Jewelry Snob Insults My Engagement Ring

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

Wait a sec here... I thought engagement rings were a recent thing, and they didn't even have the pedigree of the conspicuous consumption wedding dress.

Far as I know, it's been going on for ages. Diamonds became popular in the 1400s, I believe.

May be a recent development for EVERYONE to have one, but it's not a new concept.

[r2cagle]

Wow. I remember picking out my engagement ring with hubby. At Service Merchandise (long time ago! lol)

I wanted a simple emerald on a tiffany setting. Just the emerald... It had to be set... total price was $400 because it was lab grown emerald, and another $80 for the plain gold bands worn on either side. I can't remember how big the emerald is, but the same size diamond would have cost close to $3000. I've never gotten anything but compliments, and quite a few ladies changed their minds on what they wanted for their own wedding rings when they saw how beautiful and sophisticated my rings looked. And if anything happens to it... we're not out thousands of dollars. I'm happy.

That's really what counts. Get what makes you happy.

[jedimaster91]

When Mr Jedi and I were first talking about getting married, I told him I wanted a marquis solitaire on a yellow gold band and then a wrap for the wedding band. The engagement ring he got at a retailer, the wrap we ordered at a pawn shop for about half the price. I love my ring. It's small and unobtrusive--which is great for my small hands--and it sparkles. Lots. I've only ever had one person tell me it didn't look like a wedding ring, but he didn't want to accept the fact I was married and not the least bit interested in sleeping with him.

I did tell Mr Jedi that after putting up with him for 20+ years, I want Leo diamonds.

[Exaspera]

Wait a sec here... I thought engagement rings were a recent thing, and they didn't even have the pedigree of the conspicuous consumption wedding dress.

Engagement rings date back to the middle ages, pre-Renaissance. As does the cake, the reception, the throwing of rice and the garter. Actually the tiered cake and reception dates back to Roman times.

[Treasure]

wiki says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engagement_rings

[Sunsetsky]

Wow! What a stuckup bitch! My friend loves jewelry and whenever we went out to the mall she would stop by the jewelry stores. She always knew which ones to go into and which ones not to. She basically separated them into two groups...stuckup and not stuckup. She's not exactly rolling around in money and a couple of jewelers have turned their noses up at her over her clothing.

I don't willingly go into jewelry stores. The only time I went into one was with my friend. I don't know a thing about jewelry sadly. My fiance apparently knows more then I do. He asked me what kind of gems and metal I liked and a year and a half later, he surprised me a with a ring he personalized for me. ^^ Mine is white gold with a diamond in the center and on each side of the diamond is an ice sapphire. I can't remember the diamond size but that doesn't matter to me.

[pitmonkey]

When hubby and I got married, we both got sterling silver bands. He went and replaced it with a black hill gold ring, 10+ years ago. I have told him not to get me any diamond or fancy jewelry. That kind of money can buy a green house or a nice road trip. I would be scared of loosing it .

[Kogarashi]

Hubby surprised me with my ring. I'd had designs on him since we met Freshman year at college, and my junior year we started really dating. I not-so-subtly had engagement ring conversations with my roommate while he was around, and he much-more-subtly took notes. The following April Fool's Day, a month before he proposed, we decided to take fake engagement photos to fool our families, and used a replica One Ring from a bookmark as a stand-in since it fit my left ring finger just right. Hubby guessed the size when I put it on, I corrected him, and that was the last bit of info he needed to buy the actual engagement ring. It ended up being a whole size too large anyway, because he misremembered the size when he got to the store, but we just took it back to have it resized and it was perfect.

My ring is a sapphire in white-gold, and not one of the world's most impressive ones either. There's a slight flaw in the stone, and it looks black until you hold it up to the light, but it's got enough facets to twinkle if the light hits it and it's pretty inexpensive for being, we think, a full carat in size. It's framed by two much smaller diamonds in a three-stone setting, with six more tiny diamonds channel-set to the sides. One of the tiny diamonds has since fallen out, and one of these years we'll have enough spare cash that I can get it replaced. My wedding band is also white-gold, and matches my hubby's only thinner. They're both very simple, but we like simple and it was a total of $200 for the pair.

I don't care that my engagement ring is well under the $1K mark, or that it's probably not the sparkliest thing out there. What matters most to me is that it's what I wanted, Hubby didn't break the bank buying it, and that he was able to surprise me with it. And hey, it's my most expensive jewelry, period, I almost never take it off, and if it were stolen, we'd be out the sentiment and maybe $600.

The saleswoman in the OP? Not going to win over many customers with that attitude.

