Did You Like/love Your Engagement Ring or Did You Fake It?

I was shocked with my engagement ring. It was an emerald. I love diamonds. and my husband does not.

However, I LOVED my ring because no one else had a ring like it. I ALWAYS got compliments on it. It was stolen from me in 2004 by our (former) cleaning ladies. We have yet to be able to find a replacement ring for me.

My husband bought me a pear-shaped diamond flanked with emeralds and I missed the color on my hand...so we are STILL looking for the right ring...hoping that the person who stole it eventually tired of it and is selling it...ahhh one can dream, right?

10 moms found this helpful

My husband and I designed it together so I will always love it.

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Until he broke his vows, I loved it.

Not because it was the perfect ring. In fact, it would be hard to choose a ring -style wise- that I liked less. But every time I looked down on it, or spun it around my finger... I felt warm and loved from tip to toe. Like a shot of whiskey, how heat radiates outward.

After he broke his vows (the first time)... Looking at it would choke me. After many times, I just felt disgusting wearing it. So I stopped. It lived in a martini glass for many years. Some times hoping, sometimes forgotten, sometimes with good riddance.

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I loved it... I helped pick it out!

He shocked me by popping the question the Sunday after Thanksgiving... I giggled and changed the subject!

When I was talking to him on the phone later in the week, (we lived in different cities.. he was still in college), I asked him if he wanted to come over this next weekend to do some Christmas shopping, and he suggested shopping for a ring..... so that is what we did that Saturday.. instead of Christmas shopping for family, we shopped for a ring for me!

So.. we picked it out together.... and we are STILL together, 31 years later!

It isn't a really big ring.... .14 or .16 carats, maybe.... but that fit our budget just fine... I didn't need something big and flashy. That just isn't my style.

I haven't worn my ring for a few years, though... it is getting tight, and we really haven't had the money to get it enlarged.....

ETA..... a few years later, when we were out of college, and hubby had a good job, he talked about getting me a bigger ring... I didn't want that, because I liked what we had picked out together..... it symbolized our commitment then, and now.....

9 moms found this helpful

I love mine! It's one of a kind, vintage art deco style. I'm terrified it will get lost or stolen, because we can't replace it. I don't usually like diamonds, but my ring is perfect

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I LOVED my ring. I had seen it at the store i worked at and had admired it. I had shown it to my boyfriend. We were very young.
I had never seen another ring like it and never have since then..

When he proposed he gave me that exact ring! I was thrilled.

And then 10 years later, it was stolen by our housekeeper, they also stole another beautiful custom ring my husband had designed and made..

I have never been able to replace either one and now we could not afford to replace it with a custom ring. Maybe at some point we will find a replacement, but the original is always in my heart.

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My hubby knew what kind I wanted. (Cut, style, gold - not white gold.) He went by that and he worked hard to pick just the thing he wanted to give me (and what, as a young man, he could afford.) Yes, I loved it. Fifteen years into our marriage I looked down one day after cleaning and bathing, and my diamond was gone, never to be found again. I didn't replace it for 4 years. Now I have a more "mature" ring (in my mind) with 3 diamond stones and a new wedding band with diamonds. I chose these along with him. And I try to get my rings checked every year by a jeweler since 6 years after buying the new band, one of THOSE diamonds fell out. Arghhh!!!

I cried my eyeballs out when I lost the diamond from my first engagement ring. It was the most sentimental. Now, I just don't want to have to spend the money to replace anymore diamonds! You can tell I've been married forever now LOL!

D.

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I absolutely LOVED mine! It was wonderful to receive it right away after he proposed. However, I did want more than the simple setting that he chose for the engagement ring (which I did NOT tell him--ever!). So, when we chose the wedding bands, I chose one that fit my fantasy wedding ring set, and it worked great!

With my first marriage, he didn't have the ring at the time of proposing, because he wanted to let me choose. I was in my mid-twenties then, and it was kind of a let down when people asked to see the ring. Even though he let me choose, I didn't feel comfortable speaking up for something different than what he suggested, anyway.

