On Dec. 20, Ariana Grande surprised fans when she showed off her new engagement ring on Instagram, given to her by her boyfriend of less than a year, Dalton Gomez. The former dancer turned real estate mogul certainly knows how to pick out a sparkler, and now, engagement ring jeweler Jack Solow is sharing the story on how Gomez chose the perfect ring for his soon-to-be bride in an exclusive interview with E! News.
According to Solow, the engagement ring for the "thank u, next" singer—which includes an oval shaped diamond set next to a pearl—was planned five to six weeks before Gomez popped the question, as it "took some time to find that very special, unique diamond."
"Dalton was involved in every step of the selection process through FaceTime and Zoom since he was on the west coast and I was here in my office in New York. He was very, very specific about what he wanted," Solow shares. "He had very strong feelings about how he wanted this to look, a contemporary kind of way. It was his idea to do the diamond on an angle and he said to me we had to incorporate a pearl into the finished piece because it is very sentimentally special, the element of a pearl is very, very sentimentally special to Ariana. He wanted to include that in the ring."
The pearl is Grande's birth stone, and earlier this week, fans resurfaced an October 2014 tweet in which the artist said that her grandmother made a ring for her out of a pearl from her grandfather's tie pin. "she says he told her in a dream it'd protect me," Grande tweeted. Solow can't confirm if the pearl is the same one from the tie pin ring.
As for the diamond, there's a reason Gomez went for this specific look.
"Oval is a very beautiful shape. His design was such that an oval on the longer side dovetailed nicely with setting the stone on the bias and adding the pearl nestled up onto the side," he shared. "Dalton really is very design-oriented. He's very aesthetically oriented. All of the elements and the details are his contribution. It's a pun to say no stone unturned but he was very intent that everything be perfect. He paid a lot of attention to detail, a lot of wanting to make this very special for Ari. That was his goal."
As for how Grande feels about the ring? She's apparently over the moon.
"They're pleased," adds Solow. "I had a nice chat with Dalton yesterday. He was grateful and she's thrilled and he's thrilled and rightfully, they should be. He did a great job and it's a beautiful ring."