Engagement Rings-how much did it set you back?

Well, I'm going to ask my girlfriend to marry me (again actually, I asked her after 2mo of dateing while I was really drunk...glad she stuck around!)

Anyway, I've been looking sorta online and just wondered how much you guys spent?

Thanks!

 

Got lucky. Her mom had a 1.5 carat that she wanted me to use. Ring and some nice diamond earrings set me back about a grand.

 

Ummm...about 3.5k. Tiffany's 'spensive.

 

About 3k. Of course, that was 11 years ago, so I'm sure things are more expensive now.

 

Thats 486.11hrs of work for me!

 

If I remember correctly it's something like two months salary.
Do your research, start now, and by the time you have the cake saved up (if you don't already). You might be ready to take the plunge.

Do yourself a favor and find an honest to God jeweler, Check with friends to see if they can recommend one. In the end you'll get a better deal then buying a stone at one of them box stores. REALLY!

You can also help design it if you get a real jeweler involved. It's also realy cool when he shows up at the brewery with a bag of stones to examine.

The ring should be revered as a piece of artwork, so why not go to an artist? Would you buy a Monet at wal-mart? (alright it's a lofty analogy, but you get the point)

EDIT: and to directly answer your question 3.4K
This would be a good excuse to go all-grain now, so you can save on cost of brewing supplies.

 

I actually bought my wife's ring online, at Blue Nile. It's really nice and pretty unique. About $3k, IIRC, which struck me as about the right amount; I don't remember how many carats it is, but it was big enough to be impressive and pretty but not so big as to be too flashy or ostentatious.

 

Yeah, well...the damn thing is somewhere in the woods now.

Zircon is much cheaper, just hope she never tries to get it appraised/insured.

Yeah...Tiffany's will give you store credit if you need it. But you don't have to go to a place like that. As others have noted, artisan jewelers are a great source.

 

Err, a little more than $4k.

If yer flipping out about the price of the ring, just wait till you see how much the wedding will cost.

 

Hehe, we spent less on the wedding than the ring. Did it right, low-key, in the gardens behind a UVa pavilion. Reception at a sweet old building here in town that is currently the historical society. They never cashed our check. Spent the most on food and booze...how it should be. Oh, and the honeymoon.

 

Paid about 4K last year .......

On the plus side, my wedding band was only a few hundred

 

Oh yeah, that's definitely the way to go.

The food and drinks can add up FAST though.

 

Well, I've got about 6...hundered saved. I just got a raise and I'm working 40+hrs a week right now bc it summer. By August I could most likely have ~1000 saved. I could wait until Christmas and maybe have 2k but Aug 7th is our 3.5yr anniversary.

Yup, Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat. Got it.

I might have to post in the "Big Snip" thread about an unwanted vasectamy if I get a cubic zurconium

Thanks for the help guys...I'll look up local jewlers

 

Wow, that was over 20 years ago... I have no clue.

 

I saved up for a year before I bought the diamond.

I went to Robbins Brothers, and looked a lot of stuff. We then determined what was important to me (The 4 C's) and then showed me a whole gang of different diamonds in my price range, and I picked the one I liked the best. Then I picked out the band to put it on.

I took my mom with me, to ask advice. I recommend not going alone, someone that knows your g/f well, but can keep a secret from her.

And congrats.

 

It cost me about $40. Seriously. I just got her a silver claddagh ring (she's very Irish). She's very practical (and cheap) and not one to go for big expensive sparkly crap. We've been together 5 years and act practically like a married couple already anyway, so my way of asking was "It's a stupid question, here, take it."

Lucky me :rockin:

 

We had "the talk" and knew we wanted to get married ... so we went to look at rings together. I got a feel for what style she liked, and what size was perfect for her finger. It turns out the ring she *thought* she wanted didn't look good on her finger. Good thing, because it was way more expensive.

And then about a year later I surprised her with it, so even though we had looked together a while ago, it was totally random and unexpected.

And congrats by the way, I forgot to mention that earlier.

 

Thats just about identicle to me except put a 1 in from of the 40 . . . the claddagh was gold and had a ruby in it for the heart. I've tried to replace or upgrade it a few times and she's thretened to turn me into a eunich if I do . . .

The best part is it wasnt even ment to be the engagement ring but thats what she wanted so <shrug>

 

Like Glibbidy and other said, find a good HONEST jeweler. Ask around. My mom has a guy she deals with in Sierra Vista that did a custom job for me. Got her an AWESOME Marquis with baguettes lying under. All total, about 1.5 k. for a 2.5 ring. If you know someone who deals with a jeweler on a regular basis it can go a long way.

And BTW, Congrats!!!

Ize

 

Dude I just went through this. It is good to get a baseline, but never think you have to spend your 401K on a band. I have had many thoughts on this, and what it all boiled down (for me) to is wait till you can afford the ring YOU know SHE will LOVE. Then you are ready to ask. I'm kinda lucky cuz SWMBO is against diamonds and fur and such. So, for a baseline her 2.1karat moissanite was 3k knocked em down to $2148.00 with a warranty of 2 years, which I'd recommend getting. Others disagree with the warranty, but we have had to use it after 6 months one of the smaller diamonds fell off and they fixed it free. Only trouble is she had to part with it for 2 weeks...