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I inherited my grandmothers engagment ring and wedding band so I used those. I loved the rings and didn't see a point in my husband spending any money on rings when I already had rings. He did buy me a promise ring that sort of matched my engagment ring.

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When I got engaged, there was no ring. I had even been known to say that I'd be married before I got a ring. We had planned a really short engagement. One day after work I went to his apartment, and he surprised me with an official proposal and a beautiful ring that I was completely shocked about. It was beautiful and perfect for me. It's less then 1 carat, but to this day...I stare at it with admiring eyes and thinking that he worked hard to get this for me and even harder to surprise me with it, and my love for him grows even a little more!

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Love it!
We talked a little about what I liked, tried on a few here and there, then my husband (tupical!) educated himself on stones and went on a mission! He bought a "WOW" sized stone, and had it set himself by a jeweler he knows.
In other words "He did good"!

Updated

Love it!
We talked a little about what I liked, tried on a few here and there, then my husband (typical!) educated himself on stones and went on a mission! He bought a "WOW" sized stone, and had it set himself by a jeweler he knows.
In other words "He did good"!

7 moms found this helpful

Love mine - he had it made for me without my knowledge. He doesn't remember that I pointed a very similar one out to him earlier. To him, it was 100% his idea.

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Husband and I bought our rings together, on sale, from a going out of business jeweler. I picked my "wedding ring/engagement ring combo set" so I didn't hate it and didn't have to fake it.

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I did not have an engagement ring.
I have a $95 gold band around my ring finger that I got married with. It's been there for 10 years.
Do I wish I had something flashier? Yeah, I guess.
But I know when I look down at my hand that he loves me...he just doesn't have the money to buy me what I want.
Laura
*My parents got married at 19. My dad picked out a "gold" band from a Mexican market, in Mexico. It was $2. My mom wore that ring for 20 years until my dad got her a beautiful ring with 5 diamonds across the band for the 5 children they have together. She now wears that ring but still has her $2. That ring is what bound them together.

6 moms found this helpful

Love mine.
But then, he didn't pick it out exactly... I chose the setting I liked and then bought a stone to compliment it. Husband shopped with me for the setting, I made the final decision on it and the stone. (Long story, but my boss was close with a diamond broker who asked what I liked and what kind of price range, and he pulled out all the books for me to look at. I really didn't care all that much for any of the sets in them. I had seen a set I liked at an independent jewelry store who made their own settings, though, and when I couldn't find anything similar enough in any of the books, we bought the one from the independent jeweler. I took the setting to the broker and he put together some stones for me to look at that were complimentary for the setting-- marquise cut is what I wanted, so they were all different weight/carat/color/clarity of marquise cut stones). I chose the one that I thought looked best with the ring and the broker mounted it for us. :)

Still love it. And have never seen another like it anywhere. I get compliments on it whenever I have recently cleaned it, lol.

I don't plan on "upgrading" it either.

6 moms found this helpful

I told my husband that I wanted to pick out my own ring. He was happy to oblige because he was terrified he'd pick out something I wouldn't like. We picked out our rings together. I love my wedding/engagement rings! It is very unique. For our 10 year anniversary I got an anniversary ring that I picked out and love equally as much. Again, he was happy to let me pick it out. He got a new ring a few years ago as his was getting thin and worn. It's completely different than his original and he asked me to pick out a ring for him, but of course I made sure he loved it before buying it.

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I love my first engagement ring! It was a simple sterling silver band that was engraved with a favorite movie quote of my husband and I. I didn't get a diamond until we were picking out our wedding bands. I was not going to be able to wear my first ring along with my wedding band. It was small and cute and perfect. I wore them until I got pregnant with my third child. I developed an allergy to the metal and my fingers got so big I could not fit them. I kept trying for an entire year after she was born to wear them again but my fingers never shrunk back down and the allergy was permanent and got worse. So for our 15 year wedding anniversary my husband and I both got new wedding bands (it is important to both of us that they matched) and I got a new diamond. It's still very simple, bigger than the first and just the single diamond.
I love them all!

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my husband knew better than to pick out my engagement ring. He proposed with a flower and I found the ring i loved. I still love my ring.

