Engagement ring

DiegoCosta

The one I procured for my wife was free, it was her Grandmother's.

I don't wear mine as I don't like wearing rings. Should really sell it and get the 500 euro back.

eviltwin

Don't have either a wedding or engagement rings. I'm not really into bling so it would have been a waste of money. Rings are a funny old thing, I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a ring that cost thousands or a cheap bit of costume jewellery so personally I can't understand why some people spend so much on them. It doesn't mean he loves ya any more! Still each to their own.

shuffles88

I'm not crazy about jewellery and wouldn't really be fussed about having a ring at all (or getting married for that matter!). I think its funny though how we often focus on the cost of the ring, which is something that in my eyes could be an heirloom which holds or increases it's value in comparison with the cost of a dress which women often spend as much if not more on just so they can wear it for one day.

c_man

Witchie wrote: »

Kawena is kinda dating an Ice Hockey player who is on the junior team now and her mum said that it would cost Alex 2 years wages to buy that now but it would be no problem when he makes the senior team.

Have them let him in on the plan yet? :eek:

Witchie

c_man wrote: »

Have them let him in on the plan yet? :eek:

Well he is the one that keeps telling her that when she turns 21 he will "wife her up".

Shakespeare's Sister

IMO even just €500 is a massive amount to be spending on a ring.

Axel Lamp

1 months wage initially.

Got it in Dubai and turned it into more than 2 months wages when valued back in Ireland.

Magic.

Paulownia

Witchie wrote: »

Well he is the one that keeps telling her that when she turns 21 he will "wife her up".

Is that a coded message that he intends dragging her off to a cave to have his wicked way with her or does it mean he intends to escort her to Tiffany and buy her compliance with an oversized rock?
They sound like they deserve one another actually

Witchie

aw they are young and in love....leave them to it.

ALiasEX

*brings out ring* (that cost 3 months salary and is past refund date.)

Him/Her: Will you marry me?

Partner: I've been sleeping with your brother.

That's a lot of blows in one!

biko

Treloh wrote: »

You mean 3 DOLLA fiddy??

You bring back thread from January for that?
*does not deliver*

The Cool

Shakespeare's Sister wrote: »

IMO even just €500 is a massive amount to be spending on a ring.

I don't know. While I by no means want him to be spending X months' salary or whatever, at the same time I want it to be well-made with sturdy materials that will last, because I want to have this ring for the rest of my life, preferably! It's going to be hard to find that quality at that low of a price. I mean I generally only wear silver jewellery, I hate yellow gold but I want my engagement and wedding rings to be either white gold or platinum, because I've had silver rings before and they've bent around my finger.

A friend of mine recently got engaged and was given a Swarovski ring for 89 euro. Whatever about the cost (although I would have been seriously miffed as this guy would spend that on a night out, but that's another issue) it's a plated band with a crystal in it; I don't know a whole lot about metals or anything but I wouldn't have much confidence in that ring still looking decent in 10 years time.

Tl;dr - Longevity is not cheap.

Shenshen

The Cool wrote: »

I don't know. While I by no means want him to be spending X months' salary or whatever, at the same time I want it to be well-made with sturdy materials that will last, because I want to have this ring for the rest of my life, preferably! It's going to be hard to find that quality at that low of a price. I mean I generally only wear silver jewellery, I hate yellow gold but I want my engagement and wedding rings to be either white gold or platinum, because I've had silver rings before and they've bent around my finger.

A friend of mine recently got engaged and was given a Swarovski ring for 89 euro. Whatever about the cost (although I would have been seriously miffed as this guy would spend that on a night out, but that's another issue) it's a plated band with a crystal in it; I don't know a whole lot about metals or anything but I wouldn't have much confidence in that ring still looking decent in 10 years time.

Tl;dr - Longevity is not cheap.

I would almost suggest stainless steel or titanium, then.
Gold and silver are both very sof metals, they will either bend as you said or simply wear thinner over the years. Most people I know get their marriage jewellery "done up" every 10 years or so.
White gold would be worse for it, as it's just a term for silver plated gold. The plating will rub of relatively quickly and the yellow will start shining through.

