$750 from Costco. It’s not a traditional wedding ring, but she doesn’t like diamonds. For my first wife, I spent $2400 in about 2002, but my stepfather was a jeweler and helped me get it, so I suspect I wasn’t paying full retail.
£30 in 1988, wedding ring cost £40 in 1990. Still married 35 years later so just over £ a year 😂😂 don’t see the sense in normal working people spending ££££££ on rings when the money could be used so much better when stays life together.
$10. Wife specifically was clear that she wanted nothing gaudy or expensive whenever i did do it. We both are more practical with money that way. She absolutely loves just a simple band that has some zelda stuff on it since she loves that game.
It’s not about the value of the ring but your budget. I do very well financially, and these numbers are a week of billing for me.
The total bill was under 7k, but it was the engagement ring and matching wedding band . I gave her a budget of 3k for the setting and wedding band she wanted (she got to pick out), and the stone was up to me to decide (she picked the cut and I picked out the size and clarity). I absolutely could have afforded more, but there’s absolutely no reasonable excuse for anyone to walk around with 20-30k on their hands. I’ll die on that hill.
I’m a believer they should have the opportunity to pick the ring – it’s a damn good test of budgeting skills – and they have to love wearing it. If you set a budget and they’re pouting or complaining, cut ’em lose because it’ll get WAY worse after they are legally entitled to half your paycheck. Love is not worth going into debt for – if that’s what a woman “needs” you don’t “need” her love.
Edit: 2022 proposal to current wife. My late wife was 2004, and her budget was about 3k at the time.
Engagement ring, it was my great-grandmothers, my grandmothers and my mothers engagement ring! It’s a very classic ring, not much monetary value but massive sentimental value as you can understand. Wedding ring was €500 from her favourite jewellers. Wife told me not to spend anything, but I wanted to get her something nice. She does not care about money or expensive stuff like that.
About £150 (last year). She didn’t want an expensive ring. Instead I took her out for a Michelin star lunch and then a few days holiday.
The cost of the ring is irrelevant, or should be irrelevant. It’s a marker of the stage of the relationship, not the quality of the relationship. Plenty of people go for the expensive ring but the relationship has a far lower value.
2.8mm wide 14k white gold band. 18 2mm French set diamonds 3/4 wrap around the band. Hidden halo with 16 0.9mm diamonds. No cathedral. 2.04c D VS1 Ideal lab grown. Custom made with a designer.
$250 + 150 for the matching wedding band. The idea that you need to spend so many paychecks on a ring is purely propaganda from the jewelry industry. Little is worse than starting off a marriage in debt because of a ring or the wedding costs.
Answering for my husband – $2500 for mine (moissanite stone with pieces of meteorite in the band). Proposed in 2022. Got his wedding ring from the same designer for $800
$350(ish) I don’t remember exactly. But she didn’t want a diamond from the ground, she has lost rings I’ve given her in the past and would worry having something expensive she might lose. The style of the ring was more important.
$0. My grandma gave me her engagement ring. I dont think it was a terribly expensive ring to begin with though, just one mediumish diamond in the center and then the wedding band has 3 small diamonds. I think for our 10 year aniversary I’ll get the whole thing inlaid with something fancier.
Completely coincidentally, we got married on the same day as my grandparents did 45 years later as well. I was confused when my grandma was so happy about the day we landed on. The date is even engraved on the inside band of the ring too, we just never noticed.
$85 2002- replaced with a nicer one that was a little more her style about 15 years later. That one was on sale for about $500. I feel story for the dudes that had to go spend thousands on a ring. If she’s not willing to be with you unless you get a super expensive ring, then I’m my opinion, she’s not the right girl. But that’s just for me, your mileage may vary.
Ring 1 – Custom design in 1997. The setting was about $3500. The stones are from old family jewelry.
Ring 2 – After a few years, she realized it wasn’t the proper design/setting for our lives and jobs. On vacation in 2003 we saw a tanzanite ring that she loved. ~$5k. She wore that ring as an engagement ring for most of the next 18 years. It could not be resized, so it no longer fits.
