Any chance that ring flowed down the river and out to San Francisco?:
You probably didn’t lose it with the box and all, though.
I never take mine off.
My Wife will sometimes take hers off when she is doing a triathlon (worried about losing it during the swim). But usually, we feel the safest place for the ring is on your finger (job requirements not-withstanding)
I take mine off to shower, or when I’m making something gooey (like meatloaf) with my hands. I also take them off when I’m sailing or doing anything else that could harm either the the rings or my fingers, like climbing up on the roof or up the mast. Oh, and I took them off before I went to the emergency room a couple of months ago, which was a real good thing as it turned out.
I really hate to take them off though, because that’s exactly how rings get lost. If they’re on your finger or tucked into your jewelry box, they’re a lot safer. And oh man, there would just be no end to the freakout if I lost either of my rings.
My original Wedding ring (gold) hardly ever came off. Except that one time. In the snow. Helping that one kid get his VW bug unstuck. The cold and wet made my fingers shrink and while I was shaking the moisture off my hands the ring flipped off…and right under the tire of the car, which then shot it out across the parkinglot. I found it, after a bit of a search. about 12% had been ground off by the spinning tire.
Since then, I switched to silver. I have three $17 silver celtic bands, incase I get one lost.
Now, it’s habit, every time I enter the garage to work, the band goes in my pocket…it doesn’t make sence to work around a lathe and losing your finger…then you lose both the ring AND the thing that’s supposed to hold it.
I used to work in the service department of a large jewelry store, and we’d have people bringing in their rings for minor repairs all the time; things like prong tightening, resizing, buffing out scratches. There were some women who would positively freak out when they realized this was not on-the-spot repair, and might take a few days or even a week. They just couldn’t be without their wedding ring for that long! Sometimes they’d even comment that their husband wouldn’t like it if they were to go without wearing it.
One time, a newly-married young lady came in to drop off her ring for something, and was nearly in tears when I told her it would be a few days. I always figured that some people think that they’re somehow not married if they don’t have their rings on.
One of the reasons I never took mine off was that I gained weight around it, and couldn’t take it off, after the first baby. It was like banding a tree: the ring was never tight on my finger, it always turned freely, but my finger got so plump it was impossible to remove the ring. Several times, much to my annoyance, it attracted the attention of doctors who were supposed to be doing better things, like tending to my child. They would stop, and ask if it was tight…I’d have to demonstrate how it rotated freely. The only time I ever got any irritation under it would be when I was peeling oranges…the acid would really irritate it, so I learned to always wash my hands after peeling and before eating an orange. Other than that…no problems. And even before I gained weight, I never really felt much need to take them off…they were comfortable, and if anything got stuck in them I could spend a pleasant time with a toothbrush or a straight pin and clean it out.
I think the anxiety might be more for a loss of the stones by having them leave their sight. I’ve hears a lot of anecdotal horror stories on people leaving their jewelry only to have the stones replaced with CZs.
Is it accurate? No. Are people still concerned when a huge chunk of their money is placed in the hands of someone else when there are folks out there that will take advantage of their ignorance in jewelry? Yep.
Yeah, we had a few people express fear about having their stones switched, but the attitude I detected was more, “I can’t be without my ring! No one will know I’m married!”
There were more than a few women who would go and buy a plain gold band to have as a ‘back-up ring’, so they’d have something on their finger.
Mostly because I’ll lose it, and because it’s comfortable and doesn’t bother me once it’s on. It’s just there, and I can’t feel it until I take it off, then I feel weird–like glasses, y’know?
S’funny, I’ve never been good lookin’ enough to have to worry about ‘not looking married’.
I only take mine off to stick it up my nose. 
Actually, I rarely take it off. Mostly either to clean it, or when doing something like lifting weights or raking or making hand-kneaded biscuits. Himself wears his when he leaves the house, but takes it off as soon as he comes home.
I take mine off all the time. In fact, I probably have it more off than on.
I inherited my mom’s and grandma’s wedding rings, and like to wear them too.
On top of all that, I have a great deal of sentiment attached to the antique promise ring my then-boyfriend-now-spouse gave me many years ago.
So these days I just kind of mix and match.
I did once have an incident with the wedding ring going down the bathroom drain (it was retrieved), so I take proper precautions.
Shortly after I informed my co-workers that my wife and I were getting a divorce, I stopped wearing my wedding band. There was a brief period after that when I wore it (her dad visited and she hadn’t told him yet). So, the only ring I wear regularly now is my lapis ring which is a memento of my trip to Egypt. I wear it as my regular attire when I’m at work, so it goes on in the morning and comes off when I get home, same as my watch.
I have a modest engagement ring and a wedding ring that is a ‘guard’ style which fits around it, so I have to wear them as a set. I think we paid less than $700 total for both in 1998. I don’t have a huge emotional attachment to my wedding rings, but I have a habit of keeping my stuff nice. 
So I really only wear my rings outside the house. I take my rings off as soon as I get home to avoid getting them in cleaning solutions or losing them down drains or in the garden. I don’t wear my rings outside the house if I’m doing something grungy, like my weekly volunteer shift at the dog shelter. I’ll leave my rings at home if I know that they’ll be safer there, i.e., going in for an outpatient medical procedure or something like that. You figure out what you’re comfortable with after a while.
I took my engagement ring off whenever I was doing something that would get it dirty, and it didn’t match my wedding band, so I never could wear them together. I wore my plain wedding band all the time until I got pregnant (about six years into the wedding) and my fingers swelled. I realized then that I didn’t like the line on my finger that didn’t go away for months, so I pretty much stopped wearing it altogether then. When my husband commented on it I told him that the ring didn’t make me married, so don’t worry about it. Heck, we only paid $26 for it.
My engagement ring is soldered to my wedding band, and they are both kind of chunky and sapphire (not quite as tough as diamond) AND I have sensitive skin that reacts to metals, so I basically wear it in public and that’s it.
I take it off:
–first thing when I come home from work
–when I am exercising
–when I’m doing something gross
–anytime it might get damaged
I think of it as a public symbol, not necessary in the house. But it is a requirement any time I leave the house – I LOVE my ring, I just can’t wear it all the time.
I got engaged in April 2006 and at first I took my ring off a lot - to do chores, to sleep, to take a shower, etc. Eventually I became more comfortable with it and began to wear it constantly. I keep a toothbrush next to the kitchen sink to clean it up after cooking - dish soap works quite well keeping it clean, and I use Formula 409 every now and then to really make it sparkle. After the wedding I got to the never-take-it-off phase. But I finally took it off about 6 weeks ago, when I reached 6 months of pregnancy. I didn’t want to have to risk having it cut off. Now it is in a safe place until after the pregnancy. My hand feels NAKED.
I usually only take mine off when I’m putting on lotion, and then put it right back on. It took me awhile to adapt to the engagement ring, as I’m left-handed and didn’t often wear rings on my left hand before that, and I took it off at night for probably about the first month I had it.
After a size issue right after the wedding where his ring nearly flew out the window on the highway, I’ve only seen DH take it off after playtime with one of the dogs - for some reason, when they’re playing tug, he almost always ends up with the side of that finger connecting with a tooth and swelling up. Not a bite, just impact.