[Treasure]

Dad got mom's e-ring @ a pawn shop for $75.00 - it was gold, w/ a dk blue sapphire and a couple of diamond chips - she actually had a jeweler offer her 800.00 or 1200.00 (i don't remember now it was 20 yrs ago, and I'm relaying a story i've heard a number of times in my life) everybody thought she had an Onyx e-ring, and she'd have to tell them, Nope its Sapphire, a really dark one.

unfortunately it was stolen, when we had some work done on the house (mom was unable to wear any jewelry due to a surgery and the effects all the meds were having on her) they got "replacement" bands, but they were never ... right

so, for their 10th annv. mom and dad got new rings, they ordered their bands from http://www.raru.com and go the mohan band in white gold, and then went shopping for her a new e-ring, well mom doesn't care for diamonds, or thought she didn't... lol... they were at the mall, and just happened to go into Helzberg, (sp?) who had just put out a bridal set (supposed to be the e-ring and the wedding ring) 1ktw, and 1.5ktw mom looked at them, decided she liked the 1ktw, dad insisted she needed larger, she said wait until the wedding bands come in..

got the bands in, and tried it on with both sizes, and decided that the 1ktw set looked best, she wears them with the "wedding" band from the set closest to her hand, then the band then the e-ring closest to her nail, and she gets so many complimetns on it... and she says she couldn't wear anything smaller...

all i know, is it suits her... and daddy's band is right for him

and i think that's all that matters in an engagement ring.

i don't care for diamonds, so i won't have one.... period. and i hate my birthstone, so i don't really want it either... but no worries, not dating atm.

*note- i am sorry for any spelling errors - i type faster than i read, and don't always catch them*

[Cashier]

Wow, what a nasty bitch. I would have followed up with a phone call to her manager and even with another letter or phone call to corporate.

Sometimes people need to keep their crappy opinions to themselves. You should have insulted something she was wearing.

[Null Requiem]

When I decided I wanted to propose a couple years back, I pretty much did it on the spot at the time.
We kept it quiet, so we could go out and look for rings and find something that fit.

I let my parents know, since my step mother goes to jewelry and estate auctions when she can. They got in touch with me that weekend. I went with them to the auction, my fiance went with me. We saw one we liked. After our research we pretty much knew what we were looking for.

They had it. It was crazy. Exactly what we were looking for. I don't remember the details of the stone, but it was a princess cut solitaire on a white gold band. didn't even need to get it re-sized. For about 1/4 of what it would have cost to get it retail.

Now the best part was, I was working part time for minimum wage at the time, and it didn't break the bank.

We're both happy with the ring, and in two months the wedding will be happening. We have two very plain white gold bands for the wedding rings.

While looking for wedding bands, we had a lot of the same issues. The snobbery and such. >.<
When we found one guy who was awesome, and helpful, we went back and got the rings from him. =)

[bainsidhe]

A good friend of mine made her now-husband take the engagement ring back. She felt miserable about it, but it was truly a hideous ring. Together they went found a very tasteful and lovely ring with a pale blue stone. I don't know jewelry, so I can't tell you what the stone is, but the new ring was less expensive than the first one so bonus!

[BlaqueKatt]

Far as I know, it's been going on for ages. Diamonds became popular in the 1400s, I believe.

it was a PR man that pushed it-happened to work for DeBeers diamond cartel-It is not in any way a "tradition" started in the 1930's

Better info here

Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year-the mines today's diamonds come from were not even discovered until 1870.

Tradition was birthstone-which is what I have-my e-ring was $49.95, wedding band was $13-the money that would've been spent on a ring-well we had a great time in Las Vegas.....

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Mine was my mother in laws, and I was thrilled and honored to get it. I was expecting an old fashioned kind of ring, maybe a garnet one or something, as the ring had belonged to her mother as well. Turned out to be a yellow gold one with a tasteful blue white diamond that glows in black light.

I understand that flourescent diamonds are of lesser value, but I could not give less of a damn. I think the fact that it glows is freaking sweet.

But what is even cooler is that it is an heirloom, and I am beyond honored by my inlaws to have been entrusted with it.

[LadyAndreca]

The engagement ring my husband got me is absolutely gorgeous. I get compliments all the time on it. It's a 2/3 carat diamond flawless cut and color, and you need a microscope to see the flaws, with five blue topazes channel set on either side of it, in a platinum band.

It's also nothing like what I'd've picked out for myself if we'd gone together. Despite his attempts to design it so the diamond didn't stick out much, which was one of the two guidelines I did give him, the stone is so big I'm constantly catching the prongs in my hair, my clothes, everything. I'm always picking hair and fuzz out of them. I've broken a tip off already. I've cracked four topazes on it in three years, to the point where the jeweler outright told me I should consider rebuilding the ring with stones less likely to shatter, maybe sapphires. (They were against making the ring with such a brittle stone in the first place, but it was a compromise from Matt's first choice, opals, and he told them I didn't do that much with my hands.) I had to stop wearing it to work, wearing my promise ring instead, which is etched white gold and much more like what I wanted (probably because I did pick that one out myself!).

I like the wedding ring much better, two blue topazes alternating with one diamond, channel set around the top half of the ring. I really regret having them attached now, but at the time I didn't realize how much of a pain it would be repairing the engagement ring once a year.