She’s now alternating between Ring 1 and her Grandmother’s ring, roughly 80/20 ring 1.
1920s art deco, white gold and platinum with 4 equal sized diamonds!
Found online a few hours drive from home. Went to look in person turns, out it was a small pawn shop in a shitty little mall…. They were having a sale and it was $100 off any ring when contacted online before coming in person!
We sent it to her uncle a jeweler for cleaning and inspection. He confirmed the metal and stones were real!
My wife and I were in agreement from the beginning that expensive rings were a no go for both of us. Her first one cost $250 ish and few years ago she wanted to change it up so she picked out a cz set from Walmart that I think was like thirty bucks
$25 bucks for the pair, which is about 0.1% of what we could afford. But marriage is meaningless and feels anti-love to us, just did it for tax reasons.
what i (the husband) thought was on the lower end turns out to be on the higher end once i see everyone elses – paid like $6500? after i got a settlement but the cost wouldnt have been that big of a stretch either i just remember my ex before telling me if it wasnt $8000 she didnt want it so i guess 6500 seemed cheap lol
$1500 in 2006. I later bought a much nicer center diamond for it for an anniversary. Boys, don’t ever marry a woman that insists on “three months salary” for a ring when you are just getting your lives started. It means she has her priorities wrong. This woman helped me through career struggles and backed me up when I got serious about paying off our house early when I started making more. Now we travel and enjoy our lives. She’s got the smallest ring in her friends circle but is the only one going to South Africa, Austria, Germany and Switzerland this year.
After 18 years of common law marriage we made it official in Hawaii in February. Just one ring. My mom sent me a ring that had been in my dad’s family for 200 years. Had that De stoned and melted (plus more gold and material) and rebuilt into a band for me and a ring for her. $4k roughly as she wanted a very complicated vintage design.
$1k in 2024. My wife is not materialistic at all and she would love it even if it was $1, I also think she would’ve been pissed if I’d spent $10k etc. That being said we both wear silicone rings 98% of the time anyways
Also interestingly we had it appraised after I gave it to her and it was worth more than when I bought it. I expected it to depreciate like a car when you drive it off the lot. Apparently that’s not the case.
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Since you shitlords like to delete your posts, here’s an original copy of /u/deadpan_queen’s post (if available):
Just curious what the norm is.
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$800 bucks. I took an old earring that belonged to my grandmother abs turned it into the ring.
There’s no normal. Everyone has their own ideas. My wife’s cast $2700 23 years ago
We found it in a gutter while walking on a date, in the late 80s…lol.
Not sure that’s the norm though.
She doesn’t have one. Engagement rings are an outdated, sexist tradition.
$750 from Costco. It’s not a traditional wedding ring, but she doesn’t like diamonds. For my first wife, I spent $2400 in about 2002, but my stepfather was a jeweler and helped me get it, so I suspect I wasn’t paying full retail.
900 bucks in 1970 money
It was less expensive than the divorce! But the ring was roughly $2k!
$2500 2005
£30 in 1988, wedding ring cost £40 in 1990. Still married 35 years later so just over £ a year 😂😂 don’t see the sense in normal working people spending ££££££ on rings when the money could be used so much better when stays life together.
6500 in 2021
$5600 back in 2017
$5500 last week. Custom solitaire/pave design hand forged by local designer. All lab diamonds, main was 2ct princess cut.
5 years ago, $8k out the door.
Back in 2010 I think it was $3500? I don’t remember to be honest
$10. Wife specifically was clear that she wanted nothing gaudy or expensive whenever i did do it. We both are more practical with money that way. She absolutely loves just a simple band that has some zelda stuff on it since she loves that game.
I’m single as fuck but my stepdad paid a lil over 12k in 2022 when he proposed to my mom.
It’s not about the value of the ring but your budget. I do very well financially, and these numbers are a week of billing for me.
