Rings - Shiny and Bright. What is the story behind yours?

[Familia]

My favorite topic.  Jewels!  (Long story)  But, I want to know about yours -- specifically engagement rings.  

My ring is a traditional diamond on a pretty gold band.  The band is thin, ridged, and comes together under the diamond like a ribbon.  It is delicate, just like my husband likes jewelry.  

We did not look at engagement rings together, as I wanted to be completely surprised upon engagement even after five years of dating.  He used an antique pamphlet diamond purchasing guide that had belonged to my late father to investigate before his purchase.  I do like that it is a stand alone ring, as I can take it off for cleaning and be left with a nice band.  

Our bands we did choose together at a small out of the way jeweler in a bohemian part of town.  Simple, but nice scrollwork on each.

Tell me about yours...

[Tap]

A boring story here. We planned our wedding in a week.  We were poor and I was pregnant. Someone offered us a set of used rings for a few hundred dollars. We agreed and I wore them for about 10 years, because, well, that is what you do. It was a tiny center stone with a  second ring that creates a crescent of chips around it. When the chips started falling out, I took it off and never put it back on. Dh offered to fix it but I never liked the ring in the first place, and it had no sentimental value (since it wasn't picked by us) so I didn't want to spend money to fix it.  I haven't wore a ring since...that was 24 years ago.  

 

I was going to have the center stone turned into a a diamond pendant (for a necklace) for dd19 for a wedding present, but timing didn't work out, so I still have it.  Then I was going to have the gold turned into something for ds's future wife. I will still follow through with this plan, but it won't be for wedding gifts, just sentimental gift..  I have a different present in mind for dd11 (biologically my great niece), which involves a ring from my mom, who had dd11 for the first 5 months of her life. 

Edited August 14, 2018 by Tap

[Familia]

14 minutes ago, Tap said:

I was going to have the center stone turned into a a diamond pendant (for a necklace) for dd19 for a wedding present, but timing didn't work out, so I still have it.  Then I was going to have the gold turned into something for ds's future wife. I will still follow through with this plan, but it won't be for wedding gifts, just sentimental giftsl.  I have a different present in mind for dd11 (biologically my great niece), which involves a ring from my mom, who had dd11 for the first 5 months of her life. 

I love the gift ideas.  (my timing is so often off...so what - surprises are the spice of life!)  Great to make it something sentimental after all.  Sentimentality is born from the love at its roots, so this use is sweet!

[BakersDozen]

My first ring was my mother's (she divorced but kept her gorgeous ring). My soon-to-be husband got it from her as we were throwing together a shotgun wedding (baby on the way). I have probably worn it a dozen times over the last 22 years as my fingers were swollen from pregnancy or I was afraid of losing it...again. It disappeared along with another ring for a few months and I lamented the fact that it would never be replaced (incredibly high quality diamond). Over Thanksgiving weekend my younger sister was visiting. She was in the bathroom and apparently unclogging the toilet when she yelled for me to get in there fast! I thought the toilet might be overflowing but instead saw that as she was using the plunger one of my rings had come up into the water! It was a cheap $5 ring but meant a lot to me. I had no hope of my wedding ring also being in the toilet but she kept plunging...and here it came! My toddler got hold of the rings and plunked them into the toilet where they got caught. That was the last time I wore my wedding set (1998).

I bought a new set on our 10-year anniversary. Went shopping by myself as I knew exactly what I wanted, found it at a jeweler's for a smoking great price. Pave setting and absolutely gorgeous. Big enough to wear on swollen fingers yet I've rarely worn it as once again I'm afraid of losing it or the diamond(s) falling out. Plus I was once admiring how it sparkled like light on snow which was fine...only I was driving on a busy highway and almost caused a bad accident. So it's safer stored away for now. I don't know if I am allowed to post a pic or not? ?

Edited August 14, 2018 by BakersDozen
Adding info

[Jean in Newcastle]

Dh did not give me an engagement ring. I do have a wedding ring around here somewhere but I do not wear it. 

[TXBeth]

I chose mine. We knew we were headed toward marriage and I knew he would choose something I didn't like. I hate big rings; they get in the way and scratch people. It took me a long time to fin what I wanted and I knew immediately it was the one. Tiny but complex rather than a plain band. The wedding band just added an extra little line around the side and is now attached.

I would post a picture but i can't figure out how to make the file small enough on my phone.

[Familia]

7 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Dh did not give me an engagement ring. I do have a wedding ring around here somewhere but I do not wear it. 

