Engagement rings.

Both my rings have been enlarged due to arthritis in fingers , just glad they could be enlarged, wouldn't like to have chosen new ones

We couldn’t afford an engagement ring, and I never asked for one, although there was a lovely jewellers round the corner from where I worked that had some beautiful Victorian rings which I always admired. DH always said he felt bad about it, so he splashed out on my wedding ring which is a broad hoop of 22carat gold. For our 1st anniversary when we lived in the Far East, he had an eternity ring - a full hoop of diamonds - made for me and in 1971 my darling three year old son flushed it down the toilet! I had to wait until our fortieth anniversary for a replacement (much to his relief, I chose only to have a half hoop!).

We were engaged in 1971 and the jeweller showed me a selection of rings under £70 and I selected a sapphire and diamond cluster, although I’d seen an emerald that was £82 - out of budget.
Years later, I saw a second hand emerald and diamond cluster in white gold which I preferred, so got that and a delicate white gold wedding band - my original was very wide, yellow gold.
The rings (and others) were stolen and after lengthy, heated negotiations with the insurance company, I bought a fabulous pear shaped emerald surrounded by diamonds. Going to Egypt one year, I was leaving the emerald at home, so bought myself a channel set diamond band, which is now my everyday wedding ring. Despite being widowed, I love my rings and still wear them.
NB - I’ve taken pictures of myself wearing my jewellery, as this was one of the issues raised by the Insurance Assessor, despite having some receipts to hand.

Deedaa

I've still got the receipt for my engagement ring which we bought in 1970. A very tiny diamond in an interesting setting, although it is 18 carat gold. It was the vast sum of £32 10s. My wedding ring was £8 10s.

Just about the same price as mine bought in 1964 from H. Samuels . It is still in good condition . I hjasd in expanded when my finger got damaged but now finger is back to normal and I am afriad it , and my wedding ring , will fall off .

Mine wore so thin I couldn’t wear it anymore. I took it to the jewellers along with my Mum’s and Grandma’s and had them made into one ring. Except they didn’t use my diamond. It was too small !

I was forced to get a new engagement ring after our house was broken into and the ring stolen! Mind you the replacement had to have a new sapphire put in after losing the original.

I got my Engagement ring in 1965. I loved it then and I love it now. It would need to be resized for me to be able to wear it. I will keep it for my granddaughter's . I lost my wedding ring about 16 years ago. It also was too small and I wore it on my little finger but it was lost one day when I was at work. Since I've been divorced since 1989 I don't wear any rings now.

My parents were married during WWII - very quickly by special lisence. You could only get low carat gold rings then so my father bought my mothers wedding ring from a pawn shop so she could have 22 ct. She always considered it unlucky.

Couldn’t afford an engagement ring. My husband bought my wedding ring in 1945 whilst serving in Palestine. It has never been off my finger since. 1946.

No, I haven't changed my engagement ring, I love it as it is, a modest ring with three stone diamonds set in platinum.

In 1967 I had quite an unusual one with 3 sapphires. Over time I put weight on (I was then 10st) my fingers swelled up and I had to go to the fire station to have it cut off. I was very upset about it.

My most treasured possession. Every time I look at it I’m taken back to 1965 and the love we had for each other then - and now.

My engagement ring cost £17.00 from Samuel's in 1974. Not worth much more now, but I'd never change it for the world

My husband chose my ring when he proposed and it is a small diamond as we were both young at the time with a 1 year old baby. We weren’t focused on getting married at that time but then my mum fell ill and was told she didn’t have long to live. My husband really wanted her to be at the wedding, for my sake and for her to know that I was loved and being cared for after she was gone, so he spoke to my parents with the old fashioned, traditional approach of asking their permission to marry me.
Over the years he has been very successful and has occasionally said that he would like to buy me a bigger diamond but I wouldn’t dream of it. It’s all about the thought and I never take my rings off. He bought me an eternity ring for Christmas one year and I wear that with the others every single day. If my diamond was too big the rings would look flashy - as it is my rings are subtle and look simple and elegant…….. plus my Mum and Dad were there when he proposed and the wedding was the last time the whole family was together.
I love my ring.

No way would I think of altering or changing my engagement ring. It's a unique symbol and memento of a particular time and place, and of all those youthful feelings that went with them. It also signifies commitment and continuity from a fixed point in time, in partnership with my wedding ring.. in my case some 54 years ago. Fortunately, it's of a fairly ageless design too.

I lost a diamond from my engagement ring after about 25 years. The replacement cost more than the ring cost originally.

I honestly can’t remember when we got engaged but I do know we got married in 1977.

My engagement ring came from Ratners and was probably the cheapest one in the shop as we had no money. It had a tiny diamond set in and you almost needed a magnifying glass to see it.

