple stones, which she said gives them the flexibility to reset the setting over time.

"If you ever did want to reset it, you could add side stones or put it in a chunkier setting or something like that," she said.

Jay told BI that it's also easier for people to stack other rings with their engagement and wedding rings down the road when they're simpler.

"Consider making your wedding band just a gold or platinum solid band so that you do have that flexibility in the future to stack and play with and make it a little more fun and playful," she advised.