Curious, do you not wear it because you do not like jewelry, afraid to lose it, doesn't fit??  (I actually am not much into jewelry, just jewels!)

[Familia]

4 minutes ago, TXBeth said:

I chose mine. We knew we were headed toward marriage and I knew he would choose something I didn't like. I hate big rings; they get in the way and scratch people. It took me a long time to fin what I wanted and I knew immediately it was the one. Tiny but complex rather than a plain band. The wedding band just added an extra little line around the side and is now attached.

I would post a picture but i can't figure out how to make the file small enough on my phone.

Would love a photo!

If you email the photo to yourself, you can choose the size.  I always choose the smallest size (my phone automatically asks me the preferred size when I hit send on emails). 

[PeachyDoodle]

My engagement ring is a heart-shaped diamond solitaire on a plain gold band. Simple, but exactly what I wanted.

We did not go look at rings together, but dh knew what I had in mind. We were barely 19 and he'd worked two jobs to save up, but he still didn't have enough money. The lady at the jewelry store felt sorry for him and sold it for half price.

It's not fancy, but I have worn it every day and will never ever trade up.

[HomeAgain]

I don't wear one.  For years I had a job where it wasn't allowed, and then dh couldn't wear his at work, and then when we went looking for one we found that my fingers would require a custom made if I got anything other than a plain band, so.....
We wear matching necklaces instead.  They have three components wrapped into each other that are special to us but look like nothing to everyone else.

[Carrie12345]

No engagement ring.  I had one of those before dh and it didn't do much for me, lol.  Plus, dh and I were pretty much poor and were hoping to be able to pay our bills.  We do have matching gold/white gold bands that we picked out together.

Supposedly, dh's grandmother wanted me to have her rings, but MIL forbid it. I saw them for the first time a few weeks ago, and Oh Em Gee!!! They're incredible, gorgeous, and ridiculously expensive.  I admire them greatly, but can't imagine that I ever would have worn them on a regular basis anyway. They're impractical and I'd be terrified of losing something that cost a fortune. And they'd look silly with logo t-shirts and hoodies.

[JIN MOUSA]

My engagement ring is a three stone white gold Tiffany Lucinda setting (not actually from Tiffany, that's just the style), with ovals. Like this, but different diamond shape  https://www.diamonds-usa.com/products/engagement-rings/the-tiffany-lucida-replica-3-stone-diamond-ring-104360.aspx. My wedding ring is a plain flat band, same size as the band of my engagement ring. 

We went and picked out the rings together. I've recently discovered about myself that I like making choices. I'm not necessarily anti-surprise, but I'm not a fan of having choices made for me, and I'm especially bothered by the attitude of, "You should love this, because of XYZ." What about if I don't love it because I'm a different person than you are?

Anyways, tangent there. I wear my rings almost all the time (I'll take them off for kneading dough or painting or similar), and I think part of that is they feel special to me because I was involved in choosing them. 

[lavender's green]

The diamond in my engagement ring broke on our wedding day! It was also a day of extremely heavy rains and flooding of historic proportions. My in-laws' road washed out and they came home to an underwater basement. We got married outside in the 15 minutes or so that it wasn't raining that day. 

Back to the ring: we had the diamond replaced; it was under warranty, easy-easy, no cost to us. Later there was an issue with the band and that had to be replaced too, so my engagement ring is not the one I got engaged with or married with.

I usually don't wear my wedding ring. It's a diamond and ruby band, very pretty, but it's uncomfortable. Our moms both had their wedding and engagement rings refashioned into a new single ring for a major anniversary. Since there's a family precedent I may run it by DH one of these days...

[SamanthaCarter]

Apparently my mom advised dh to let me pick out the ring. His proposal was a big surprise to me, but my parents were privy. He actually bought the diamond and proposed with the diamond in a box, foolish man. We went straight to the jeweler for me to pick a setting. It’s very simple, platinum band with it think what’s called a tulip setting? It sits a little closer to the band than your average engagement ring. I wear it everyday. My wedding band is also  a platinum band, with LOVE NEVER FAILS engraved inside, same as dh’s. 

[JustEm]

Dh took my best friend to help him ring shop. She picked a ring that I would have hated! Thankfully, he knew my ring preferences better. He found one, came to my house, and scetched a ring. He scetched often so it was anything out of the ordinary for him to practice scetching specific objects over and over again. I saw him working on it and told him that was a ring I'd love to own. A few days later her went back to buy it. He was planning on waiting a few months before proposing but didn't make it passed the first hour of owning it.

