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.