The total bill was under 7k, but it was the engagement ring and matching wedding band . I gave her a budget of 3k for the setting and wedding band she wanted (she got to pick out), and the stone was up to me to decide (she picked the cut and I picked out the size and clarity). I absolutely could have afforded more, but there’s absolutely no reasonable excuse for anyone to walk around with 20-30k on their hands. I’ll die on that hill.
I’m a believer they should have the opportunity to pick the ring – it’s a damn good test of budgeting skills – and they have to love wearing it. If you set a budget and they’re pouting or complaining, cut ’em lose because it’ll get WAY worse after they are legally entitled to half your paycheck. Love is not worth going into debt for – if that’s what a woman “needs” you don’t “need” her love.
Edit: 2022 proposal to current wife. My late wife was 2004, and her budget was about 3k at the time.
$2000 in 2019.
I never bought the DeBeers “two months salary” marketing line and that was the number that made sense to me.
$500 but she wanted sapphire and didn’t mind lab diamonds for the pave.
Engagement ring, it was my great-grandmothers, my grandmothers and my mothers engagement ring! It’s a very classic ring, not much monetary value but massive sentimental value as you can understand. Wedding ring was €500 from her favourite jewellers. Wife told me not to spend anything, but I wanted to get her something nice. She does not care about money or expensive stuff like that.
About £150 (last year). She didn’t want an expensive ring. Instead I took her out for a Michelin star lunch and then a few days holiday.
The cost of the ring is irrelevant, or should be irrelevant. It’s a marker of the stage of the relationship, not the quality of the relationship. Plenty of people go for the expensive ring but the relationship has a far lower value.
$150. Got engaged in 2004
2.8mm wide 14k white gold band. 18 2mm French set diamonds 3/4 wrap around the band. Hidden halo with 16 0.9mm diamonds. No cathedral. 2.04c D VS1 Ideal lab grown. Custom made with a designer.
$7700 total cost with tax. 2025
$250 + 150 for the matching wedding band. The idea that you need to spend so many paychecks on a ring is purely propaganda from the jewelry industry. Little is worse than starting off a marriage in debt because of a ring or the wedding costs.
Edit to add: this was early 2017
$3,400 (I think) in 2016
$5,500 in 2020
$2,200 in 2022
$3,500 in 2023
About ten grand. We picked it out together and she wanted a designer ring. Could’ve gotten a bigger stone otherwise. About 1.25 carats.
$10k back in 2019
$8-10k in 2019
$249 with shipping. She’s absolutely over the top in love with it. Just a little black stone.
12k in 2011. It was a one carat, excellent clarity, platinum band Princess cut. Expensive lesson to learn, married two years.
12k in 2021. We had been married 20 years and I surprised her with it. She never had one until then.
$400 real diamond but grown in a lab. (Dislike them called fake). Plus a new car.
Answering for my husband – $2500 for mine (moissanite stone with pieces of meteorite in the band). Proposed in 2022. Got his wedding ring from the same designer for $800
1250$ in 2016
We have been wearing our 10$ silicone ones for years.
$350(ish) I don’t remember exactly. But she didn’t want a diamond from the ground, she has lost rings I’ve given her in the past and would worry having something expensive she might lose. The style of the ring was more important.
$0. My grandma gave me her engagement ring. I dont think it was a terribly expensive ring to begin with though, just one mediumish diamond in the center and then the wedding band has 3 small diamonds. I think for our 10 year aniversary I’ll get the whole thing inlaid with something fancier.
Completely coincidentally, we got married on the same day as my grandparents did 45 years later as well. I was confused when my grandma was so happy about the day we landed on. The date is even engraved on the inside band of the ring too, we just never noticed.
None. Autistic and can’t handle the sensory disruption of jewelry, don’t even have ears pierced.
My wife has a three ring set with an emerald solitaire that cost me $1500 4 years ago.
$85 2002- replaced with a nicer one that was a little more her style about 15 years later. That one was on sale for about $500. I feel story for the dudes that had to go spend thousands on a ring. If she’s not willing to be with you unless you get a super expensive ring, then I’m my opinion, she’s not the right girl. But that’s just for me, your mileage may vary.
$20. Wooden. Could have afforded just about anything, but this isn’t where we value putting money.