It is three round cut diamonds next to each other on a white gold band, with two saphires set on the sides of the ring under the middle diamond

[zimom]

I am not a jewelry person at all.  I have an engagement ring that I picked out but it just never 'meant' a lot to me as again, it is just a ring.  My mother died when I was a teenager and long story short, it took a long time before her engagement ring made its way to me.  I CHERISH this ring.  I truly do not have any 'thing' that I have feelings for.  It is a beautiful diamond and sapphire/platinum ring that I know meant much to my mother.  I don't wear it daily as I have such a fear of losing it, messing it up, and again, I'm just not a jewelry person, so I save it for special occasions.  Most of the time I wear a simple white gold band or nothing.  

Edited August 14, 2018 by ZiMom

[TheReader]

DH and I picked out my engagement ring together, and as 1 - I don't like diamonds much, at all, and 2 - we were broke college students, my ring is an opal with a sapphire on either side (lab created, I think, on both) and we bought it at JCPenney in the mall for somewhere around $100, and I absolutely love it. Although, I've thought later of maybe one day swapping the sapphires for garnet, as opal is my birthstone and garnet is DH's; the symbolism of that would be nice to me. 

My wedding band we bought the night before the wedding (or maybe the week before??) at Walmart of all places, LOL! Bought plain, simple gold bands for both of us. Only, the smallest in stock size they had was a 6 and my ring size is a 4. As we didn't have time to size it, we bought it, tied it to my engagement ring for during the ceremony with a piece of curly ribbon, and as traditionally the wedding band goes behind the engagement ring (for whatever strange reason), I just wore it too big for, well, ever. We planned to get it resized after the wedding, but....:shrug:...never got around to it. 

In our time in Brazil I didn't wear either and instead wore a $15 "gold" and silver twist ring from TX Rennaissance Festival that we'd bought while dating; I'm currently wearing it as my band behind my engagement ring as it bugs me less than the 2-sizes-too-big one. Then I briefly wore a bronze carved ring we bought at a little gallery in a historic town in Brazil; it's two clasped hands and looks nothing like a wedding band, but I love it. I sometimes wear it still, especially if we're traveling or something. 

I did ask for a new wedding band last year for our 20th anniversary, but DH either didn't remember me asking, didn't believe me that's what I wanted, or just didn't know what to get, so no ring. Maybe for our 25th. 

[shawthorne44]

I love my engagement ring.  We shopped together.  We wanted a ring without a stone so that we could put a sapphire in it.  We wanted something non-standard but not weird.  So, as you can imagine, it took awhile.   Even online it was just more of the same.  

We drove several hours to the Gem Show in Houston.   For those of you with kids that might be ring shopping, tell them to go to a gem show!   There were a ton of jewelers there and everything had the little jewelry store tags on them.  You'd ask the real price and they'd get out the calculator and tell you 70% off what was on the tag.  

Even then it was a lot of the same thing.  My eyes had glazed over.  We found something that would have been tolerable, but I wanted to look at them all.  Later, I passed by THE ring.   The booth was a jeweler in the diamond district of NYC.  The band is several tiny intertwined bands covered with tiny diamonds.  DH was ready to pay, and I said "Wait a minute".   DH thought I was still being indecisive.  I negotiated a cash discount of an extra 10% off and no tax.  

Then we went and found a sapphire that fit the prongs on the ring.   Took about 10 minutes to find a nice stone.  

I have told people about the Gem Shows and how great they are.  Several people have said, "But if there is a problem, you can't go to a store to get it fixed."   I pointed out that at 70% off, you could buy three of whatever you buy and it would still be cheaper than buying from a store.  

 

[AmandaVT]

My engagement ring is my great grandmothers that was handed down to me, re-set into a new band. She had worn hers for so long that the gold band had been worn down to almost a thread. 

My wedding band is white gold with little alternating diamond and sapphire stones around it. Similar to this . I rarely wear the engagement ring, mostly because I am afraid to lose it or catch the diamond on anything. I will wear it on special occasions though. 

Edited August 14, 2018 by AmandaVT

[Frances]

I have a very basic simple engagement ring that we chose together. We almost got engagement bikes for each other instead. We both wear our very simple gold wedding bands, but I do not wear my engagement ring or any other jewelry.

[Dmmetler]

Mine is a very simple solitaire on a plain white gold band. I don’t like yellow gold-my skin tone looks green next to yellows. DH was in his senior year of college when he proposed. I wore just my wedding band for years because teaching young children tended to bend the posts. DH and DD got it refurbished for Christmas a couple of years ago. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

8 hours ago, Familia said:

Curious, do you not wear it because you do not like jewelry, afraid to lose it, doesn't fit??  (I actually am not much into jewelry, just jewels!)

