tvPM Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Arkansas: > 1) its Fiancee, not Finance (got CFA on the > brain?) > 2) My wife doesn’t care too much abot the diamond > (she returned the 2.5ct for something smaller as > she thought it was too much), and she seems to dig > her $120 plain white gold wedding band more, and > often just wears that. It doesn’t erase the fact > that friends get jealous seeing a nice ring on > someone when they don’t have one, whether its a > big diamond, amethyst, or whatever. > 3)Spending a ton of money can be a waste. However, > I would keep in mind that your wife will be > wearing this most days for the rest of her > life(hopefully), so make sure you get her > something that she would be proud and happy to > wear. Very well put!
Regarding getting married, in the words of Gnarls Barkley, “Think twice, that’s my only advice”. If you are going to get married, in my view you should find a woman who doesn’t want a big engagement ring (ideally not a diamond ring at all, only a band). Big diamond engagement rings are silly.
JohnThainsLimoDriver Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m going to put in 25 minutes of overtime at work > today so I can make enough money to propose to > akanska. for a $7 ring? OT should pay time and a half at your factory John, so that means you are rolling in about $9.50/hr? I thought the limo driver made like 250k?
Not after my boss got canned for expensing a $1 million dollar can. But you’re right, I can afford to take her out to McDonald’s after the proposal and also spring for KarenC’s big mac.
Haha thanks very much guys - I just end up with a big mac from JohnThainsLimoDriver 
JohnThainsLimoDriver Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not after my boss got canned for expensing a $1 > million dollar can. But you’re right, I can afford > to take her out to McDonald’s after the proposal > and also spring for KarenC’s big mac. I ronic- my hubby takes me out for cheeseburger happy meals at least once a month. He manages a mcd’s acct so he gets them free. Gotta love perks! tvPM- I agree too, and thanks for not pointing out the other 30 spelling and grammar mistakes ; ) My issue is more so with ppl and girls who really expect some random standard (like 3 months salary) as if its a god given right. If you feel you’d like to get her something that makes her happy than thats great- as long as you don’t feel obliged and its not a complete economically ludicrous amount. I see it as something between her and you- not her friends and her, and thats how a lot of girls treat it. Its like they don’t even care what thought was put into it as long as they impress ppl. I have a thing against impressing ppl with material thing in general.
Can’t… take… women… stereotypes… being… broken. Going… to… blow… up…
I bought my wife a variant of a cubic zercomium ring(it was supposed to look more like a real diamond), and she found out and never lived it down. She never wore it. We are in the process of getting divorced now.
Akanska - I completely agree with you, an engagement ring shouldn’t have anything to do with other people, it should just be a reflection of the couple themselves, I never understood why lads would spend so much when there were perfectly nice rings for half the price… there is absolutely no point asking for a ball park figure as it is different for different women as we have seen during this entire thread, the most important thing is getting something that the girl likes and in fairness I would only ever care about the thought that was put into it, not the pay check…it’s all about the honeymoon anyway 
So, with a 2-3 months of gross base salary as a “standard” a typical engagement ring should cost something in between US$10,000-45,000 (assuming that base salaries below US$60,000 and above US$180,000 per annum are rare, for simplicity sake). Considering the prices in the jewelry shops here, I would say that even 10kUSD would buy you a VERY VERY good ring, by all means…
KarenC Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- >…I never understood why lads > would spend so much when there were perfectly nice > rings for half the price… When it comes to dealing with the women in our lives, I think most gents would agree that we spend a disturbingly large proportion of our time in utter fear that “ooops, we did it the wrong way for her.” And, more often than not, doing something that we think is “practical,” is what gets us into a mess. (however, in my last relationship, I was on the other side of the “practicality” equation, so I definitely know what it means to feel like you’re not really valued)
I liked the idea of letting the girl choose her own ring after. I have bad taste and I know girls have their own style and likings etc… I mean if my girlfriend was going to pick something for me that i had to wear everyday I would want to like it. What do you guys think of proposing with a wedding band? ( I know she likes platinum so I would simply get a platinum band in her size) what do you guys think?
bchadwick - would you mind explaining what you mean by practicality in the negative light as I always saw that as an asset!?
IH8FSA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I liked the idea of letting the girl choose her > own ring after. I have bad taste and I know girls > have their own style and likings etc… I mean if > my girlfriend was going to pick something for me > that i had to wear everyday I would want to like > it. > > What do you guys think of proposing with a wedding > band? ( I know she likes platinum so I would > simply get a platinum band in her size) > > > what do you guys think? Just drop it into conversation like a woman in work got engaged and they were admiring this type of ring etc … see what she says… she’ll no doubt give her opinion. I fell for that trick myself :-S
Wait, hold the phone. Are you married?
Hahaha nope single, was just proposed to before…
Ok, because I was crying, but now I stopped. Your singleness has wiped all my tears away
Wow I’m glad my singleness over here was able to help you all the way over in Canada!! 
Practicality. In most circumstances it is a good thing. But social and romantic interactions also have certain rituals that tell your partner that you think that they are special. Why do you buy stuff for your partner on Valentine’s day, for example (I assume you do that)? Sure, you can say “times are tough, so we won’t do anything too extravagant,” but you still expect some kind of ritual that makes you feel connected. One of these rituals is for the man to buy a woman a fairly expensive engagement ring when proposing. Part of this has the practical matter of showing seriousness and earnestness, sort of like putting “earnest money” down on a house. But how expensive should it actually be? That’s something that can be worked out and negotiated, but if you just guess and go too cheap, it can really backfire on you. So from a guy’s point of view, if he wants to surprise his girl and wants to make sure that there’s a “margin of safety” that she won’t think he’s cheap, it’s better to spend more and make darned sure she knows he’s not just leaving her some change that he found off his dresser. As for my comment about my last romance. The practicality issue is that I started realizing that my partner never really put much effort into making me feel all that special. Sure, I was useful to her and she liked having me around, and I could tell that, but she really never did anything that really said, “your happiness is important to me for reasons beyond the practical fact that it’s easier to get my priorities taken care of if you’re happy.” After a few years of this, I realized I was hoping for something that just wasn’t going to happen and we drifted apart emotionally, then physically.
bchadwick… it is very unusual to see a lad write something that is sensible yet quite romantic, your last girlfriend was obviously an idiot (no offense intended) if she didn’t see those amazing qualities in you!