Cool Mo D

Shenshen wrote: »

I would almost suggest stainless steel or titanium, then.
Gold and silver are both very sof metals, they will either bend as you said or simply wear thinner over the years. Most people I know get their marriage jewellery "done up" every 10 years or so.
White gold would be worse for it, as it's just a term for silver plated gold. The plating will rub of relatively quickly and the yellow will start shining through.

White gold is not silver plated gold, it's an alloy of gold with a little white metal - nickel, manganese or palladium. The white colour does not rub off.

RoboRat

Still stand by my assertion that you pay what you are willing to pay or can afford to pay.

There should be no benchmark and the only people who set these benchmarks are jewellers/ producers or materialistic women. If your missus wants bling then get a lesser quality diamond or go somewhere like Antwerp where you get much more bang for your buck.

I went to Antwerp and made appointments in advance and made sure they knew my budget and I can honestly say, it was a real pleasure compared to Ireland. They never once bought something out that was above what I was willing to pay and my wife got an absolute beauty that far exceeded her expectations. Everything was explained and she had her choice of over 50 different diamonds of varying size and quality, then once she picked the stone, she was able to choose the perfect band and again, she had over a hundred different versions to choose from. The next day we picked up her custom made ring which would have cost me easily 3 times the price and to this day, she absolutely adores it.

Cost for flights/ hotel / eating and lots of drinking in Antwerp was under €350 for both of us for 3 days so it was a nice little holiday on top. If anybody is looking for recommendations of the jewellers, PM me and I will give the details.

RoboRat

Kawena is kinda dating an Ice Hockey player who is on the junior team now and her mum said that it would cost Alex 2 years wages to buy that now but it would be no problem when he makes the senior team.

I hope that Kawena is fully aware that once he makes the senior team, she may be traded in for a celebrity to match his status and her dreams of the $169k ring will flutter away like a feather in the wind.

Shakespeare's Sister

The Cool wrote: »

I don't know. While I by no means want him to be spending X months' salary or whatever, at the same time I want it to be well-made with sturdy materials that will last, because I want to have this ring for the rest of my life, preferably! It's going to be hard to find that quality at that low of a price. I mean I generally only wear silver jewellery, I hate yellow gold but I want my engagement and wedding rings to be either white gold or platinum, because I've had silver rings before and they've bent around my finger.

A friend of mine recently got engaged and was given a Swarovski ring for 89 euro. Whatever about the cost (although I would have been seriously miffed as this guy would spend that on a night out, but that's another issue) it's a plated band with a crystal in it; I don't know a whole lot about metals or anything but I wouldn't have much confidence in that ring still looking decent in 10 years time.

Tl;dr - Longevity is not cheap.

Yeh in fairness I'm not bothered with rings - I like them but don't put stock in the engagement/wedding ring thing, and that's only my personal preference, I know they mean a lot to others.
But I do think both should pay for, not just the man.

Shakespeare's Sister

RoboRat wrote: »

Still stand by my assertion that you pay what you are willing to pay or can afford to pay.

There should be no benchmark

God yes. People who go on about how it "should" be this number of months' salary baffle me. It isn't just women though, it's men who feel obliged to show that they're not stingy or something.
The same with how much you give as a wedding or even communion gift - people ask "What's the going rate?" Whatever the person can afford, surely.

Blingy

LexieOnRale wrote: »

http://tinypic.com/r/bijzfk/8

My ring. Less than a thousand, and the most beautiful ring I've ever seen. It's not all about the dollas

Love your ring. So unique. It's fab!

Grayson

I know a couple who bought each other engagement watches (they're not matching ) they said it was still jewellery but that it was practical and they would get good use out of them. I think the watches averaged were just under a grand each and they were great quality.

RoboRat

God yes. People who go on about how it "should" be this number of months' salary baffle me. It isn't just women though, it's men who feel obliged to show that they're not stingy or something.
The same with how much you give as a wedding or even communion gift - people ask "What's the going rate?" Whatever the person can afford, surely.

