NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. – It’s a love story, and it appears she’s said yes.
Music megastar Taylor Swift and NFL All-Pro Travis Kelce announced on Tuesday that they are engaged, and it appears that the engagement heard around the world has local ties.
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According to reports, the rock placed on Swift’s finger by Kelce was designed by a woman named Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry, which is based in New York City; however, in a 2024 interview with the media outlet VoyageJacksonville, Lubeck revealed that not only is she a Neptune Beach native, but she also received her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University.
MORE: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged
In the interview, she spoke about some of the challenges she faced after graduating from FSU, including being unsure of what direction she wanted to take with her life.
After quitting her job at a law firm where she had spent a few months, she said she “swallowed her pride” and asked her father, Jay Lubeck, if she could receive a part-time job until she found something else.
Jay is known as a master goldsmith, according to his store’s Instagram profile, and the man behind “Jewels by Lubeck,” which is located on Orange Street in Neptune Beach.
After COVID-19 forced her father’s store to briefly shut its doors, she told VoyageJacksonville that she was “hooked” by the craft of goldsmithing and began learning the process of engraving.
She said by June 2024, she was working on her own in New York City with her own jewelry studio.
According to her store’s website, Kindred plans to “embark on seven weeks of intensive high jewelry training,” but those interested in her work can scroll through “The Vault Collection,” which could be a nod to Taylor Swift’s “From the Vault” collection of songs that are part of her re-recorded albums.
She defines herself on the site as a goldsmith, hand engraver, and vintage jewelry collector.
It is unclear if there is any connection between Kindred to Swift or Kelce outside of the fact that the jeweler follows Swift on Instagram.
According to Forbes, the exact price tag of the ring is unknown, but one estimate had the number around $550,000.