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My now husband picked out 3 rings. He asked me to meet him for dinner and wanted to walk around the mall first. Since he can't hold in a secret to save his life, he told me he picked out 3 rings at 3 different stores. I ended up picking the Tiffany's signature classic ring; platinum solitaire. I love love love my ring and could never see myself upgrading it.

Personally I am a no flash kinda gal and would have been happy with a white gold band from Walmart. I even asked him to do that instead of Tiffany's.

The funny part is when he purchased it right then and there and pulled out a wad of cash. They locked down the store and had 2 security officers flanking us and the store manager. They counted the cash 3 times. And questioned why he had so much cash on him. For a long while we had a long distance relationship. He was working as a contract worker in which he worked nightshift 7 days a week, 14 hours a day for 6 weeks at a time. He worked this schedule while he was in the midst of moving back to Chicagoland from East Coast, so he didn't have a bank account yet.

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The ring my husband proposed with was almost exactly the opposite of what I wanted. I had hoped for something very delicate and filagreed with sapphires and diamonds. The ring I got is quite heavy and has a sapphire in the middle flanked by two diamonds. It's the classic three stone ring that everyone seemed to have about 10 years ago (mine came first!). My husband designed it himself and had a jeweler carve it in platinum, so it was special in that way - but completely not what I wanted. I faked enthusiasm and the ring grew on me over the next year. Now I can't imagine having anything else.

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I love my ring...after all, I picked it out ;)

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I've never had a diamond ring "sprung" on me. I picked out my first engagement ring, so I liked it, but it was nothing fancy or expensive, since we were still in college. For my second marriage, we picked out simple but beautiful gold bands, no engagement ring. I still love that ring and will keep it always even though we are divorced. After we were married, he bought us a very nice pair of diamond earrings, and we each went and got a second piercing in one ear so that we could wear one of the matching earrings each. We were never real traditional and this fit our relationship so well!

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I am one of the few that did not like the engagement ring that my husband gave me. I did fake it for years. The ring just was not my style - I thought the setting was ugly. A very modern style with a marqui shaped diamond. I prefer a more antique look. There was nothing wrong with the ring. I just thought the setting was ugly. I wore it for year to not hurt his feelings.

Then when I turned 30, my mother gave me her ring as a birthday present. My father had passed several years before so this was special. It was at that time that I was able to use the excuse to exchange the engagement ring for a wedding band that looked nice with my mom's ring.

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i liked it. it was a very small diamond, with sort of mirror-y things around it to try and make it look bigger. i'd have preferred just the stone (no need to try and create optical illusions around it, we were broke) but the fact that he got one at all under our rather dire circumstances was very romantic. pity i lost it camping years ago.
i hear ya on the CZ. they're beautiful, aren't they?
my dh has told me to find another one and we'll finance it if necessary. i haven't yet come across one that i'm excited enough to stretch us financially to get. i would kinda like one, though. part of me wants an untraditional stone like tanzanite, but part of me likes the traditional (and indestructible) beauty of a clear diamond. i don't like cluttered cocktail rings, just a simple solitaire.
:) khairete
S.

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Honestly, I didn't really like it at first. I was 20 (he was 22) when we got engaged. It is 2.5 carats and it made me feel very self-conscious. A couple of my college friends were also engaged and their rings were a carat or less. I am now 34 and LOVE it. I definitely grew into it:)

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We went looking for rings a couple of times and each time I loved a Marquise cut. That is the shape of stone I wanted so much. My FIL sent hubby to be a package with a lot of stones and a few with stones on bands. The one he picked out was a brilliant solitaire cut. I didn't love it to say the least. The band is narrow and plain.

Even though the perfectly clear diamond is half a carat and insured for $1500 it is a plain jane set that I would have never ever picked for myself. I wear it every day though and if I take it off to make meatloaf or something I miss wearing it.

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Yup. I love my ring! I had dropped hints to my sisters and mother on the shape I wanted (princess cut) and made sure that he knew that I didn't want a huge stone. I ended up with a beautiful 1 carat Princess-cut in a Tiffany style setting. LOVE IT! My husband asked me if I wanted to have it reset for our anniversary and the answer is "no". I am hoping to give it to my son when the time comes!

