Does the engagement ring REALLY need to be diamond?
Go ahead, make the case for tradition as well.
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M$46 Answers
You could talk to her about it to find out what she thinks. My wife and I shopped for the ring together so she'd have a style that she loved, rather than what some jeweler sold me.
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M$I personally think that the obsession we have with diamonds in our culture is despicable, especially given the nature of their manufacture. Someone already suggested that you look into a conflict-free diamond source, which would be a great idea in the case that your fiancee won't have it any other way.
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M$
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M$
Wikipedia and personal experience
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M$
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M$
Just my (non-traditional) 2 cents
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M$
For example, my sister who is an artist wears a lot of large, artisan jewelery pieces, so her husband proposed by taking her to the jeweler where she picked out a thick ring set with four amethysts.
Still, if the couple desires a diamond engagement ring, they can search for a conflict-free diamond whose "profit is not used to fund war, and it is mined and produced under ethical conditions." http://www.conflictfreediamonds.org/
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M$
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Yes, it's somewhat shallow. I'd say, find a ring that symbolizes some strong personal meaning to the both of you.
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M$my husbandliness
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M$
Akash...
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M$
Diamond only became a symbol of love after De Beers spent lots of money on manipulating culture.
here are some examples of love symbols used by cultures far older than ours.
http://www.whats-your-sign.com/love-symbols.html
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M$
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Also Canada offers certified Diamonds that have not been bought with blood or slave labor
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M$
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M$Common Sense, and experience
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M$
"In the 1930s, De Beers set out to establish social status for large diamonds through giving a number of starlets hefty stones, arranging for glamorous photo shoots, and script-doctoring Hollywood movies to include scenes of jewelry shopping. The tradition began to be manipulated more closely in one particular aspect–the act of giving. Those starlets told tales of being surprised by their large stones. Movie scenes featured a hero giving his gal a big rock and watching her eyes grow wide with joy. The diamond began to be injected into relationships between men and women as a reproducible act–a script for life, not just film–and an inseparable part of courtship and marriange. In 1947, De Beers’ ad agency came up with the massively successful slogan "A diamond is forever," which implied that diamonds don’t crack, break, or lose value. (They do.) The slogan became so entrenched that the only proper way to "dispose" of diamonds was to hand them down to a female descendant."
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M$I think most girls would like a diamond, but you can always add smaller stones either side, that perhaps have sentimental value (her birthstone for example), or that she likes.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
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M$
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$As a husband that had to go through months of my now wife looking in every shop window for a ring, if I was to say, no babe, a ruby will good, she would kill me.
Diamonds are forever.
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M$
That being said, no, the ring does not have to be a diamond. A good friend's ring is a beautiful blue sapphire, and it's lovely.
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M$
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M$If you decide to go with something else, just make sure that she does not get the impression you are doing it to save money.
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M$Personal Experience
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M$
My personal opinion here... I think the whole thing is bogus. It seems unreasonable to expect men to pay 2 to 3 times your monthly salary on a ring! If you want to buy into that BS, go right ahead. With the divorce rate as high as it is, you can always find wedding rings and engagement rings at pawn shops much cheaper than at retail jewelers. Then take the rings to the jeweler for sizing and cleaning. She will never know unless you tell her. ;-)
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Personal Experience
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M$On another note, there is a lot truth that illicit diamond trading goes on. However the diamond industry has taken a great amount of action over the last 10 years to curtail the distribution of diamond trading by creating a UN resolution called the Kimberly process. Check out http://www.dreamsofafrica.org if you want to learn more about those initiatives.
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M$Today almost everyone's interpretation of the engagement ring is something along these lines: "A symbol of ever lasting purity, love, devotion and commitment between two people". But where did it all start?
The earliest surviving records have shown that Archduke Maximillian of Hamburg may have started the trend among the European wealthy and royalty of giving diamond engagement rings in 1477 by giving Mary of Burgundy a diamond betrothal ring.
What happened before 1477? Was there such a thing as an engagement ring and if so were they set with diamonds?
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M$
I never wanted a diamond after I learned that they aren't even rare but are expensive simply because DeBeers has cornered the market. When I found out about what was going on in Africa over diamond harvesting, it only made me more determined that I would not have a diamond solitaire engagement ring.
I actually just got engaged in September, and my fiancé and I picked out a lovely aquamarine engagement ring. It has some small diamonds on the side (conflict-free) which I think are nice. The important thing to remember when picking a different gemstone is to get one that is hard enough (aquamarines, sapphires, rubies are all good choices, while opals and pearls are usually not because they are not very hard).
However, this is the kind of thing that I think you should discuss with the recipient of the ring: I mean...she (or he) is the one who's going to be wearing it for a long time! Some people have an attachment to diamonds: i may just be the exception.
I'm going to try to include a pic of my engagement ring (not sure it will work, though since it's from a facebook photo album): don't mind my weird hands (closeups reveal everyone's imperfections ;-)).
personal
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M$
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M$
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M$
But anyway: More important is a romantic occasion and the right words.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
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M$Life.
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M$
