Who says romance is dead? Poundland offer £1 engagement rings

[baldrick]

I think these cheap rings are sweet. If you don't have a lot of money, wouldn't it be better spent on the actual wedding, than an engagement ring? You shouldn't get in debt for a wedding, that's just stupid.

You can always buy something nicer later on.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

What if they couldn't afford a better ring?

When my parents got married, my dad had just gotten out of the VA hospital, after 18 months. My mom worked in a sweatshop sewing blouses. My mom's ring is a thin 12 ct gold band, with what could be charitably called a "diamond chip." My dad spent his last bit of cash on the thing.

That is lovely and would be so meaningful.

 

[Anju]

Always thought engagement was for couples where one person doesn't want to get married.

I don't think we were ever engaged. I asked, she said yes, booked Croydon registry office for a couple of months later, a coach and our favourite restaurant in Camden for 75 people.

She wore a sari (no cultural appropriation as she's from Guyana and has some India family) because it was cheaper than getting a wedding dress and because she looked amazing. Her sister did her hair in the car on the way to the registry office. Whole thing cost about £2000 and everyone had a great time.

We did also spend £1000 getting wedding rings made but just gold bands with good quality baguette cut stones set in them but as we're approaching 25 years together that seems reasonable on a per year cost basis.

Never understood the long engagement and big show wedding thing. I went to a friend's wedding last year and they spent £60,000, massive venue, hired three supercars for a week and a rolls Royce for the parents. Now they're living at his mum and dad's house.

The two other fancy weddings I've been to both ended in divorce within 5 years.

I wouldn't buy a ring from Poundland but romance doesn't have to be expensive. I gave my wife 2 packs of wildflower seeds a couple of days ago, one for home and one to sprinkle in the park she can see from her workplace window. Might not work for some people but she loved them.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

I gave my wife 2 packs of wildflower seeds a couple of days ago, one for home and one to sprinkle in the park she can see from her workplace window. Might not work for some people but she loved them.

That is so lovely.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

My dad has a sort of scary face. He is a complete softie but can look tough when he has his default face on.
One day he walked into where my mum worked. He spoke with her for a few minutes and left. Mum's co-worker came and asked mum if she was alright because she thougth "that man was giving out to you". Mum laughed and produced a bar of chocolate that my dad had called in to give her.
Romance eh?

 

[Spandex]

I overheard a heartwarming tale of young romance on the bus today. I could only hear the young woman's side of the conversation, as she was on her phone, but it went just so:

"So where were you then?"
"Are you fuckin shittin me?"
"Well you can find somewhere else to park yer willy"
"Yeah, I'm serious yer fuckin loser haa haa haa"
"See ya when I get off the bus. Love ya"

Oh to be young again.

 

[baldrick]

The best weddings I have been to are definitely the cheap and cheerful ones. I like to dress up but once you've bought a gift, maybe a new outfit, hotel, travel, drinks and so on there's definitely a pressure to feel like you're enjoying yourself.

 

[Marty1]

The ex forgot to take her engagement ring with her - so I sold it for £800

 

[moomoo]

What if they couldn't afford a better ring?

When my parents got married, my dad had just gotten out of the VA hospital, after 18 months. My mom worked in a sweatshop sewing blouses. My mom's ring is a thin 12 ct gold band, with what could be charitably called a "diamond chip." My dad spent his last bit of cash on the thing.

I’d be perfectly happy with a not expensive ring as long as it was beautiful but from Poundland? No. I’d like something that was chosen with care and not just shoved in the basket with the bin liners.

 

[weltweit]

IIRC we had gold rings signifying engagement, and then found a platinum antique ring with a stone of some kind which I bought for what seemed to me to be an amazing amount of money for something so small, (£450).

When we split, I half jokingly (only half) asked if I could have it back - she refused saying she wanted to keep it because she still liked me. I suppose I got my own back a little because she damaged it and had to pay to have it properly repaired which was quite a sum again IIRC.