My great aunt hated her ring and didn't fake it for one second. My great uncle proposed to her and her answer was "Yes, but not with that ring". They went out together and picked out something different. The one he selected was ugly. No other way to say it... and her thinking was they SHE was the one who would be wearing it every day for the next 70+ years!

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I loved mine. My husband picked it out. It's white gold with a simple carat diamond. My wedding ring links into the engagement ring. It has small diamonds surrounding it. My husband was so proud of it, I couldn't help but love it!

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I don't love my engagement ring. But I don't hate it either. It's simple and sweet. My husband picked it and he didn't have a lot of money for a ring. I haven't worn it in years because it doesn't fit. I didn't exactly fake it though because I thought it was sweet and I knew he liked it and it was what he could afford and so it was the sentiment that mattered to me.

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Loved it. Very plain and simple. I had showed him previously and told him how much I liked it, guess he really was paying attention. What meant to most to me was I was going to marry the man I loved.

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Love mine now 14 years later. Before he proposed I went and showed him exactly what I wanted at a big chain jewelry store. He then went to his family jeweler who designed something specifically for me. It means so much that he took the time, listened and then had it made instead of the chain store setting. It's small in regards to what some women I've seen had but it fits me perfectly and I think anything bigger would not be who I am. Hubby has suggested that I have it made into a necklace and he would get me something new and bigger but I tell him no every time. It wouldn't be the same if I did that.

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wow riley captured how I felt exactly. That same feeling of spinning it around and feeling warmth radiate outwards until I realized he wasn't who I thought he was, then looking down on it may M. feel broken so it's been in a drawer ever since. Still not sure if I want to keep it, reuse it, or get rid of it....it J. seems silly to get rid of it...
we're divorced and its a perectly nice piece of jewelery if meaning werent attached to it...i've thought about telling my boyfriend to J. use that if he ever gets around to proposing.

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I loved mine the minute I saw it and still do 18 yrs later. At our 10 yr anniversary he wanted to upgrade my wedding band, which was just a plain gold band. It took him 2 yrs to convince me, and another 6 months for us to find one that worked with the engagement ring. Now I love that just as much. Guess my hubby has good taste.

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He asked me to marry him without a ring - not planned just kind of happened. Then he took me to the store to pick out rings that I liked and he went back without me and bought the one he also liked and then he suprised me by asking me again with the ring in a special place - planned.
We have been married 10 years now, I love my ring and I love him - it is a symbol of that love - and it doesn't need an upgrade.

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I love mine! I was only 18 when we got engaged, so I certainly had no expectations of what I wanted or 'should' get. He picked it out, and I was just happy about that. So had I been engaged later in life, I'm sure I would have had different hopes about a ring. And even though he's offered to upgrade my rings for me, I would never. This represents so much for me, and I cherish it. Plus it reminds me of how many people lost bets that we'd be divorced in a year getting married that young (it's been 21 years now!).

As a side note, I'm so impressed with the jeweler. He had no idea where to go and what to look for. He went into the strip mall jeweler closest to where we lived and could have been an easy target to be ripped off. As it turns out, we had the ring looked at a couple of years ago when buying something else, and were told that (although not huge), it is an excellent quality diamond. Who knew- good people out there that didn't try to rip off a naive 19 year old! :-) Fun question, thanks!

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I love my ring, though it isn't huge or ornate: it's lovely and simple. It's platinum (he knew I don't like yellow gold on me, but that I wouldn't care if it was silver, white gold, or platinum). We'd talked marriage for awhile, but he wasn't sure what my answer would be...when he bought the ring, that was a surprise to me. He got down on one knee which was really cute and sweet (he's not that kind of guy in normal life...it wasn't the most eloquent or fantastic scheme like you see on TV, we were in the living room and I was sitting on the couch, lol)....I didn't even look at the ring, but at his face when he presented it. I didn't even look at the ring really until about 5 minutes after saying yes, lol. I love it because it was from him, and because it was bought with love in his heart (not obligation, not pressure, not keeping up with the Joneses, but hope of a good life together, for the rest of our lives). That's special!
He'd just (FINALLY) gotten that good job he was trying for, for about a year, he didn't have much money, but he'd always said he wanted to get a job and insurance and be able to handle things, then marry me. Not that I required that of him, but he felt like that was his place. The ring also didn't put him into debt for a year, but it is pretty. I felt that showed I could trust him to not only be romantic but also trustworthy---there's no security in someone totally riding the emotional train when it comes to spending money, and I wanted security by then. So yeah---I loved it and didn't have to fake anything. I would NOT replace it or upgrade it, unless it was badly damaged or lost.

