I proposed with a borrowed ring because I couldn’t even afford a basic dollar store ring at the time.
Part of the added lore is how I faced my anxiety to go ask her great grandmother if I could borrow a ring, and then being lead through the old folks’ home to meet a woman who was the mother of one of our country’s most famous hockey players and telling her our story. Then borrowing the ring and receiving a letter on our wedding day that sadly the lady could not attend, but she wanted us to keep the ring…
So much better (for us) than something like “Yup here is 6 months of my salary in useless jewelry form”.
I didn’t want to surprise my girlfriend with a ring she’d be obliged to wear, which may or may not have been something she’d have liked.
I proposed with a small brooch from my collection she liked, and a plain ring shape open on my screen in 3D design software. I suggested we could design our wedding rings together.
She said yes, and we shopped together for a diamond-free ring she liked and that was her engagement ring. She loaned me a cute ring from her collection which happened to fit me, and that was my engagement ring until the wedding.
Our wedding bands are comparatively-inexpensive 3D-printed silver rings which reflect our different tastes in jewelry on the outside and have matching inscriptions on the inside. Her wedding ring fits perfectly together with her engagement ring on the same finger, and that’s how she likes wearing them. No expensive blood diamonds were ever involved, which suits us fine. Nobody else will ever have the same ring as us. If either of us lose or damage our ring, we still have the 3D file and can just get a new identical one printed.
We just celebrated our eighth anniversary yesterday.
I proposed with a borrowed ring because I couldn’t even afford a basic dollar store ring at the time.
Part of the added lore is how I faced my anxiety to go ask her great grandmother if I could borrow a ring, and then being lead through the old folks’ home to meet a woman who was the mother of one of our country’s most famous hockey players and telling her our story. Then borrowing the ring and receiving a letter on our wedding day that sadly the lady could not attend, but she wanted us to keep the ring…
So much better (for us) than something like “Yup here is 6 months of my salary in useless jewelry form”.
We just had our 17th anniversary in May.
I didn’t want to surprise my girlfriend with a ring she’d be obliged to wear, which may or may not have been something she’d have liked.
I proposed with a small brooch from my collection she liked, and a plain ring shape open on my screen in 3D design software. I suggested we could design our wedding rings together.
She said yes, and we shopped together for a diamond-free ring she liked and that was her engagement ring. She loaned me a cute ring from her collection which happened to fit me, and that was my engagement ring until the wedding.
Our wedding bands are comparatively-inexpensive 3D-printed silver rings which reflect our different tastes in jewelry on the outside and have matching inscriptions on the inside. Her wedding ring fits perfectly together with her engagement ring on the same finger, and that’s how she likes wearing them. No expensive blood diamonds were ever involved, which suits us fine. Nobody else will ever have the same ring as us. If either of us lose or damage our ring, we still have the 3D file and can just get a new identical one printed.
We just celebrated our eighth anniversary yesterday.
Thanks for sharing your story. This is the actual ‘stuff of life’ that matters.
This is amazing. This is way more valuable than an expensive ass ring.