The diamond fell out about 20 years ago and I never got it replaced. It’s in a box somewhere. My wedding ring was also a cheapo Ratners and I wore that until it got so thin that I thought it might break. My husband asked me to choose a new one and I picked a russian wedding ring in white gold, rose gold and yellow gold.

I have worn my engagement ring, wedding ring and eternity ring every day without fail since I got them (1967, 1969 and 1980). Mean much too much to ever think about changing them. To me they are beautiful and a sign of the love shared between my DH and myself.

When we got engaged in 1975, my engagement ring was a .20 diamond. It was on the yellowy side in colour. It was in a white gold setting with 4 claws which made it look square although it was a round diamond. The band was yellow gold. It cost £67.00...
On my 50th birthday, my husband took me to the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham to choose a piece of jewellery and I chose a three stone ring, the diamonds in which was approximately the same size as my original diamond.
I wear that (alongside the new wedding ring which I bought to match the size of the band on the new ring). My original engagement ring sat safely in its box. Until we were burgled. They took quite a lot of pieces of sentimental value, like my grannie's 22ct broad wedding ring which was such a part of my memories (holding her hand and seeing her ring...) and I don't think I have ever really forgiven them.
To the extent that a few years ago I bought a second hand solitaire diamond ring, which (after the stone fell out of its 4 claw setting) I had reset into a six claw "Tiffany style" setting which I chose in the Jewellery Quarter. I alternate between the singe stone and the three stone ring.
And I always take my rings off at night, when I'm showering, washing up etc.
With some of the insurance money, I bought myself a diamond half hoop eternity ring, which I sometimes wear instead of my wedding ring.
I haven't changed the husband (but he's not really the jewellery-buying type...)

I guess I’m not sentimental - even though we’ve been married 59 years and counting! I had my original engagement ring redesigned about 20 years ago, but didn’t really like the result so didn’t wear it regularly…..then as the years went by my fingers got bigger and it doesn’t fit now. Before that my husband bought me a new wedding ring …..a wider more elaborate design which I did wear for some years, but again it’s now too small and sits in my jewellry box. Now - when a couple of my granddaughters come round - they love to go into that box and try on all my jewellry and enjoy hearing the same old stories I tell them about where I got each piece and what it represents! I must say I get far more pleasure out of repeating these stories and watching their faces as they check out each piece than I would do at wearing any of it at this age!

My mother got engaged to my father after just two weeks and she refused to let him spend much in case something went wrong between the two of them. In fact they were very happily married until he died.

00mam00

When we got engaged, I had fallen in love with a beautiful amethyst ring in a pretty gold setting in an antique shop, but dh refused to buy me a ‘second hand’ ring! So I ended up with a plain little sapphire ring the same price as the antique one, I have never felt the same about it and rarely wear it.

When we got engaged my husband insisted that I must choose a ring immediately, but it was Saturday and at that time many shops were shut in the afternoon.
I ended up with a ring that I didn't like much, though I obviously had a sentimental attachment to it because of what it represented.

My first two engagement rings were stolen and eventually I chose a new ring which I love. Apparently in the US it is quite common to trade your ring in for another when you are better off and some people do it several times, sometimes keeping the a larger stone as part of a new ring.

I had 2 wedding rings as one had to be cut off years ago due to getting stung by a wasp. I had it fixed but was never particularly happy with it so my husband bought me another one and I had an engagement ring years after we married as we couldn’t afford one at the time. During the years of our marriage I ended up also buying an Emerald which was from the last of a mine in South Africa and I had it set in an eternity ring he bought me when we had our son. I’m not one for stacking rings as I have a problem with the joints of my hands as I’ve got older. We went to Guernsey on holiday about 10 years ago and I took all my bits and pieces of old jewellery with me that I’d collected over the years with the intention of selling it all. I was looking at the beautiful rings in this old Windmill shop and showed her all of the bits I know longer wear and she suggested I had my wedding, engagement and eternity ring melted down and we put our heads together and design one ring that encompasses them all and she weighed up my old bits I no longer wanted and that helped pay for my new ring, so that’s what I did. At the back of my ring it now has my initial in a lovely swirl with the figure 8 as that is for infinity and the main emerald is on the top with other little diamonds and emeralds around it, I had with the bits I no longer wear. It was sized to my finger so fits perfect and most of the stones have rub over setting so nothing can catch. It’s quite wide but not chunky and I was thrilled with it, so when I pass I’m only leaving one ring for jewellery which my Son wants but at least I’m not leaving him a box full of junk which he would feel guilty about selling or getting getting rid of. It’s also much nicer just to wear the one very unusual ring.

Never had one, couldn't afford it at the time but we did buy my wedding ring very early on so I cherish that dearly and looked forward to the day I would be wearing it.