2 moms found this helpful

I've been married twice and loved both my engagement rings. They both are VERY "big and flashy" as you put it. I'm a big girl so I need a big ring, simple as that. lol Anyway, my ex custom made mine, we both picked it out, but *I* paid for it since he didn't have any money. lol My current husband and I went to look at rings...I fell in love with one that happened to be on major clearance (bonus!) and he went back later and put it on lay-a-way.

Now, although I *love* my engagement ring, it does have a problem. On each side of the center stone is 6 baguettes (sp?) so 12 total. When I got the ring, it was nice and shiny and sparkly (you know, they have special lights in the store for that, right??!!). Now, after I wore it for only a few days, it got dirty and for the life of me, I cannot clean those baguettes! And even professionally they don't go back to how they were. I HATE THEM NOW!!! However, I am NOT one of those women to "upgrade" or "trade up" my ring. I always intended to keep the exact one he proposed with. Anyway, since this is the one thing that makes me not completely love my ring anymore, I checked into options on fixing it. I found a jewler who can take out the baguettes and replace them with princess cut. Yippee! However, it will cost $1800. Ouch. BUT...we SAVED more than that since it was on clearance so I don't feel *too* bad paying that. It isn't a priority and I haven't done it yet (our 3rd anniversary is next month). I was thinking maybe for our 5th I can have it done. Hubs doesn't care, he only wants me to be happy. And I do think we need to LOVE our rings. I'm very sentimental and am sad that I didn't *know* baguettes did this. Had I known that, I would pass them by for sure. Anyway, its fixable. I like my ring because its very different. It not like everyone elses, which I really like. My ring with my ex had a big center stone with 3 large stones on each side and a wedding band. Much more traditional. So I do love it now and will love it even more once those baguettes are gone. =)

1 mom found this helpful

Love it. My husband helped design the ring via fax. Yep, he showed me the drawings and faxed samples back and forth with the Jeweler in California. The Jeweler was his sisters boyfriend at the time.

Another story for another post, but I had someone scoffing at the ring because she may have wanted it on her finger.

The ring was in yellow gold and I now have a ring in white gold and the yellow gold no longer fits my finger so well, but I can still wear it.

1 mom found this helpful

I still like my ring 10 years on. DH knew I didn't want a diamond, needed something small for my small fingers. It's still beautiful, still suits me well and I'm still very happy that he listened to what I wanted and got it designed vs going to a jewelry counter and being talked into something I didn't like. I don't need a 20 carat stone. Something big and flashy would look ridiculous on me. So for me, the fact that he got THIS ring shows he loves me.

1 mom found this helpful

I picked mine out. He showed me a few and asked my preference. I would not have faked it.

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How I look at the whole ring thing....
I got an engagement ring. It was pure simplicity and really cool.
I wouldn't have cared, what I got or what size or what stone or how many carats or what kind of precious metal, gold or platinum, or on and on.
The size/extravagance to me has nothing to do with how much love is there nor the depth of commitment.
Even if I got a pop can tab for a ring, so what.
A ring doesn't define a relationship.

I personally like, just bands.
I am not a diamond person. I like, more raw type stones & jewelry designs...to me, that is more poetic or like a Haiku poem. To me, jewelry like that is more "flashy" but in a different manner. I don't like mass produced looking. Its not the carats that interest me.
Tiffany, even had or maybe still has, a great iron band. That over time, will oxidize. I LOVE that ring.