I don’t wear it because I have autoimmune problems that cause my hands to swell without warning. I got tired of having my rings suddenly cutting off circulation. 

And I got out of the habit of wearing  things like necklaces when I had babies who would tug on them. Plus, now they would look a bit funny with my Mom uniform of t-shirts and soft flowy pants. 

[Loowit]

My engagement ring is white gold with a heart shaped diamond.  It is not the original diamond.  I lost the original when I was on a trip vising my brother ans SIL.  My wedding ring is a wrap that DH had specially designed for me.  It is white gold with sapphires and diamonds.  After the wedding the two wear soldered together.  I had to have it resized last year after losing weight and it kept slipping off.  I wear my ring all the time except when I take it off to make dough or other messy projects.

[EKS]

No engagement ring here.  And my wedding ring is a very simple gold band.

[kbutton]

I wear a plain gold wedding band. My engagement/wedding set didn't fit after kids, my fingers swell, I was worried about losing the stone, the stone sticks up, you name it. I am not much of a jewelry person when I'm doing housework and wrangling kids, and so I got out of the habit of wearing much jewelry since then. 

My set is kind of different though--I have a very high-quality white sapphire instead of a diamond. We knew someone that traveled overseas to a part of the world where they sold good quality stones. The jeweler that sold us the bands/setting tried to tell us it would look cheap, etc., but totally reversed himself when the actual stone came, and he got a look at it. 

The bands are yellow gold with white gold carving (not sure that's the right word) showing through. 

[Bambam]

I don't like rings, so I have an engagement necklace - is that a thing? 

We do have wedding rings somewhere, but I think we wore them a little bit and now they are somewhere. 

We struggle to remember the actual date we were married (because, for us, we are married, so the date isn't important - it is more of discrete thing). But, when I asked my dh how long we had been married, his brilliant answer was (and also covered up the fact he can't remember either), "Not long enough." He is a keeper!

[lynn]

When we first started looking dh was set on heart shaped.   We looked for a while we found an independent jewler who happened to have a gorgeous loose heart shape.  He set it in a pear setting which have it extra prongs to hold it.  I have worn it for 29+ years.I wear  y wedding band, engagement ring and 10 diamond anniversary band on my left hand.  And a very unique platinum/ diamond 15 year anniversary ring on y right.

[alisoncooks]

DH bought my engagement ring at a pawn store, and it was the fanciest ring his $200 could buy. Totally not my style. I got used to it and wore it until we had oldest DD (6 years later). Then it keep scratching her during diaper changes, so I put it away. Haven't worn it since. Put my wedding band away 4-5 years later because it was too small (weight gain). After 7-8 years of going wedding ring-less, I bought a cheap silver band on Amazon....but I never wear it because I've just gotten used to having naked fingers. :p

[G5052]

This was interesting to think about. DH and i are separated, and at one point he demanded that I take off my ring. He took off his.

A few days later when he was many states away again, I put it back on. I like it, and it was a symbol of something that was once happy. I know other women in my situation who immediately ditch the ring, but I'm still wearing mine for now.

[J-rap]

19 minutes ago, G5052 said:

This was interesting to think about. DH and i are separated, and at one point he demanded that I take off my ring. He took off his.

A few days later when he was many states away again, I put it back on. I like it, and it was a symbol of something that was once happy. I know other women in my situation who immediately ditch the ring, but I'm still wearing mine for now.

Your story touched my heart.  Thank you for sharing.

[mmasc]

I have an emerald cut solitaire on a simple platinum band. I did not pick it out or have direct input with DH, but he had asked friends I worked with to get info for him. ? I only remember saying that I like simple, solitaire, and not yellow gold. DH picked out the perfect ring bc I love it. I wear mine every day and don’t ever want a different one. We did buy our bands together and I wanted a plain band and definitely not attached to my engagement ring. 

[Rachel]

I don’t have a special story but I thought I’d share about a different ring.

My (bio)mom gave my dad her engagement ring back when they divorced. It was a nearly perfect half karat solitaire. I always assumed one day I would end up with it but didn’t know what I would do with it as I haven’t had much of a relationship with my mom since I was a kid.

When each of us kids married our mom/stepmom gave us a piece of her jewelry to wear on our wedding days. When my brother got married she had the diamond from the solitaire made into a tie tack which he wore in his tie. He actually has a relationship with our bio mom so it was perfect. He has two daughters so I imagine someday he will pass it onto one of them. 

