Woman Slams Surprisingly Tiny & Insulting Engagement Ring Following 8 Years With Partner

Jun 29, 2021 by apost team

Imagine finding the love of your life and finally taking the next step in your relationship. For many couples, this means marriage, but before marriage, comes an engagement, which officially starts when one partner proposes to the other, often giving them an engagement ring to mark their commitment.

In American culture, engagement rings are an important part of the wedding process. Often, the person proposing will spend a lot of time and money trying to find the perfect ring for their future partner. Sometimes people use a family heirloom as an engagement ring. In other countries, however, engagement rings are not as much of a focal point and some cultures don’t even use them at all.  

Unfortunately, however, not all engagements go according to everyone's wishes and sometimes it can be underwhelming, for a multitude of different reasons. That happened to one woman who posted about her disappointment on social media. The woman's partner of eight years proposed to her after they'd been talking about marriage for three years, ready to cement their love for life. While most people would be absolutely thrilled at the proposal and know that they have found their forever partner, the woman was not too happy with the choice of ring. So she posted about it on social media and subsequently her story was shared on Reddit in 2020, and it's gone viral since then.

The woman's issue with the engagement ring, that her partner had supposedly been saving up for, was that it was very small, leaving her feeling underwhelmed. She shared a photo of the ring on her hand and asked: "Am I being shady or materialistic if I tell [him I don't] want dis little a** ring?" 

Although the woman didn't post the story to Reddit herself, it certainly got a lot of people talking — but not necessarily for the same reasons. One commenter wrote:

"I’m not materialistic when it comes to things like this but if my man proposed with THAT I would be full on insulted. There are nicer, more substantial rings than that for $200. He went out of his way to find the cheapest possible option; which to me says that he’s probably like that in every aspect of the relationship and will probably be like that in every aspect of their marriage. You can count on it."

Others agreed it wasn't even about the money, but it seemed that he had put in little effort into choosing a nice ring. Another saw something else in the choice, however:

"Not gonna lie. I'd be more concerned about his 'saving up' to buy something that little. Simply because it shows that a wedding is probably not in the budget."

That's a fair point. While Reddit users debated what the size of the diamond meant, one person offered up some practical advice: 

"They have been talking about marriage for 3 years but have they gone window shopping for engagement rings? Have they discussed style, size and budget for the ring as well as a wedding? If not, she should gently let him know this is not her style and go with him back to the jeweler and show him what she would like. This will hopefully lead to a budget discussion and set priorities."  

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In fact, that was the popular response — to "gently" tell her fiance that it wasn't quite her style and to instead go shopping for a ring together. Another woman backed up this option, writing:

"My husband has bought some jewelry for me that wasn’t my taste. I wanted to have an engagement ring I absolutely loved, so we picked it out together. We got engaged almost three years ago and I still stare at my ring every day because I absolutely adore it."

Yet another female commenter vouched for how this option might not seem romantic at first, but it's ultimately a much better approach:

"I used to think this was unromantic af, and then my then-bf made me do it and LET ME TELL YOU it's amazing."

Men even chimed in that doing that with their partners helped to take some of the pressure off of choosing the perfect ring. However, one person left a sobering comment that could have some truth to it:

"When the ring is the issue, the ring is not the issue."

The thread certainly had a lot of opinions, many of which did raise some fair questions, but at the end of the day it's this woman's personal situation and she has to decide what is best for her. We hope that she and her fiance are able to learn from the experience and begin to communicate their needs better to each other, as that is what will ultimately have a bigger impact on their future marriage together.   

What do you think about this woman's predicament? What would you have done if you were in her situation? Pass this story on to find out what those you know would also do if they were in her situation.