The Process of Buying Wedding Rings

There are very few material things that I actually believe to be very special. However, one of my belongings that I believe to be special is my engagement ring, because it was a gift to me from my fiancé and a huge memory laden object. More importantly, it is special because it is a sign of the love and commitment that we share.

Looking back on the process it took to purchase our rings, it was drastically different. This past summer, my fiancé, Austin, surprised me and took me ring shopping. The process was completely overwhelming, because I knew absolutely nothing about rings or the hundreds of styles and options you could choose from. There were many that I liked, and after much deliberation I was able to narrow down my options. We traveled to many different jewelers and spent a large amount of time searching.

This is the completely opposite of the ring shopping experience I had with Austin. I took him to Kay’s Jewelers a few weeks ago to take a look at rings. My intentions were purely to figure out what styles he liked and about how much it was going to cost me. Of course, the ring section for men is drastically, and I mean drastically, smaller then it is for women. We sat down and the lady that helped us pulled out rings for him to try on. He would put one on and immediately be able to say yes or no. After a short time, Austin had it narrowed down to one ring in the store and another ring we found in a magazine. I personally liked the ring in the store better which was more expensive then the ring that was in the magazine. We decided to order in the ring in the magazine and come back later to make our final decision. Last week, the ring came in, so we made another trip to take a look at it. He decided to go with the ring that we had ordered in that I did not like as much but was cheaper. I was in awe of how fast he made a decision. We went to the counter, swiped my card, and carried the ring out of the store. It was a piece of cake.

What I learned from this experience is that there is a huge difference between genders in looking into wedding rings. It’s amazing how there is such a difference between the amount of options and prices for women and men. Lastly, it also shows that when you are buying gifts for another person there is a bit of give and take. The ring he chose for himself would not have been my first choice; however, I purchased the ring he liked best which is what really matters. Plus, it didn’t hurt that it was cheaper for me, even though I was willing to pay more. All in all, I am happy that he is satisfied with his decision, and I am glad I didn’t have to go through what he did in order to purchase a ring.