[Melissa in Australia]

I don't have an engagement ring. I do have a wedding band thought

 Since dh didn't give me an engagement ring my grandmother gave me a ring ( so nice of her) it is a gold band with a solid opal, 4 rubies on either side in a row along the band. it is beautiful. When Dh failed to give me a 25th wedding anniversary present this year then I had this ring restored and adjusted so I can wear it. 

 My mum also gave me her engagement ring from my father (he died when I was 3 and she remarried) (same reason as my grandmother ) a fairly large ruby surrounded by 8 diamonds in a star pattern wide gold band. I don't ear it much because it tends to twist around ( a bit lose) and is very uncomfortable when the diamonds are on the inside of the hand

Edited August 15, 2018 by Melissa in Australia

[gardenmom5]

more than the setting (which has changed three times.  the tiffany setting when it was new.  the custom setting dh had made.  the setting I got to chose. each with the same single stone.) - the fact I've lost it twice, and found it twice is a much bigger deal.

cleaning branches off my mother's roof after a storm - and it went over the edge.  I noticed it when I was driving home.   oh well, easy come easy go.  just a ring.  (I knew it would never be replaced.) we slowly went through all the branches and found it on the driveway.

the second time was nothing short of a miracle it was found.   I was removing (something) from an area where we were having a dump truck full of dirt dumped, and to be pushed around by a bulldozer. (and then basalt rocks)  there was a lot of foot high dead grass.  I had some time to look through it before the work was done, but I wasn't 100% sure that was where it was lost.  never found it. months later, dh was digging a trench for a rockery wall, and after digging down - had just barely skimmed the surface of something shiny. . . . and there it was.

believe.  always, believe.

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by gardenmom5

[Amber in SJ]

Ring #1  My Dh & I have completely different tastes in jewelry.  Actually we have very different tastes in everything.  We got married pretty young and I told him I wanted something small and plain.  I was working at a preschool at the time and my hands were always in playdough, or paint, or slime, when they weren't at home in bread dough or making meatballs.  He took his mother ring shopping for me because the woman has more jewelry than any one human being should so he thought he would know, and got me the opposite of what I wanted, so I was taking my ring on and off 50 times a day just so it wouldn't get gunky.  90% of the time it went into my pants pocket.  When we got married I told him I didn't want my wedding ring attached to my engagement ring, because the band was plain and I could wear that one alone and leave the other ring in my jewelry box.  I can't sleep with rings on so my wedding band was always on the ring stand on my night stand, and to be honest I forgot to wear it to work about 50% of the time.  At the time we were living in a rental owned by Dh's grandparents.  Around our 1st anniversary my MIL wheedled a key out of the grandparents, went into our bedroom and took my wedding ring & engagement ring to the jeweler and had them soldiered together as a "surprise!"  I was back to putting it into my pants pocket while doing gross things.  About two years after we got married it went into my pants pocket and the pants went into the washer & the ring never came out.  

Ring #2  MIL was aghast that I had lost my wedding ring so she gave me a wedding band that belonged to Auntie Gen.  I had never met Auntie Gen, because she had passed away before I came into the family.  Turns out Auntie Gen married her first cousin & was very abusive to her husband & kids & eventually committed suicide.  My MIL seemed to take great delight in telling me all the horrible details about how awful Auntie Gen was.  Dh's Grandma (Auntie Gen's sister) would cross herself and make the "evil eye" sign every time she saw me with the ring on.  I returned the ring to MIL.  

Ring #3  two years later MIL was still upset that I didn't care to wear a wedding ring and it got worse when I was pregnant.  She had a new ring made from the very nice diamond that came from the engagement ring that my FIL gave her (they divorced after Dh & I got married)and gave it to me.  Every time she saw me she would admire the ring and tell me she wished she hadn't given me the ring.  She also told me she wished she had never divorced my FIL because the man she ran off with turned out to be a cheater (shocker, I know) At the end of that pregnancy when I was too puffy to wear shoes much less rings, the ring went into my jewelry box for safekeeping and disappeared.  It was literally there one day and not there the next.  I have my suspicions due to the previous actions of MIL, but we just changed the locks without telling her and nothing was ever said.