My Hubby and I, both have the same bands.
And even if just gold, you can tell the quality of the gold by the coloration of it.
I actually have done jewelry design and fine metals casting etc.

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I love my engagement/wedding rings. We picked them out together. :)

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I loved it. Still do, what means so much more to me is he picked it out. I know it was hard for him to try to pick something out like that. And he surprised me.

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Loved it, but I picked out the style. We window shopped for a few months before he proposed so when I saw a ring that I really liked in a magazine, I tore out the page and gave him the picture so he knew what style I liked. It was an overpriced designer style so he knew that I didn't want that ring literally, but something like it. He was able to take that picture to a jeweler and have a setting custom made for me. The center stone is already 1 ct. flanked by two 1/4 ct stones so I have no plans to "upgrade" but I do know many women through work (either colleagues or the wives of male colleagues) who have done the 10-year upgrade, but those are usually people who have achieved significantly higher financial status and their appearance, including jewelry, is expected to reflect that.

1 mom found this helpful

I loved it...at the time. Now, I kinda wish it was platinum instead of yellow gold (turns out I'm allergic to it and if I wear it for long periods of time, I get a rash - what does THAT say about my marriage, I'm allergic to my own wedding ring! Hahaha! ). So I still love how it looks, the style, etc, but unfortunately it sits in my jewelry box more than it does on my finger.

1 mom found this helpful

I loved my ring from my ex when I got it (I was young). About 7 years into the marriage, there was a gal I worked with that had the same ring...
That same year, my grandmother gave me a ring that had her original diamond from her engagement ring in it. She wore it as a pinky ring and I would always try it on when I was young so she just gave it to me one day and fit my ring finger perfectly. It is an antique style. My ex had no problem with me wearing that instead of my original set. Now, I have no idea what to do with it since we're divorced. I still love the ring, but it holds other meaning since I wore it as my wedding ring...

My current engagement ring I absolutely love. I didn't want traditional so its a diamond antique filigree band with small diamond bands on either side. It's completely unique because we basically designed it ourselves and I LOVE it.

1 mom found this helpful

I still love it. We went shopping together and he got a good feel for what I liked. I wasn't expecting a ring anytime soon and he totally surprised me with one of the ones I liked at christmas. We later picked out wedding bands together. My engagement ring is a .75 ct solitaire with diamonds in the band. My wedding band is a 1/2 ct of diamonds in the band, they look great together. He didn't want diamonds so he has a yellow gold band w/white gold in the middle with a diamond plate cut so they look similar. After 10 years together we bought another 1/2 ct band to sit on the outside. I love my set. We bought all of the rings at Zales and take them in every 6 months faithfully to keep them under warranty. About a year ago one of the stones fell out of my wedding band and I thought I would have to pay for the stone...nope they replaced it for free. If I ever lose my solitaire, they will replace that at no charge too! Love their service. Everytime we go in there they ask us if we want to upgrade the center stone...lol. I wouldn't change it for anything. We've been together 16 years now, married 10, He pulled his moms & grandmas emerald cut diamond out of the safe deposit for our 10 year. It's almost 3 carats and is beautiful. I wear that one on my right hand.

1 mom found this helpful

I love mine, because it makes me think of my honey. With that said, it is very small and I have felt slightly judge by others for it when we announced our engagement. If I were to have my ring upgraded, I would want to have the original stone included in the new ring and only for a large anniversary. As I am typing this, I looked down at my ring finger and realized that I have not been wearing my engagement ring, only my wedding band, for a couple of weeks because the stone is loose. I really need to get that fixed!

I loved my ring because I loved my husband. But I did replace it with a bigger one on our 5 year anniversary. When we were engaged he gave me what we could afford. It was a tiny tiny diamond. looked like a kids ring. But after a few years we could afford a bigger one as he was out of school. So we went together and picked it out.

I LOVE my wedding ring, and would never replace it. My husband gave me a 1 carat diamond. You have to understand though...I was married after I graduated from college. I was in my 30s and have a little more money at that age. Plus, when we got married, the priest blesses these rings and that's why I would never replace them. I had mine for 13 years now.