Also when we split I took my ring off. Initially it seemed very strange not wearing one, I soon got used to it and now can't for the life of me remember where I put it.

I agree with you moomoo, some care needs to be taken, it is symbolic of .. well various things.

 

[Poot]

If I split with someone and I still had an expensive engagement ring, I think I'd feel bad. I think I'd give it back, regardless of what the law says about it being unconditional. As a feminist I think I would feel like I was taking the piss a bit.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Wouldn't be the cheapest ring I've slipped my pinkie into.

 

[i_hate_beckham]

I drew my wife's engagment ring on with a marker pen, we then picked out our own that cost £50 secondhand in total. We used the same rings as our wedding rings. Neither of us wanted to waste money on a ring, it's all about the sentimentallity.

Edit to add: She lost it in London on a visit where we went to University Greenwhich for me to to take part in a panel talking about drugs, went to the the pub, went to a house party with lots of drugs and on to a house to stay at with someone she had never met and I had only twice. She was in bits when she realised she had lost it. I emailed the person we stayed at and she said she hadn't found it. She did 3 weeks later and posted it and my wife was crying with joy over £15 worth of ring being found in the hardest place to find a ring in the UK.

 

[HoratioCuthbert]

I overheard a heartwarming tale of young romance on the bus today. I could only hear the young woman's side of the conversation, as she was on her phone, but it went just so:

"So where were you then?"
"Are you fuckin shittin me?"
"Well you can find somewhere else to park yer willy"
"Yeah, I'm serious yer fuckin loser haa haa haa"
"See ya when I get off the bus. Love ya"

Oh to be young again.

Beautiful indeed

 

[JimW]

We also just decided to get married then did it at a registry office, whole thing just cost the paperwork. We did however buy wedding bands and as luck would have it there was a lottery sort of thing at the massive jewellers in south Beijing, get the lucky number pressing a button on a randomising computer programme and one of the pair was free, which I duly achieved to the astonishment of onlookers First time I've ever won anything like that and the good fortune was take as an auspicious omen in the old superstitious way by the inlaws. And by me a bit.

 

[hash tag]

I'd have no problem with a vintage or antique ring. Or a lab grown diamond. As rings go.
But if I were ever to get engaged I'd rather the money was spent on something really useful or really lovely....like a puppy.

pre owned jewelry is great. It will certainly have a back story which you will never know.

I don't really understand the whole engagement ring thing. You decide you're going to get married. You get married. Why is a ring necessary?

Why the need for rings other than ornaments?
fwiw. I was viewed by many as a bad prospect. My friends told Mrs T to, don't as did my PA in law. No engagement rings were involved. Our wedding rings did not cost much by today's standards and we were a lot poorer then. Our wedding cost approx. £100..no parties, no guests.....18 years later we are more happily married than ever.

PS could I get her an eternity ring from pound land?

 

[Epona]

My engagement ring is pre-owned - it's not flash and wasn't at all expensive, just a small diamond in a band with this kind of slight art nouveau style thing going on.

We didn't spend a lot on rings or our wedding, we had a lovely day on a tight budget and a lovely short break in Cornwall for our honeymoon, it was really good and memorable

 

[moomoo]

My ring was also pre owned. We got it from an antique shop in Brighton that my friend owned. It did have a flawless ruby but it’s since got cracked. It’s still the most beautiful thing I own though.

 

[dessiato]

What if they couldn't afford a better ring?

When my parents got married, my dad had just gotten out of the VA hospital, after 18 months. My mom worked in a sweatshop sewing blouses. My mom's ring is a thin 12 ct gold band, with what could be charitably called a "diamond chip." My dad spent his last bit of cash on the thing.

To me that is worth much more than a rich man spending hundreds on a ring. It shows a very high level of love and commitment that he would literally give everything he had for the woman he loved.

 

[kabbes]

I don't really understand the whole engagement ring thing. You decide you're going to get married. You get married. Why is a ring necessary?

It’s not “necessary”, it’s just something people want to do. Why do people want to do anything that’s not strictly “necessary”?