Ring #4  By now we had been married for 5 years.  Dh really wanted me to wear a wedding ring.  I asked for another plain band.  He got me a band set with 5 diamonds across the top.  They are set almost flush, they don't have any scratchy bits or things to catch.  That is the one I have worn every day for the last 23 years

My parents had matching etched gold bands.  We lived on a ranch and one day my mom was feeding mash to a calf and her wedding ring slid right off her hand and down the calf's throat.  She followed that calf around for weeks but never found it.  My dad couldn't wear his ring for safety reasons so she had his cut down and wore it every day for the next 40 years, until she passed away in 2016.   Also when my little brother was in the 3rd grade he saved up $7 and bought my mom a sterling silver ring that had some flowers etched around the band and she wore that one every day as well for the next 30 years.

Amber in SJ

[laundrycrisis]

He asked me what stone shape I liked best (marquise) and bought the stone and presented it on a very plain band. Then we went together to pick out the setting I wanted. I didn’t like anything because they were all too delicate. I wanted a thick solid ring like a men’s ring as I am pretty no frills.  So we had one  custom designed. They sketched what I wanted, made a wax model for me to try, and then made the ring. It’s very heavy and plain, and I wear it every day unless I have a reason not to for safety or security.  The wedding band is thin, titanium, and so light it feels like plastic. I like the contrast between them. 

Edited August 15, 2018 by laundrycrisis

[gardenmom5]

41 minutes ago, Amber in SJ said:

Ring #1  My Dh & I have completely different tastes in jewelry.  Actually we have very different tastes in everything.  We got married pretty young and I told him I wanted something small and plain.  I was working at a preschool at the time and my hands were always in playdough, or paint, or slime, when they weren't at home in bread dough or making meatballs.  He took his mother ring shopping for me because the woman has more jewelry than any one human being should so he thought he would know, and got me the opposite of what I wanted, so I was taking my ring on and off 50 times a day just so it wouldn't get gunky.  90% of the time it went into my pants pocket.  When we got married I told him I didn't want my wedding ring attached to my engagement ring, because the band was plain and I could wear that one alone and leave the other ring in my jewelry box.  I can't sleep with rings on so my wedding band was always on the ring stand on my night stand, and to be honest I forgot to wear it to work about 50% of the time.  At the time we were living in a rental owned by Dh's grandparents.  Around our 1st anniversary my MIL wheedled a key out of the grandparents, went into our bedroom and took my wedding ring & engagement ring to the jeweler and had them soldiered together as a "surprise!"  I was back to putting it into my pants pocket while doing gross things.  About two years after we got married it went into my pants pocket and the pants went into the washer & the ring never came out.  

Ring #2  MIL was aghast that I had lost my wedding ring so she gave me a wedding band that belonged to Auntie Gen.  I had never met Auntie Gen, because she had passed away before I came into the family.  Turns out Auntie Gen married her first cousin & was very abusive to her husband & kids & eventually committed suicide.  My MIL seemed to take great delight in telling me all the horrible details about how awful Auntie Gen was.  Dh's Grandma (Auntie Gen's sister) would cross herself and make the "evil eye" sign every time she saw me with the ring on.  I returned the ring to MIL.  

Ring #3  two years later MIL was still upset that I didn't care to wear a wedding ring and it got worse when I was pregnant.  She had a new ring made from the very nice diamond that came from the engagement ring that my FIL gave her (they divorced after Dh & I got married)and gave it to me.  Every time she saw me she would admire the ring and tell me she wished she hadn't given me the ring.  She also told me she wished she had never divorced my FIL because the man she ran off with turned out to be a cheater (shocker, I know) At the end of that pregnancy when I was too puffy to wear shoes much less rings, the ring went into my jewelry box for safekeeping and disappeared.  It was literally there one day and not there the next.  I have my suspicions due to the previous actions of MIL, but we just changed the locks without telling her and nothing was ever said.

Ring #4  By now we had been married for 5 years.  Dh really wanted me to wear a wedding ring.  I asked for another plain band.  He got me a band set with 5 diamonds across the top.  They are set almost flush, they don't have any scratchy bits or things to catch.  That is the one I have worn every day for the last 23 years

My parents had matching etched gold bands.  We lived on a ranch and one day my mom was feeding mash to a calf and her wedding ring slid right off her hand and down the calf's throat.  She followed that calf around for weeks but never found it.  My dad couldn't wear his ring for safety reasons so she had his cut down and wore it every day for the next 40 years, until she passed away in 2016.   Also when my little brother was in the 3rd grade he saved up $7 and bought my mom a sterling silver ring that had some flowers etched around the band and she wore that one every day as well for the next 30 years.

Amber in SJ

i'm sorry you have such a mil. those sorts of stories on here are actually inspiring to me to be sure to be welcoming to my future children-in-laws.  my grandmothers were not good mils - and mine is nuts, though I've come to appreciate her.  (I did good with dsil . . hopefully that will continue.)