Ah lads. Cheap fucks
£600 a local jeweler made what she wanted to a price I could afford. Think its pretty cool having a ring made.
Ring 1 – Custom design in 1997. The setting was about $3500. The stones are from old family jewelry.
Ring 2 – After a few years, she realized it wasn’t the proper design/setting for our lives and jobs. On vacation in 2003 we saw a tanzanite ring that she loved. ~$5k. She wore that ring as an engagement ring for most of the next 18 years. It could not be resized, so it no longer fits.
She’s now alternating between Ring 1 and her Grandmother’s ring, roughly 80/20 ring 1.
$5k in 2002. We are still doing that married thing today. The ring stays in our safe; neither of us wears rings.
My partner doesn’t want an engagement ring, but I want to get her something special anyway
Ring 1 $180
She has a $15,000 ring now 33 year of marriage
Like 5.5K, 2014
$3k 2010.
3k custom made, 2017
$500 2019!
1920s art deco, white gold and platinum with 4 equal sized diamonds!
Found online a few hours drive from home. Went to look in person turns, out it was a small pawn shop in a shitty little mall…. They were having a sale and it was $100 off any ring when contacted online before coming in person!
We sent it to her uncle a jeweler for cleaning and inspection. He confirmed the metal and stones were real!
$3k 2011
In 2008, $11k. She kept the ring and the 1.5m house in the divorce. Lucky women. She did well.
50 cents from the gumball machine
We picked out all of the rings after we decided to get married. In 1981 I think we spent under $700.
A few years ago we upgraded her ring -over $12 k, then mine as well-another $1k, but I’ve lost weight and can’t keep it on!
My wife and I were in agreement from the beginning that expensive rings were a no go for both of us. Her first one cost $250 ish and few years ago she wanted to change it up so she picked out a cz set from Walmart that I think was like thirty bucks
2k 2022
$25 bucks for the pair, which is about 0.1% of what we could afford. But marriage is meaningless and feels anti-love to us, just did it for tax reasons.
It was a family heirloom, rubies and diamonds…… 140 yrs old…..
$8k 2014
$4K (AUD, 2600 USD) in 2021
About $5k in 2024
40k
what i (the husband) thought was on the lower end turns out to be on the higher end once i see everyone elses – paid like $6500? after i got a settlement but the cost wouldnt have been that big of a stretch either i just remember my ex before telling me if it wasnt $8000 she didnt want it so i guess 6500 seemed cheap lol
I used my moms (which isn’t super fancy). Cost $0
2k-ish in 1995
10k 2020ish
$1500 in 2006. I later bought a much nicer center diamond for it for an anniversary. Boys, don’t ever marry a woman that insists on “three months salary” for a ring when you are just getting your lives started. It means she has her priorities wrong. This woman helped me through career struggles and backed me up when I got serious about paying off our house early when I started making more. Now we travel and enjoy our lives. She’s got the smallest ring in her friends circle but is the only one going to South Africa, Austria, Germany and Switzerland this year.
Paid 6K in 2019
$150 back in 2000. But she didn’t want a very expensive one.
$1.5 k in 2015.
8.5k back in 2015
Zero. We both agreed it would be better to put the money toward a house.
4500 in 2024. But as you’re seeing, get what fits you and your wife’s priorities. Don’t follow any bogus 3 months earning rules.
After 18 years of common law marriage we made it official in Hawaii in February. Just one ring. My mom sent me a ring that had been in my dad’s family for 200 years. Had that De stoned and melted (plus more gold and material) and rebuilt into a band for me and a ring for her. $4k roughly as she wanted a very complicated vintage design.
$1k in 2024. My wife is not materialistic at all and she would love it even if it was $1, I also think she would’ve been pissed if I’d spent $10k etc. That being said we both wear silicone rings 98% of the time anyways
Roughly $5,000 in 2018.
Also interestingly we had it appraised after I gave it to her and it was worth more than when I bought it. I expected it to depreciate like a car when you drive it off the lot. Apparently that’s not the case.