 

[Epona]

To me that is worth much more than a rich man spending hundreds on a ring. It shows a very high level of love and commitment that he would literally give everything he had for the woman he loved.

Aye, same - in my family no-one has ever had much money - one set of my grandparents were East Londoners who met during the blitz - she was claustrophobic and refused to go to a shelter, and he was a firefighter - and got married within weeks (I think due to the general sense that you could die tomorrow that was prevalent at the time) without an engagement ring at all, although my granddad did save up and buy one of her choice for her some years later, which is really sweet.

My parents had a wedding on a tight budget too, although very stylish for the time with my mum in a white lace mini-dress and knee length white go-go boots with a bouffant hairdo, and the reception was a buffet at her parents' home with home cooked finger foods and a cake. Her engagement ring is a gold band with a gold heart and a tiny diamond chip set in the heart - and yeah it might not have been expensive for someone wealthy, but it was expensive for my dad - she loves it, and they've been married a long time - their next anniversary will be their 52nd anniversary

It's only really in the last 30-40 years that people have started to expect to spend ever increasing amounts on weddings - up til then they tended to be much more down to earth affairs.

 

[dessiato]

Mrs D told me we were getting married. I don't recall getting her a ring then but over the years have bought her a few only one of which she wears. She almost certainly doesn't know where the others are.

For our 25th anniversary I bought her a white gold solitaire ring which she loves but doesn't wear.

I bought her a gold ring with an inset pearl which she has never even put on.

I've given her a black pearl I found in an oyster, and a small white one I found when eating a bucket of steamed oysters. She lost them.

I've forgotten the point I was going to make except that these things are more important to me than they are to her. But we've been together now since 1985.

 

[Epona]

Oh I forgot to mention, my dad has an engagement ring too, it is a 9 carat gold signet ring - it was once eaten by a horse (he used to be a jockey) and he had to wait a day or two to get it back - it still has the faint imprint of a horse tooth on it

Nate's engagement ring is very modern - a wide band with some geometric lines engraved on it and a small black diamond set in the middle of the pattern of lines. Neither of us wear any rings day to day mind you!

 

[weepiper]

My mum and dad got married in a registry office with rings my dad made himself out of silver half crowns and had their wedding reception in the pub. They were together 41 years til she died and she was buried wearing the half crown ring.

 

[bimble]

Diamond engagement rings. A triumph of marketing, bullshit and incredibly dodgy business practices.

We Buy Engagement Rings Because a Diamond Company Wanted Us To

In the 1930s, few Americans proposed with the precious stone. Then everything changed.

www.theatlantic.com

Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?

An unruly market may undo the work of a giant cartel and of an inspired, decades-long ad campaign

www.theatlantic.com

Proper fascinating read thanks for that.

 

[tommers]

I can definitely see the point of these. I agonised for ages over buying a ring when I proposed and then I realised that it wasn't me who had to wear it and so maybe she should choose it, rather than me. So something like this would have been perfect. In the end I did it without a ring and we bought a cheap one together from a souvenir shop the next day and a proper one when we got home.

Incidentally she decided that she needed to buy me a telly in return, which reinforced my belief that I had made a good decision.

 

[Epona]

I can definitely see the point of these. I agonised for ages over buying a ring when I proposed and then I realised that it wasn't me who had to wear it and so maybe she should choose it, rather than me. So something like this would have been perfect. In the end I did it without a ring and we bought a cheap one together from a souvenir shop the next day and a proper one when we got home.

Incidentally she decided that she needed to buy me a telly in return, which reinforced my belief that I had made a good decision.

Yeah I chose mine - mind you I didn't really get proposed to as I don't think either of us is very prone to making (or enjoy being on the receiving end of) big romantic gestures, it was sort of a joint decision without very much fanfare

 

[bimble]

have you seen this possibly the least romantic thing in the world?

 

[moomoo]

have you seen this possibly the least romantic thing in the world?

Terrible isn’t it?!

 

[dessiato]

have you seen this possibly the least romantic thing in the world?

And if the person being asked says no...