 

that is a super sweet story about your brother,

[J-rap]

My dh and I were anti-a-lot-of-things when we decided to get married, and thought the whole proposal part (it's up to the man to decide and the woman is supposed to be surprised??) seemed weird, and we didn't like too much materialism in general either.  So, no engagement ring, and just simple gold bands for wedding rings for both of us.  

At some point I lost mine, so I wore one of my grandma's gold rings that had a small jade piece.  (I still enjoyed a ring as a symbol of marriage!)  

But then on our 25th anniversary, my dh surprised me with a really lovely gold band with tiny diamonds throughout.  Nothing too showy, but really lovely, and an engraving on the inside.  And since then, even though I do still think the proposal part is strange, I'm more open to some of those traditions just for the sake of tradition and fun.  

Then, after a major event in our lives when I almost lost my dh, he gave me another gold ring!  This time just a simple gold band, to wear with the one with tiny diamonds.  So now I have two gold rings, and they both have a lot of meaning for me.  

The only other ring I've worn regularly was when my ds bought me a ring from a gumball machine after baby #5 was born!  (He was just 6.)  I wore it for years until it turned my finger black -- haha (cheap metal).  I still have that ring though.

 

[DawnM]

Sigh.  Mine is sitting in a drawer and needs the diamond secured and the ring resized.  It was around $1000 which was a huge amount to me.  It was actually an engagement ring but we didn't bother getting a band to go with it.  It is fine, I don't need a band.

I am just not a jewelry person at all.  If my husband gave me jewelry for any occasion I would feel it is a waste of money and would have preferred something else (a trip, a fun car, etc...)

We shopped for it together because I am picky and hate surprises.  

So, no big romanticized story behind my ring.  I honestly don't care much about it.  

[TheReader]

@Amber in SJ, I am so sorry your MIL is so horrid. ? Those are awful stories. 

But I love the stories about your mom and brother, and that your DH finally bought you the ring you love and wanted all along. 

[shawthorne44]

8 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

...cond time was nothing short of a miracle it was found.   I was removing (something) from an area where we were having a dump truck full of dirt dumped, and to be pushed around by a bulldozer. (and then basalt rocks)  there was a lot of foot high dead grass.  I had some time to look through it before the work was done, but I wasn't 100% sure that was where it was lost.  never found it. months later, dh was digging a trench for a rockery wall, and after digging down - had just barely skimmed the surface of something shiny. . . . and there it was.

believe.  always, believe.

I was once found my dad's wedding ring right before it was tossed, and it had been lost for months.  We were at my parent's and were planning on going to their gun club.    They were going to loan us guns for the range, and dad had combined the stuff from his gym bag (minus the smelly stuff) into the gun club bag because his gym bag tore.   So, I was digging through to see if there were enough in there.   Mom was standing nearby.  I counted "One gun.  Two guns.  One ring.   Three Guns."   It took mom a moment to register what I'd said.   Dad's ring had gotten jammed on that circle at the bottom of the deodorant.   The almost empty deodorant.   

[KrissiK]

Mine is pretty and I really like it. The metal is platinum, I’ve never been a yellow gold type of gal. The center stone is a single marquis cut diamond and there’s five small diamonds coming out in a straight line on each side. It’s a very clean, plain setting. The wedding band is thin and is welded to it. Then on our 10 year anniversary I got a wedding band of a row of diamonds set in white gold. Platinum had skyrocketed in price in 10 years. I love the way the whole set looks together.

[Rachel]

6 hours ago, KrissiK said:

Mine is pretty and I really like it. The metal is platinum, I’ve never been a yellow gold type of gal. The center stone is a single marquis cut diamond and there’s five small diamonds coming out in a straight line on each side. It’s a very clean, plain setting. The wedding band is thin and is welded to it. Then on our 10 year anniversary I got a wedding band of a row of diamonds set in white gold. Platinum had skyrocketed in price in 10 years. I love the way the whole set looks together.

Gold too!  We paid about $45 for my plain gold band and my husband’s was around $250. I’ve put on weight and due to the engraving on the inside don’t want my original band resized.  I thought I could inexpensively buy a new one. Last summer to get the same rings from the same jeweler was going to be $1000!

[madteaparty]

It’s an old European cut one. I don’t wear a wedding band, this one is it on that hand. On the other I wear a nearly 300 year old rose gold ring that was very crudely and primitively made and is not particularly elegant and has no monetary value whatsoever but it was my grandmothers  and hers before that and I’m terrified of losing it. It’s literraly the most precious thing I own. Neither comes off, ever. 

