How much are you willing to spend on rings?

[fluers_echo]

Engagement/proposal ring? --> must have diamonds right? Solitaire or a trinity, even a celebration ring? How much?

Wedding bands --> is it normal to wear white gold or platinum only? Simple or more fanciful design? Normally bands are cheaper than diamond rings, but these rings will be worn more often. So how much are you willing to spend on these?

I'm thinking, for the engagement ring, around 5K would be reasonable? given that my SO makes that much a month... My girlfriend (married) told me that a "sincere" gesture would be around 2 to 3 months of his pay.. but I think that would be too extravagant.

[Janine.Lee]

It really depends on your personal preferences. People say general rule of thumb is 2-3mths of his pay. But if you don't think you need such an expensive ring, then by all means buy a cheaper one. After all, you're the one wearing the ring and not your friends.

The price of the ring is defintely not a gauge of his sincerity. Look at all the rich people who splurge on 8 or 10 carats rings which cost like hundreds of thousands to millions. And in the end? these people end up divorced or having affairs. So who's to say that the price of a ring is a show of a guy's sincerity? Are you marrying the guy or marrying the ring?

Perhaps, your SO can pay for the solitaire ring and you can offer to pay for the wedding bands. After all, isn't a marriage supposed to be about 2 persons? I don't see why the guy should be made to for pay everything.

A solitaire or wedding band or celebration ring can cost anything from $2k onwards, depending on quality and brand names. Do look through engagement ring thread in Wedding forum and the Diamond Talk in the Jewellery forum. Lots of info in these two threads.

[twinkleblue]

Hi fluer_echo,
I agree with zjaninez that how much he spurlge on the ring DOES NOT signify the sincerity... and I don't believe in the mentality that the engagement ring need to cost 2-3 months of his pay.. My fiance earns ard 5K a month, but I got a simple engagement ring 0.3x carat brilliant rose ring which cost around 3K, and i still love it a lot. I don't mind that it is not expensive as what others say, as the meaning behind the ring is having to spend the rest of your life with this person. I would rather the extra money "supposingly" meant for the ring to do into my house, my reno or everything else that will build our new lifes together.

As for my wedding bands, we got a pair from Love & Co. cost $2136, and I paid for his ($1338 ), and he paid for mine ($798 ). Looked around so many shops, and wanted to get a cheaper alternative, but in the end decided to get this since we will be wearing it everyday, and we need to get something that we both like a lot.

[syps]

i agree too that how exp or how big the diamond ring does not = to how much he loves you. it's the overall sincerity that's important. it should be something he can afford and for our case he will be the one buying and deciding, i won't be going with him for the selection. so whatever he choose, i will still like it. i won't tell him it have to cost S$xxxx than I will accept.

for our wedding bands, we are looking around now but i read through some wedding forums and i realize the cost is ard S$1K, so we are looking at around there after all the discounts. and it's going to come from our joint account =D

[nuclear.orange]

We are looking at simple wedding bands, firstly I can't wear to work due to job nature and secondly we like simple stuff.

But I do have friends who insisted their SOs to be able to afford higher ended rings...

[qinying]

I agree with the rest that a huge diamond proposal ring does not equate to a guy's sincerity. I honestly feel that the act of proposal itself (or decision to get married) already shows that the guy is sincere to want to commit to the relationship for a lifetime.

Personally, I dont have a proposal ring from him cos he is not earning alot and he is still saving for his studies. But we splurge on our wedding bands as we will be wearing them everyday and we are paying for one another's ring. Mine cost close to $2k and his is about $1.6k so in total will be about $3.6k for our bands from Love & Co.

[charmelise]

with all due respect i think your girlfriend is seriously misguided on the sincerity part.

how much one is willing to spend is really subjective. for example, how high are the rings on your list of priorities for the wedding? what is a comfortable budget for your SO?

if you haven't been shopping around, you may not be familiar with the prices and therefore the budget you should set aside for it. how about going shopping together with your SO to get a feel of what type of rings you like and note the prices before deciding on what to get eventually.

[fluers_echo]

My SO and I already opened joint accounts. and he's the one in charge of finance(Gosh! lol~). So he roughly has an idea how much that ring is gonna cost...

I've looked around and eyeing a Tiffany solitaire 0.3 carats for about 4K.

For wedding bands, I'm eyeing Van Cleef & Arpels, a pair of simple 18K white gold for ard 3K.

Frankly, I can't really tell the difference between a Tiffany solitaire and a Lee Hwa destinee, or Soo Kee brilliant rose, and the price difference isn't that great either. Any ideas?

I somehow feel better to buy a Cartier or Tiffany... than to buy from Lee Hwa or Soo Kee... coz these are still a bit like neigbourhood stores.

[fluers_echo]

I've been to Love & Co as well. I like the boutique and the staff are friendly.
But I find it very similar to Tiffany & Co? even the name is alike..

[charmelise]

if you are only choosing from those, definitely go for tiffany's. love & co is owned by one of the local jewelry chains.

[Janine.Lee]

Try and see if the SA allows you to bring the ring outside the store for a look. You can do this at Raffles Hotel Tiffany but not Taka Tiffany. Some Lee Hwa, Soo Kee, Goldheart stores allow you to do this as well, usually those that are not in the busy areas.

It's best to view the ring in natural light as this is probably the lightning that you'll be in every day. Stores are fitted with spotlights so it can give a misleading picture. After all, in every day life, you don't eat/work/play under the spotlight.

Besides the diamond, also look at how the overall ring looks on your finger. The setting of the ring is impt.

If you notice, Lee Hwa's Destinee setting tend to set the diamond higher and have very thin prongs. Theirs is also the 4 prongs-setting which makes a diamond looks squarish instead of round. This make it look 'very in your face'; it's like announcing to people that "See, I'm wearing a diamond ring".

Soo Kee's Destiny's setting looks almost like Tiffany's Lucida setting. This seems to cover a lot of the diamond.

[duckiee]

i left how much he was willing to pay for my engagement ring up to him - afterall, he's the one paying.

as for bands, i was willing to splurge coz we'll wear it more often (plus, he didnt get a proposal ring!). i'm paying for his band & he's paying for mine. unfortunately (for him ), my bands costs almost double of his coz of the diamonds

[fifteenmay]

For engagement ring-i left it up to my SO to decide but i know that he was saving for it and used most of his bonus on it

For wedding rings: we looked at our wedding budget and decided that 2.5k was a reasonable price for both rings. first few rings that i looked at nearly blew the budget for one ring alone! haahah.. in the end settled for love & co's half eternity ring and a platinium ring for him. in the end, his ring is more ex than mine! All in all, we spent 2.7k on our rings.. blew budget slightly.

we also realised that we are willing to change our wedding bands every 5 years (Vows renewal or anniversary present)so we do not want to spend too much on the first pair. also realised that our fingers might change size so wearing the rings forever would not be too possible anyway.

[witchz]

I agree with most of the gals here. I dun think one shud force your SO to buy a super expensive proposal ring. It's really the thought that counts.

and i also mention to my SO that the proposal doesn't have to be expensive to be touching. =) simple and sweet can just make your other half very satisfied. =)

[princess_yuna]

Me n my SO decided to spend less than 2k on the wedding bands. We're eyeing on Lee Hwa's. Holding a wedding is so expensive so personally i feel that so long the ring is reasonably good, it shld be fine.

For my proposal ring, we got a SK 0.5carat for 3k plus. Very contented already....

No need big big diamond or expensive ring, so long the marriage is blissful can le... =)