Wedding rings (engagement)

@ Erin that sounds great! We did Jamaica, Mexico, grand cayman, Canada, and Florida this year! As well as the local(ish) beach for a week. I LOVE vacations and they are just so healthy! I can not wait for our honeymoon. Not planned yet but I know it will be great lol he want Fiji but idk about that. Way too expensive

A friend of mine is in Fiji right now and she LOVES it. She said it just incredible and the people are so nice.

@SummerM You didn't offend me at all! I was just saying that I didn't inquire further about the cost of the ring because I am confident that I have enough insurance to cover it already in case of theft, etc. and the premium isn't worth it. It can be replaced (or not). I was trying, and clearly failing, to say that I wasn't being judgy or something about people paying attention to the cost of their rings.

FH got some sort of warranty for fixing it if something happens to it. Plus, a year from now I won't be wearing it anymore

Oh okay @AQuixoticBride. I was confused for a moment lol yea I have heard many stories of lost rings and such and that's just terrible. FH took three months to finally get my insurance and both me and his mother were always asking "did you get it yet" lol I want mine to be resized but I'm scared to damage it. What's happening in a year?

@erin wood. That sounds great! FH wants to stay in a villa over the water lol idk who's paying for that though! It's a couple thousand a night and I can not justify that.... unless we won the lottery then what's a 20,000$ honeymoon haha

@AQuixotic- why won't you be wearing your ring in a year?

@ErinWood I'm getting married! I'm not wearing the engagement ring after we get married. I never planned to.

I wanted a diamond but not a traditional setting. My fiance custom designed a twisted hand engraved roping band with half as small diamonds and half the roping. I have a princess cut .33 carat diamond and it cost $2100, we had set our max budget at $3000 so I was shocked to find out he didnt go over with all the custom work!

I really wanted a moissanite or a sapphire, however FH was like "nope, you're getting a diamond" - I think he was concerned about the opinions others might have such as "oh he couldn't afford a diamond", even though good gems are sometimes more pricey than diamonds. He was also worried about wear and tear over time and that diamonds are the hardest stone etc. he ended up resetting my grandma's .45 carat diamond from 1966 which I adore.. I believe the setting was right under $1k. So all in all we made out like bandits as it is truly a beautiful ring, and very sentimental

@FutureMrsAF my FH was the same. I wanted a gemstone ring (Sapphire or moissanite) but he was concerned people would think it was because he couldn't afford a diamond. He also thought diamond solitaire was "plain" so I ended up with a rose gold diamond Halo. He spent $1500 on my bridal set which I feel was too much lol! But I love how much my ring sparkles and the rose gold. I just ordered FH a titanium ring but his permanent ring will be gold (I just got to convince him to go with gold).

Here's the complete set

Nontraditional or non diamond does not mean non expensive. I accidentally found the receipt to my ring, it is emeralds and sapphires in 18k gold, and it was definitely not cheap. Fh could have bought me a very nice diamond for what he spent.

I didn't want diamonds for my engagement ring. Fh knew this, as I have been saying it for years. I wanted something that was unique. He designed my ring, which makes it special <3

My ring is a sapphire with small diamonds surrounding it. It was FMIL's from her marriage to FFIL (they are divorced) so FH didn't have spend any money. He did think he was going to have to get it resized after he stole one of my rings and took it to a jeweler. Luckily, his mom reminded him that I wore that ring on my middle finger and stopped him before he did it.

He told me, right after he proposed, that he had considered having the sapphire replaced with a diamond. He was shocked when I told him no. Since he proposed with the sapphire, that is what I want to keep. I love the uniqueness of my ring. I don't think it has to be only diamonds, not that there is anything wrong with that.

He did also tell me that a few months before he proposed, he decided to look at rings at jewelry stores, just to see what was out there. He was in absolute sticker shock. He had no clue rings could be that expensive.

My ring is "traditional" . That's what he wanted and during dating I had asked him to buy a "forever ring": I don't like the idea of upgrades at all.

Wanted something sturdy

It's funny because people said that they like when people use their or their FH birthstone... but we are both April birthdays

Ethics is hard, from the meat we eat to clothes we wear to jewelry

I never wanted a diamond. Aaside from the ethical issues surrounding how they are mined, I also didnt want to support the cartel or their inflated pricing. Plus, diamonds are more brittle than other stones; ita a side-effect of their hardness. After some research, I got a moissanite, which is almost as hard, less brittle, and has a higher refractive index (i.e. its sparklier). I love it and get tons of compliments on my ring abd wouldnt change it for anything! Plus I love that moissanite was originally found in meteors!

I didn't want a diamond as the center stone. I love blue sapphires and loved that I got to pick the shade and shape. (We went shopping together) I believe it was around $****.

I wanted a colored stone because I've seen so many diamond rings and they all start to look the same after a while and the fact that I'm artsy I wanted different. But for both my ring and wedding band I think it was a little shy of $2000 though originally I told him his budget was $300 lol.

This is my ring. It's different and I love it!!! My E ring is a pair shaped sapphire the was his grandmas

My step-moms ring was a sapphire flanked by 2 diamonds and it was not cheap. Like 9 times more expensive than my old 1.5 carat solitaire :p. While FH is concerned about practices surrounding mining diamonds (something I didn't really pay much attention to until we talked about it, honestly), I had a standard diamond in a previous broken engagement and I was secretly relieved to do something different/unique this time around. Just another way to separate from a painful memory. Simultaneously, for the past 2 years I've been on a conscious journey to be more authentic (I know that sounds lame but I've always been the good girl who blends in and doesn't ruffle feathers to the detriment of what I want/need/like), so I rather like being unique in this respect, too... Although when I went in for my 2nd dress fitting the girl right before me also had an aquamarine ring, our dresses were the same basic style, and we're getting married in the same month. She seemed cool hehe

My ring was $1,200. It was 70% off as the jeweler retired. He still cleans then and maintains them but at his own home. It is very unique, when I got it looked at to be resized (had to do it somewhere else as like I said in the statement above) I was told another diamond grew inside of my diamond!! How neat!! Engagement pic attached