[Crimson Wife]

I have DH's grandmother's ring. It isn't the fanciest (1/3 carat solitaire set on a platinum band) but it means a lot to me that MIL was willing to give it to DH to propose with. At some point I would like to have it reset with another diamond the same size and a bigger sapphire in the middle. Something like this one. It's something we've talked about but haven't had the budget to actually do. Maybe for our 25th anniversary in 2023.

 

[Familia]

On 8/15/2018 at 8:14 PM, madteaparty said:

It’s an old European cut one. I don’t wear a wedding band, this one is it on that hand. On the other I wear a nearly 300 year old rose gold ring that was very crudely and primitively made and is not particularly elegant and has no monetary value whatsoever but it was my grandmothers  and hers before that and I’m terrified of losing it. It’s literraly the most precious thing I own. Neither comes off, ever. 

Your rose gold ring sounds amazing - I love heirlooms!

 

I am sorry for resurrecting this thread, didn't realize how old it was!

Edited October 4, 2018 by Familia
Resurrected thread apology

[Familia]

15 minutes ago, Margaret in CO said:

 And if ds and fiance ever message me today, I'll get to see their brand-new engagement rings! They're not fancy--they're broke. 

Aww!  Congrats!

[Spy Car]

I'm very fond of my wedding ring.

I'm not a "jewelry guy," in any measure, but I was (and still am) very much in love with the extraordinary woman I'd asked to be my bride. I wanted something very special.

Beyond plain bands, I saw things like Celtic designs (that while very cool, just weren't "me") or rings with stones (that were not "me" either), or alternative metals and finishes that didn't seem right to me either.

Then--one weekend--we traveled up to Santa Cruz. My betrothed and I spotted a quaint looking jewelry shop downtown and decided to pop in.

And there it was. My ring. A simple band, but one that was perfect. What made it special? It was made of 24k gold. The color and the weight were like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was "pure" and simple and beautiful. I could not imagine a better choice from the beauty to the symbolism.

As I inquired about the ring, I remembered that 24k gold is "soft." The jeweler explained this was true, but he mentioned that the ring had been through a special process of hardening called "annealing" that made the ring as hard as possible. He also said that to keep it looking good I'd have to treat it with some care. That made sense to be on a metaphorical level as well.

I love this ring. I remove it when doing rough work. I'm not one who is superstitious about such things. And it still looks beautiful.

Years later, I was in a boutique jewelry shop in Santa Monica when the goldsmith spotted my ring. He was surprised, as these are pretty rare, and he said, "I have the same ring." 

In contrast with me, he never removed his, and his trade kept him in constant contact with hard tools. It was scratched, and kinked, and battered to a very great degree, but it was still magical. He said he liked that the ring reflected his life and that the wear, and the kinks, and the dings added value as they reflected his journey.

Anyway, that's my ring story.

Bill

 

 

 

 

  

Edited October 4, 2018 by Spy Car

[MrsRobinson]

My story is that I hate shopping and hate making decisions so I wanted to be surprised! I trusted soon to be dh knew my taste and he did! 

Solitarre diamond with six prongs on white gold thin band. Thin wedding band that fits right up to the other ring. I have very small hands so I didn't want anything huge.

My other story is that my grandmother gave me her engagement ring when I turned 18. My grandparents have adopted a tradition of slowly giving their children and grandchildren the things they would have inherited from them anyway. They say they love seeing us enjoy it rather than being sad when we get it because they are gone. So I have the engagement ring and 5 years ago my grandfather gave me his beautiful cherry wood wall clock. It has beautiful chimes and I remember him lifting me up when I was small to wind it. It still smells like their house. Like fresh baked bread. ? 

I'll try to attach a pic of my grandmother's engagement ring because it's beautiful but very hard to describe. 

[Familia]

17 minutes ago, MrsRobinson said:

...My grandparents have adopted a tradition of slowly giving their children and grandchildren the things they would have inherited from them anyway. They say they love seeing us enjoy it rather than being sad when we get it because they are gone. So I have the engagement ring and 5 years ago my grandfather gave me his beautiful cherry wood wall clock. It has beautiful chimes and I remember him lifting me up when I was small to wind it. It still smells like their house. Like fresh baked bread. ? 

I'll try to attach a pic of my grandmother's engagement ring because it's beautiful but very hard to describe. 

 

I want to be a grandparent just as you describe, right down to the bread!  And, that ring is beautiful!!