The only thing I wanted was a ring that my wife loved that was within the budget that I felt I could afford. Thankfully I got it and my wife still gets compliments about it so happy days.

I had set my budget and I was never going to stray from it. The foot spoke and that was that :-)

Paulownia

Shenshen wrote: »

I would almost suggest stainless steel or titanium, then.
Gold and silver are both very sof metals, they will either bend as you said or simply wear thinner over the years. Most people I know get their marriage jewellery "done up" every 10 years or so.
White gold would be worse for it, as it's just a term for silver plated gold. The plating will rub of relatively quickly and the yellow will start shining through.

Gold, whatever colour, is an alloy and white gold is an alloy of pure gold( too soft to use alone) with a white metal, manganese or nickel, as far as I know

Paulownia

Paulownia wrote: »

Gold, whatever colour, is an alloy and white gold is an alloy of pure gold( too soft to use alone) with a white metal, manganese or nickel, as far as I know

Just talked to a pal who tells me that jewellers sometimes plate white gold with Rhodium to give it a stronger white colour, seems a strange idea to me

Sinister Kid

I wouldn't want anything that cost more than a grand. If he got the style of ring right it wouldn't matter to me if it cost feck all... I couldn't justify anyone spending stupid amounts of money & I would be too afraid I would loose it.

Inspector Coptoor

I paid €4k for my fiancée's engagement ring. A fair whack of cash but I was comfortable with it.

She's delighted with it & I had saved up for it.

I don't like the idea of "3 months salary".
If you're low paid, it takes away from necessities, if you're high paid, she could be walking around with a very valuable piece of carbon on her finger.

Do people mean net or gross when they make this sweeping generalizations?
Cause there's some difference.
Would be 12k gross but 8.1k net....

The wedding rings cost way less, €1100 for both.

I got a Palladium (Pd) wedding band.
I don't really wear Jewellery of any description but got a good price in a place in town.

RoboRat

Gold, whatever colour, is an alloy and white gold is an alloy of pure gold( too soft to use alone) with a white metal, manganese or nickel, as far as I know

Not necessarily, 24 carat gold is an element whereas anything less is a compound buuuutttttt, pure gold is very soft so I do wonder about whether sometimes its actually 24 Carat.

Inspector Coptoor

RoboRat wrote: »

Not necessarily, 24 carat gold is an element whereas anything less is a compound buuuutttttt, pure gold is very soft so I do wonder about whether sometimes its actually 24 Carat.

To be technical, anything less than 24 carat gold would be an alloy, NOT a compound.

24 carat would be elemental.

For jewelry, gold would be mixed with Pt, Pd or Rh usually as it Results in a metal that is soft and easy to work with

Stinjy

Paulownia wrote: »

Gold, whatever colour, is an alloy and white gold is an alloy of pure gold( too soft to use alone) with a white metal, manganese or nickel, as far as I know

18 ct gold is 75% gold mixed with an alloy that contains copper amongst other things. 9ct gold is 37.5% gold mixed with the same alloy.

18ct white gold is 75% gold and the alloy contains more zinc (not copper) 9ct is 37.5% with a similar alloy.

White gold is then coated with rhodium to make it white and shiney! Rhodium is a harder wearing metal but is applied in thin layers so it wears off over time. W/g rings should be re-rhodium plated when you see the colour changing to yellow on the underneah side of the band... some times thats a year sometimes people wont get them done for 10 years. Personal choice.

Stinjy

Inspector Coptoor wrote: »

To be technical, anything less than 24 carat gold would be an alloy, NOT a compound.

24 carat would be elemental.

For jewelry, gold would be mixed with Pt, Pd or Rh usually as it Results in a metal that is soft and easy to work with

24ct is 99% ( or supposed to be) afaik so there'd be 1% alloy?

RoboRat

To be technical, anything less than 24 carat gold would be an alloy, NOT a compound.

A compound is a mixture of 2 or more elements and an alloy is as above but with only metallic elements so both are correct terms.

24ct is 99% ( or supposed to be) afaik so there'd be 1% alloy?

Its 99.95% and they have to account for impurities, hence why its never 100%.