How much did you pay for your wife's/fiancee's engagement ring?

[GeneralEmployer]

Foo en fuego once again.

Threak delivers.

 

[Piobaire]

What’s more of a joke: a bespoke diamond engagement ring or his-and-hers dental office lounge chairs from Costco (two for one!) arranged around a backyard fire pit?

 

[edinatlanta]

Pull an SFer's name out of a hat and you'll find someone who can't get laid.

You really think they're gonna get married? Y'all need to quit lying.

 

[Piobaire]

Foo en fuego once again.

Threak delivers.

Somewhere in Cyber Space we have GE:

 

[Piobaire]

My wife does not care about shiny things and that is one more reason to be with her.

Hmm, whatever happened to this guy?

 

[Jr Mouse]

Maybe we are just traditionalists, but in our families it would be considered very bad taste and in poor character to specify what sort of ring she wanted (or to even quietly expect a particular ring). Personally, I would not want to marry a woman who would either demand or scoff at any such gift, which she should know reflects my absolute best intentions.

How many close female friends have you had over the years? I've never met a girl who hasn't told me she would want to be a factor in the decision-making for the ring or in the least be able to point the guy in the right direction with hints. It's not about being demanding or scoffing at such an important gift. They have to wear these things for the rest of their lives.

I get that you both are traditionalists and may come from traditional families but I'm not sure that's the best approach for most guys.

 

[double00]

a really interesting convo. a lot of latent expectation involved, plus the usual considerations of material & consumer ethics

 

[otc]

a really interesting convo. a lot of latent expectation involved, plus the usual considerations of material & consumer ethics

I used to know a girl who would see someone's engagement ring for the first time and be like "Oh, so pretty. Is it a blood diamond?"

 

[TheFoo]

How many close female friends have you had over the years? I've never met a girl who hasn't told me she would want to be a factor in the decision-making for the ring or in the least be able to point the guy in the right direction with hints. It's not about being demanding or scoffing at such an important gift. They have to wear these things for the rest of their lives.

I get that you both are traditionalists and may come from traditional families but I'm not sure that's the best approach for most guys.

Yes, I realize many women want to have control/influence over the ring. That doesn’t make the practice any more tasteful or any less cake-and-eat-it-too — “I’m a traditionalist insofar as you should buy me a ring but I’m progressive in that I should get to pick it out.” If one really wants to do away with tradition, there shouldn’t be an engagement ring at all, which I totally respect.

 

[TheFoo]

I used to know a girl who would see someone's engagement ring for the first time and be like "Oh, so pretty. Is it a blood diamond?"

Sounds like a real piece of work.

 

[WestLinn]

What’s more of a joke: a bespoke diamond engagement ring or his-and-hers dental office lounge chairs from Costco (two for one!) arranged around a backyard fire pit?

Do I have to answer right away or can I give it a bit of thought?

 

[WestLinn]

To answer the original question, I've given over 30 years of making dinner most nights, first for her and then for her and the kids. I've also given a lifetime of listening to her ventings on her day as well as countless handiman jobs around the house, lawn-mowings and other chores that needed to be completed. And those are just starters. Oh, and there was a ring in there. I won't say the size, but it is not small nor is it something that grabs attention from across the room. It was paid for with cash with the help of a loan from a family member that was repaid quickly. In all honesty, I have no recollection what I paid for it and thus couldn't even attempt to perform a TVM to say what it would have cost me today and don't know the specifics of the diamond to compare what a current one would cost today (have diamonds increased in price more than inflation over the years?).

All I know is that I've paid a price in dollars, time, energy and patience that has given back to me a priceless life. I hope she feels the same way. I think she does, but perhaps she would have been more happy with the blokes who hit on her after we were married. She stuck with me however, through thick and thin and I'm very grateful for this. Interestingly, I had four or five close friends get married +/- a year of my marriage and they too remain married to their girls after all these years. We are either all quite lucky or birds of a feather.

 

[GeneralEmployer]

How many close female friends have you had over the years? I've never met a girl who hasn't told me she would want to be a factor in the decision-making for the ring or in the least be able to point the guy in the right direction with hints. It's not about being demanding or scoffing at such an important gift. They have to wear these things for the rest of their lives.

I get that you both are traditionalists and may come from traditional families but I'm not sure that's the best approach for most guys.

Yes, I realize many women want to have control/influence over the ring. That doesn’t make the practice any more tasteful or any less cake-and-eat-it-too — “I’m a traditionalist insofar as you should buy me a ring but I’m progressive in that I should get to pick it out.” If one really wants to do away with tradition, there shouldn’t be an engagement ring at all, which I totally respect.

Women want you to know exactly what they want, and then to get it without them having to even indicate it (though there will be plenty of prior indications before you arrived at this moment). If you let the women pick out the ring, either directly or indirectly, you've lost. Game over. I've been married four times, so I know about these things.

To answer the original question, I've given over 30 years of making dinner most nights, first for her and then for her and the kids. I've also given a lifetime of listening to her ventings on her day as well as countless handiman jobs around the house, lawn-mowings and other chores that needed to be completed. And those are just starters. Oh, and there was a ring in there. I won't say the size, but it is not small nor is it something that grabs attention from across the room. It was paid for with cash with the help of a loan from a family member that was repaid quickly. In all honesty, I have no recollection what I paid for it and thus couldn't even attempt to perform a TVM to say what it would have cost me today and don't know the specifics of the diamond to compare what a current one would cost today (have diamonds increased in price more than inflation over the years?).

All I know is that I've paid a price in dollars, time, energy and patience that has given back to me a priceless life. I hope she feels the same way. I think she does, but perhaps she would have been more happy with the blokes who hit on her after we were married. She stuck with me however, through thick and thin and I'm very grateful for this. Interestingly, I had four or five close friends get married +/- a year of my marriage and they too remain married to their girls after all these years. We are either all quite lucky or birds of a feather.

This sounds absolutely nightmarish. Of course Pio eats this third-rate Paddy Chayefsky slop right up.

More Foo. More RSF. I want my real stories. In this story the ring doesn't even exist in the author's mind as a tangible object!

 

[GeneralEmployer]

@Omega Male

 

[RSS]

My mother wore her wedding band and a few relatively simple jeweled settings. She had several very nice jeweled rings (from her mother and grandmother), but they rarely saw the lights of evening ... and she never wore them by day. One night as she and my father were leaving for a New Year's Eve party party I asked if she was going to put on her "ring". She responded that she didn't like to call attention to herself.

To this day my father claims he was fortunate to have found her.