Meghan Markle's First Engagement Ring

By now we know just how above and beyond Prince Harry went to craft Meghan Markle's incredible engagement ring–from sourcing the diamond from Botswana, where they first fell in love, to including two round diamonds from his mother's collection to flank the center stone. He also paid attention to Meghan's detailed likes and dislikes; yellow gold, he acknowledged in their first official interview as an engaged couple, is a favorite of hers over platinum.

Markle has had time to form her preferences for engagement bling, wedding dresses and décor, given that this engagement ring is her second. For her first wedding to producer Trevor Engelson in 2011, she went a different route altogether stylistically.

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Engelson and Markle wed in a casual, barefoot, beachfront ceremony in Jamaica, where Meghan donned a bohemian sheath rather than the type of dramatic look we expect to see her walk down the aisle in at Windsor Castle this May. Her ring, it appears, was different as well. Images of Markle in 2011 upon her engagement and marriage to Engelson reveal that her ring was a princess-cut solitaire, set on a pair of thin bands of pave diamonds–in platinum no less.

Meghan Markle at a Beverly Hills event in October 2011.

For her wedding band, Markle paired the ring with a simple diamond band slightly larger than the two her engagement stone was set on–but she likely won't do the same when she weds Harry in May. Per her current preferences, she'll likely be presented with a gold band instead.

Meghan Markle wore her engagement ring and wedding band for the ELLE Women in Television Celebration on January 24, 2013, months before her divorce

The bride-to-be's personal preferences align perfectly with royal standards. Four generations of royals, including the Queen Mother, the Queen, Diana, Princess of Wales and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge all received wedding bands from the same Welsh gold mine. Lucky for Markle, the mine just announced their reopening later this year–just in time for Harry to pick something up for Meghan's walk down the aisle.

Carrie Goldberg is HarpersBAZAAR.com’s Weddings & Travel Director. She oversees the site’s BAZAAR Bride channel, travel & dining content, and styles fashion and bridal editorials for BAZAAR.com. When she’s not traveling, she spends her free time in her hometown–New York City–where there is no shortage of new places to shop, eat, drink, see and explore.

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