# Cool alternatives to the traditional engagement ring? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 19, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141 "2005-04-19T22:40:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141/41 "2005-04-20T16:47:03Z")
**scout1222** & **calm kiwi** - I’m humbled by your kind words. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141/42 "2005-04-20T16:56:13Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Unless I’m missing a factor here, I don’t believe this is correct. Diamonds are harder than sapphires or rubies (which are the same mineral, but colored with different trace metals.) Emeralds are the softest of the major gemstones. Diamonds may be more _brittle_ in the most technical sense, but you’d have to do more than merely “whack” it to shatter it. It’d have to be a pretty concentrated effort. > > As a matter of fact, the highest end of the Moh’s Hardness Scale is defined by diamond, at 10. Corundums (sapphires and rubies) are at 9. I was referring to the brittleness of diamonds. I don’t know what I would need to do to shatter a diamond, but some sites I looked at seemed to think it was at least theoretically possible. Of course, I also didn’t want a diamond because it’s too conventional. So I was really only considering non-diamond stones. I ruled out garnets, amethysts, and a bunch of other stones that I like because they are too soft- I thought it was too likely that I could end up scratching them somehow. But my ring doesn’t normally come into contact with anything harder than a sapphire, so I figured the scratching risk wasn’t a problem with a sapphire. ---
**Author:** ![Shana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Shana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shana)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141/43 "2005-04-20T17:31:58Z")
Oooo congratulations **Stainz**! 🙂 Let us know what you decide to do! I have a 2 carat sapphire with 3/4 carat diamonds flanking it - set in platinum. I was never really a girly ring type, but when my husband surprised me with this I just fell in love with it. I liked that it was a little unconventional. Although it seems many on this board have had the same idea! Oh, and sapphires do tend to scratch a bit (I have a couple nicks on mine, which you can barely see, but still), so you have to be careful…but when the sun shines on them they just dazzle you with their brilliance. ---
**Author:** ![Iris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a5b964/32.png) [@Iris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iris)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141/44 "2005-04-20T18:15:03Z")
Congratulations Stainz! I’m also recently engaged. Edward The Head asked me to marry him last weekend at our swim meet where me met one year ago 🙂 I think he originally was hoping to surprise me with an engagement ring I’d never seen before, but we ended up picking out the ring together. I didn’t want anything too flashy, too expensive or just a plain solitaire, I wanted something original with an antique look and feel. I think it’s a gorgeous ring and somewhat non-traditional so I’ll try to describe what it looks like: there’s a 1/2 carat round diamond in the middle with rectangular-shaped sapphires on both sides. The setting is white gold and the band has diamond chips on the sides. I’m also a dunce when it comes to jewelry so I don’t know the correct terms for different cuts. Now we are thinking about designing our own wedding bands… ---
**Author:** ![amaranthine\_spirit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@amaranthine\_spirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaranthine_spirit)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141/45 "2005-04-20T18:25:21Z")
I didn’t want anything that stuck out when I got engaged, so instead my husband got me a necklace with a simple heart pendant set with small chip diamonds. It’s nothing fancy, but I love it. I wear it every day. My band is plain gold with a leaf and flower design etched in it, which sparkles in the sunlight. The best idea I know of is a friend of mine. She and her fiance just finished dental school. He bought her a bracelet with channel set diamonds initially. Now that they are formally engaged, she has a ring that converts to a necklace pendant. So when she is working, she wears it as a necklace, but otherwise, she can wear it as a ring. Very cool idea! ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141/46 "2005-04-20T18:28:23Z")
> [@Iris](#): > > I’m also recently engaged. Edward The Head asked me to marry him last weekend at our swim meet where me met one year ago 🙂 Congratulations! How wonderful! ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141/47 "2005-04-20T18:49:18Z")
I was only engaged for a half a day before we got married. I absolutely HAD to have an engagement ring. It is a diamond solitare with little baguettes on one side, and it snugs up to the wedding ring, which has baguettes that snug up to the other side of the solitare, forming a circle around it. Total cost: $600 Total smallness: Perfect for my small hands I would never trade up, but I would like an anniversary ring for our 10th. One of those three-stone numbers. But I can totally live without gobs of jewelry. It just aint’ me. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141/48 "2005-04-20T19:21:32Z")
My husband presented me with a tiny diamond solitaire on a thin gold band when we got engaged. He bought it in the pawn shop below his apartment, and apparently it was mined in Arkansas. Both these little factoids satisfy me deeply in some weird inarticulate way. Our fifth wedding anniversary is coming up in July, and there’s this _gorgeous_ black onyx necklace at the local jewelry store that I’ve had my eye on… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-alternatives-to-the-traditional-engagement-ring/300141.md?page=2)