I liked the one where they show the couple’s first Xmas together, and she said he bought her a stuffed reindeer. Then he gives her the diamond necklace and says, “Better?”
Well, not to me! I’d a million times rather have something like a cute little stuffed reindeer. Or hell, some costume jewelry.
Those necklaces are sooo…plain. And yet they cost so freaking much!
Dude, get me a unique bracelet from the 1928 Jewelry Company, or something like that, and THEN I’ll give you the DeBeers style reaction.
But if you spend (read: waste) your money on just one little rock on a chain, I’m gonna be, well, underwhelmed. Because it’s not about money. In fact, my ideal gift would be a book. Or sewing and embroidery supplies.
If you want to get me something expensive, get me an antique piece, or vintage clothing, or one of my collector dolls and stuff. Not a little stone on a string.
“If you don’t spend at least 2 months’ salary on a ring, you’re a cheap bastard who’ll probably be caught murdering kittens. And a Merry Christmas from DeBeers.”
:: runs out the door, around the building, in through the back door, and gets back on topic ::
My brothers and I have our grandmother’s 15th anniversary diamond solitaire ring, for the first one of us who wants to use it as an engagement ring. So we get to play the “family heirloom” angle.
My girlfriend recently told me (taking great, great, far-greater-than-necessary pains to tiptoe around the “engagement” subject, which I thought was cute) that she wouldn’t want a diamond either.
I wonder what DeBeers would think of it: the fact that she loathes their product as much as I do makes me love her even more?
She really hates that commercial with the guy shouting “I love this woman” (as do I). Wow, is that commercial demeaning to women. I haven’t been around one woman yet who’s seen that commercial and not been insulted by it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who is overwhelmed by the Buy. Diamonds. Now. advertising that goes on during the holiday season. Furthermore, I’m heartend to know I’m not the only woman who prefers a partner who buys little cute gifts and screams “I love you” in a plaza over one who lives by the two-months salary rule.
For the women lured in by the “ooh, shiny” aspect of diamonds: Is a cubic zirconia good or any of the other diamond substitutes available today? Or is there still a cache to having a real diamond?
Diamonds are UGLY.
IMHO, I think that diamonds are overrated and just plain ugly. Anything gold with a diamond setting, just turns me off. The fact that anyone can buy a diamond alludes to the dissipation of a status symbol purchase. My SO bought me a silver/garnet ring for 6 bucks and it was beautiful! Unique (setting and style) and gorgeous. I would be offended if he bought something with a diamond. It would say to me, “I consider you commonplace, not worth the effort.”
Diamonds are simply not a thing I desire, I have never liked them. Call me odd, strange, weird… I don’t care. I just hate diamonds. They do, however, make for a great refracting lense for those 1920’s style Death Rays, so I’ve heard…
Are diamonds passe? It’s hard to say, really. A fairish number of women go for non-diamond engagement rings, but there’s still a hell of a lot of women who are in awe of the boring-ass things. For every woman like me who’d rather have anything else, there are five or ten who won’t settle for anything else.
Like them or loathe them, diamonds still carry a certain symbolism in our culture. They’ve gotten ingrained into our psyches as part of how love and marriage are supposed to go. It’s just the way things are done, like the double envelopes on wedding invitations, and the big puffy white dress and the honeymoon in the Bahamas. Even women who don’t normally care for diamonds or fancy dresses or formal invitations go for it, because that’s how the fantasy goes. As with all other aspects of love and romance, there are some who don’t buy into the hype and do something else that works better for them.
My fiance, ** Emofkuniv**, and I got engaged in November - we did it sooner than planned because we were so excited, it was killing us to keep it a secret. I didn’t expect the ring until March (as planned) but he surprised me with a diamond ring on the day he asked my Father for my hand in marriage (he’s a sweet, old fashioned lovable man!).
Its a four stone diamond ring with gold and white gold but isn’t your regular soltaire, which he knew I didn’t like. The setting is very unusual but fantastic (the darling picked it himself and had several sleepless nights wondering if he’d chosen the right ring - btw he did!).
