For us, there was no big hoopla, no down-on-one-knee kind of thing.
We’d talked about marriage for a while, decided it was for us. I picked out a ring from a catalogue, we put the ring on layby in December. We both put money towards it. In conjunction with nagging from me, MrNinevah finally asked my parents if it was alright if we got married in January (this was right before they got in the car on their way to the airport for their holiday in Egypt). At this point, I still didn’t know when I was going to get this ring! By Valentine’s day, he’d dropped a big hint that I might get something special since I was getting a bit whiny and impatient about when it was going to happen.
Valentines Day was a hot, stinky day. He rushed to the jeweller after work 15 minutes before the shop closed, paid the final amount, the jeweller then couldn’t find the ring. Finally, the ring was located. MrNinevah was so exhausted and “over it” by the time he got home, he pretty much threw the ring box at me, saying “here you go” and collapsing on the couch.
Don’t think I didn’t dine on that story for weeks!
My wife and I thought that the whole 2-ring concept was kinda dumb, wasteful, and redundant. No engagement ring, just a (really nice) wedding one. Anyone who knew us knew when we announced we were getting married, so why bother?
I made a guess at the ring size, knowing it could be resized easily. I bought the stone and ring separately and had them put thogether. I could have goten a full refund on the stone, which was good, but not on the ring/setting, which was a very minor part of the cost.
Presented it to her at our Friday night boiled shrimp and salad (only thing I could “cook” at the time), leaning against a vase with a single rose in front of a card with a big question mark in front of it.
When she saw it, I got down on my knee and formally asked her to be my wife.
I did not buy my wife a ring at all…until recently. It is not a tradition in Cambodia, so we did not have rings. When we came to live in Australia, many people made such a big deal out of the fact that she did not have ring, I gave her a ring.
I am curious- why still a diamond in this day and age? CZ etc are impossible to tell from a diamond, unless you do tests at a jewelers. And, you can’t buy a diamond with (directly or indirectly) supporting genocide and the deBeers monopoly. Or, if you insist on a "reaL’s tome, then why not a saphire or emerald?
I don’t care personally how expensive my ring is - I’m not looking to resell it. I did work with a woman in her early thirties who once told someone on the phone that she wouldn’t marry a man who bought her an engagement ring worth less than $10K :eek:
this girl had an upper-middle-class upbringing and worked as a kindergarden teacher.
I got a sapphire in my ring b/c it’s my birthstone with two very small diamonds on either side of it. If I had a chance to order the stones separately I would have bought synthetic diamonds. AFAIK, the only way a jeweler can tell it’s synthetic is that it doens’t have any flaws.
Haha, yep. We were officially engaged as of April 16th, and the wedding is on Sept 30th.
It’s been too crazy with wedding plans around here for me to surf the dope much.
I’m enjoying the engagement while it lasts, because right now when he burns my toast or steps on my foot I can run from the room fake-sobbing “The wedding’s off!”
My wife and I discussed getting married in general terms before I ever proposed, what we liked what we didn’t like, etc., so I knew what kind of ring she wanted (easy! solitaire, round cut, plain gold band). I picked one out (the beauty here is that I had no money to buy a ring, so I got a loan. Isn’t the USA great? I just walked into a bank and they gave me money! And since we were living together she got to help pay for it!) and proposed. Nothing fancy, I was so nervous I could never have planned anything too elaborate. So, I interupted her studies (she had an exam the next day) when I got home from work. Oh, and I proposed on Valentine’s Day, original, huh?
My wife and I knew for a while that marriage was coming. We joked about it for months; when we talked about wedding stuff, I’d say, “Well, I haven’t asked you yet,” and she’d say, “Well, I might not say yes.” So, periodically we’d go shopping for rings, and finally, in a shop recommended by a friend of mine, she found The Ring, and The Stone to go in it. And the shop was really cool: not a chain, the owner was very friendly, and he’d just walk off leaving loose stones and rings on the counter for us to look at, instead of taking one setting at a time out of the locked case and standing right there like we were thieves.
So, she found the ring, but I was cash-poor, and she knew it. Secretly, I borrowed the money from my folks and bought the ring and stone. So, I already had it when I proposed, but she was very surprised, because she knew I didn’t have the money for it.
It’s the prettiest set I’ve ever seen, to be honest. Every now and then I ask her if she wants to trade it in for a solitaire, but no dice.
I proposed to my wife in nearly the Hollywood manner. I proposed on a beach with the ring in hand. I didn’t, however, get down on one knee.
We were living together, however, and I easily hijacked a ring to get her ring-size. Frequent shopping together also let me know what kind of stone she preferred (diamond marquis).
A trick for stealing a ring size. “Borrow” a ring for a moment and slip it over a finger. Mark how far down it goes on your finger with a ball-point pen. Get thee then to a jewelry store and try on ring sizers until one slides down to that pen mark.
