Heather Rae Young‘s emerald-cut diamond has a new home, thanks to the generosity of her fiancé Tarek El Moussa. The Selling Sunset star revealed that she’s now rocking an upgraded engagement ring, after she and Tarek swapped out the ring’s minimalist band for a shinier, more blinged-out one ahead of the couple’s wedding. “Are you ready to see the new band he bought me for my engagement ring? We designed it together,” the 33-year-old Netflix star asked her 1.6 million Instagram followers on Feb. 4.
Then, the big reveal came: Heather posted a video on her Instagram Story of the gorgeous ring makeover, courtesy of Newport Beach-based jeweler Benny Hayoun. The new band featured miniature versions of emerald-cut diamonds placed around the ring, which supported the one gigantic emerald-cut diamond. “I never planned my ‘dream wedding’ but I saved rings I loved for the past 10 years. Gold with Emerald cut was always my dream ring,” Heather wrote over the video, in which she flashed her new band for the camera. Heather added, “My love, future hubby, you have my whole heart.”
BEFORE: Pictured above is Heather Rae Young’s more minimalist wedding band. (Courtesy of Instagram/@heatherraeyoung)
The diamond previously sat on a thin gold band when Tarek first presented the ring to Heather during his proposal amid a romantic getaway on California’s Catalina Island in July of 2020. The engagement ring makeover happened just in time for the couple’s engagement photo shoot at The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside, CA, which took place on Feb. 4. The couple had three glamorous outfit changes for the shoot, which Tarek and Heather shared behind-the-scenes footage of (you can watch one of these videos below).
As you can see, wedding preparations are very much underway! In Dec. 2020, Heather revealed that she and her Selling Sunset co-star, Chrishell Stause, went rehearsal dinner dress shopping at the Galia Lahav Haute Couture showroom in Los Angeles. And before that, Heather and Tarek gave us an update on their nuptials plans amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re planning [to have the wedding] within the next year, so that’s our plan depending on COVID. But we plan on doing it within the next year…we don’t know when yet,” Heather EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife in Aug. 2020. Tarek added that they’ve got their hearts set on hosting the ceremony in either “California, Mexico or Europe.”