An engagement ring doesn't even have to be diamond or equiv. A friend of mine just got a ruby ring for engagement. But she is Jamaican so perhaps some cultural diff. there.

As far as the wedding costs go, I am quickly realizing how durn expensive those 6 hours of our lives will be!!


Good luck!!

 

Makes me glad that gold jewelry looks terrible on my fiancee (she's very pale, so the yellow color makes her look sickly), but silver works great

 

Thanks guys...

haha yeah as I said I asked her after only 2 months of dating so we've deffinatly had time to think about it over the last 3 years.

When I graduated from high school (she's a year younger than me but we're graduating from college at the same time....bc she's smarter than me) we went on "road trip" of sorts taking grayhound busses. When we were in New York I bought her a ring in china town for $5. She still ribbs me from time to time bc I made the mistake of trying to bargin for it and get it for $3....yeah bad idea.

 

Hm, yeah, too bad there's such a thing as white gold.

 

What is that by the way....white gold? whats the difference?

 

Unless you have a friend who's a great chef and trying to break into the catering biz and doesn't charge you out the ass...and you work at a fine wine/beer shop, so all your booze is at cost.

 

...and platinum. Not sure which is more expensive, but I know they're both more expensive than the cheap old yellow gold we USED to get away with!

 

Word. That stuff is so 80's now.

 

Read this:
http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diamond.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_diamond

Watch Ice Road Truckers.

Repeat: If you a buy a diamond, the terrorists win or a trucker dies.

Is it really worth it?

Might work.

 

Ha, yeah "yellow" gold is deffinatly out...I know what already. She's pale like Buford was saying about his wife

 

Just wait til you have children

 

Yeah, I brought that up about a year ago. Didn't fly.

I thought it might though bc she's quick to talk about being veggie and stuff like that.

 

Not married... yet. That's next year :fro:

White gold is an option, but for now we're sticking with silver. I have one as well. My take on it is if I'm buying gold, it had better be in the form of Krugerrands and going in my bank box Diamonds... she hates 'em.

We're definitely going cheap on wedding stuff. The rental for the whole place we were going to be using was going to be around $1800 but her mother wanted to change the date to a more expensive day so she's covering the difference. Food - cheap catering from a local restaurant, music - iPod with a playlist hooked up to speakers, beer - I'm making it. Even the dress she's looking at is not too bad price-wise. Only part we haven't really come up with a plan for yet is a photographer... and that might hurt.

 

Seriously, engagement rings should be "what you can afford now" or "wait to buy".

If she loves you, she'll understand that you still spent a good chunk of your available cash on her.

Try really really hard not to go into debt for it (though marriage could be considered a form of debt...j/k).

 

Here is a real annoying story...

I paid a decent buck for my wife's ring and it's pretty nice looking. When she got pregnant, her fingers began to swell and she couldn't wear it anymore. Since she didn't want to look like an unwed mother, she borrowed her mother’s cheapo cubic zirconia.

She got more compliments on that stupid ring in a few months than the DECADE she wore the one I bought!!

She said that if she had to do it over again, she would have asked for a cubic zirconia and used the rest of the money to put towards our first house.

...I think she's lying, but I guess it's nice of her to say anyway.

 

Define "hurt". You can find "amateur" photographers for about $500.00. You won't get the album, but you get all the pictures, can buy the wedding album and put it together yourselves. The best part is, since you interview them, and look at their work before you hire them, you'll be able to tell if you're getting a bargain.

The food part was the most expensive part of my wedding (3 years ago this month, woot!). I mean, REALLY expensive. We went with a local place as well, but we had a lot of people show up.

 

My parents are wedding photographers....it's REALLY not hard. If you have a friend interested in photography at all or can take decent pictures then you're good to go.

The main thing is to know what shots to get:

Engagement pics in "plain" clothes

Pre-wedding pics of her and her brides maids & him and his groomsmen

Wedding shots: walking down the isle, parties on both sides, kiss

Post-wedding shots: both families together

Reception pics: first dance, cake, throwing flowers, limo


I like the ipod idea.....my girlfriend wants to get a band

 

"It's cheaper to keep 'er" - A blatant lie!!

 

That sucks

In all honesty my girlfriend I know WANTS a diamond and a nice ring and all of that but in the long run I think she'd rather have money to start a future when we graduate

 

Here is a hint from when I was shopping for it. When you find about the size you want drop it a tad and you will pay a lot less e.g. if you want a full ct. look at the .9 ish ct stones. you pay a lot more to be able to say you have a specific size. This also works around the 1/2 ct, and 3/4 ct sizes

 

Hey thats a really good idea..

is it wrong if I look on ebay?