Whilst I don’t think diamonds themselves are passe, I do think there’s not much choice in the settings. They are beautiful stones which can look absolutely incredible with the right setting and metal. However, they can look cheap and gaudy with the wrong setting.
I adore my ring - not just for the diamonds but for the symbol and the promise of an incredible future neither of us had hoped to dream of before we met each other.
In the end of the day, I think its a matter of personal taste and what makes you happy - my ring is perfect for us (it has several features of the cut and setting and number of stones that means something special to us both).
If you go to a wedding message board you’ll find that most women there still want a diamond. On one end of the continuum are women who don’t want a ring at all, or who prefer a different kind of stone and, at the other end of the continuum are women who demand a diamond and a great big one at that. In the middle are the majority – who want a real diamond of whatever size. Many of those in the middle, BTW, plan to “upgrade” later. So I certainly wouldn’t say diamonds are becoming passe – at least not among women who frequent wedding message boards.
Me, I prefer colored stones. I do not like synthetics, but have no preference for “precious” over “semi-precious” stones. My favorite gemstone is an opal (also my birthstone), but I like anything with some color. Given the choice between a diamond tennis bracelet and a similar style of bracelet with multi-colored stones (I’ve recently seen a really pretty one with blue and amber topaz, peridot, garnet and something else), I’d much, MUCH rather have the colored one – even though the colored one was a fraction of the price of the diamond. Actually, if I was really given the choice, I’d rather skip the bracelet completely and use the money to buy books! When I was making up my Christmas list this year I included a list of around $200 worth of books – my husband, BTW, had a ‘budget’ of $300 to spend on me. He said, “You won’t be getting any diamond earrings this year if I buy you all these books.” I replied, “You know I’d rather have $200 worth of books than $200 worth of diamonds.” He likes diamonds, though, or at least the idea of them – he thinks diamond jewelry a “proper” kind of Christmas present for a husband to buy a wife. So we’ll see what I end up with under the tree.
As for the (not uncommon) notion that a man has to produce a ring in order to signal that he is “serious” about a proposal – that’s ridiculous, IMO. I didn’t have an engagement ring when I was married. We knew I was going to be staying at home with our children, so we used what would have been the engagement ring money to pay off bills and save up a nest egg in preparation for living on one income. My husband felt kind of bad about it (it is “proper” to have an engagement ring), but I didn’t care. For our 10th anniversary he designed a ring for me (a diamond in the center and our birthstones to one side and the kid’s birthstones to the other). It’s very pretty, but I only wear it when we’re going out – it just gets in my way. Anyway, I knew he was “serious” about the proposal because he went ahead and married me shortly thereafter and has stayed married to me ever since. I guess that’s serious enough! That said, the idea that the ring marks the seriousness of the proposal does seem alive and well on the wedding message boards, where there are a number of women who are planning to be married (even to having dates set and dresses chosen), but don’t consider themselves “officially engaged” because they don’t yet have the ring on their finger. Some of these women (and, remember, many of them are actively planning their weddings) are eagerly anticipating a fancy proposal of some kind, at which point the rock will be presented and the “official engagement” begun. :rolleyes:
I didn’t get a diamond for Mr. Sultana because I couldn’t afford one.
Also, it didn’t go with his eyes.
Hey, when you do the proposing, you get to make these decisions.
Some weeks after I actually proposed to my wife, I bought her a $3 trinket ring at a street-corner stand.
I was still broke when we got married, and her parents decided she needed an expensive ring, so they went out and bought her a diamond. To tell you the truth, I can’t even remember if I put any money towards that at all.
Both the diamond and car-buying commercials sicken me.
The commercials don’t bother me any more than any other commerical. The commericals bother the people who don’t like diamonds. Just as commericals for donuts bother people who don’t like donuts. I like diamonds. If I ever get engaged again (which is highly doubtful) I will want another diamond ring. No, I won’t use the one from my first marriage.