Reading about some of the illustrious and oftentimes ludicrous stories surrounding the world’s favorite bling, it’s safe to say that the diamond ring has always been considered as the down payment on a marriage. And to think all of it stems from four words of an ingenious marketing campaign, "a diamond is forever".
Thanks to the countless Hollywood movies, the idea of a prince charming sweeping them off their feet and the magical proposal is etched in every young girl’s mind. When it comes to men, how the rings look isn’t given that much importance. In fact, there are many who readily admit not knowing the difference between the two rings, while other men don’t bother finding out.
Reading about some of the illustrious and oftentimes ludicrous stories surrounding the world’s favorite bling, it’s safe to say that the diamond ring has always been considered as the down payment on a marriage. And to think all of it stems from four words of an ingenious marketing campaign, “a diamond is forever.”
This kicked off the craze of receiving a diamond ring to mark the milestone of an engagement. It also somehow convinced men that the diamond custom engagement ring was not only to be considered as a symbol of their love for their future wives, but that the size of the diamond on the engagement ring was directly proportionate to their love for the recipient of the ring.
But, does the stage-5 carat that’s sitting atop a woman’s ring finger have any impact on the wedding itself? Here, we are going to find out by taking a look at the diamond ring’s well-recorded history and some real-world facts about the not-so-humble engagement ring, why it’s needed and what’s the difference between the two rings.
The exchange of rings during a marriage ceremony is a time-honored tradition that’s still going strong in many parts of the world. The first recorded evidence of the use of a ring during a ceremony dates back to nearly 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. While these rings were fashioned from reeds and hemp, the event is considered to be the precursor to the modern-day marriage and the exchange of wedding rings during the ceremony.
As time passed, the braided ring was fashioned with the most valuable commodity of the time, which included bone, leather, and ivory. The value of the ring was also used as a way to determine the net worth of the individual presenting the ring, which was a big deal among the ultra-wealthy.
During the Renaissance, gimmel rings grew in popularity during weddings. This is also the period where the world was introduced to the heavily ornate silver, gold and platinum rings. Much of the designs for modern day wedding and engagement rings are taken from this period.
Few people know this but prior to WWII, a wedding ring was only worn by the woman, but servicemen who were leaving home to fight overseas during WWII would wear their wedding rings as a sign of their commitment to return back to their wives. Though a noble gesture, that didn’t work for many of the Allies, but the trend caught on and not before long, men would also be seen wearing their wedding rings. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the popularity of wearing a wedding ring has grown exponentially through the years and has led to the creation of many diverse styles that caters to the different tastes of the people.
While the wedding ring has shown to be somewhat important when it comes to signifying two people coming together in the bond of marriage, the engagement ring is more of a vanity prop that every woman getting married looks forward to whether they are ready to admit it or not. While the true origin of the engagement ring is not known, it is usually associated with accompanying the man while he pops the question of “will you marry me?” The addition of a diamond-studded engagement ring seems to serve its purpose by almost always leading to a “yes” by the recipient (well, in most cases anyway!).
When comparing the two, it’s easy to see that the wedding ring carries more weight when it comes to acting as a symbol of one’s love and commitment for their partner, as compared to the engagement ring. That’s because, even though people end up paying more for a diamond engagement ring since it’s supposed to symbolize the man’s love for their partner, it is the wedding ring that people end up wearing on their ring finger for the rest of their lives, or at least “till death do us part.” So, is there more to the diamond engagement ring than meets the eye? The tradition of presenting an engagement ring has been around for a long time and has been used to represent the personal wealth of the giver. Since men end up using their wives to show off their wealth, the size of the diamond on the engagement ring is used as an indicator to some extent, of the individual’s net worth. For a man to show off this wealth along with their trophy wives is not unheard of nowadays.
Sure, any woman would be delighted to receive a diamond engagement ring, regardless of its size, but the truth is, this sometimes leads to the two marrying for the wrong reasons. Regardless of how much the ring may cost at the end of the day, both the engagement ring and the wedding ring is of great significance to the woman.
So great is its need felt before a couple even gets married that nowadays, both the man and woman pool in to getting themselves an engagement ring prior to the marriage, and then probably do the same for getting the wedding ring as well.
Once the couple exchanges their vows at the marriage ceremony, the ring that adorns the ring finger is replaced with the wedding ring. But, this does not mean that the engagement ring loses its importance. Many couples wear their engagement ring on the other hand after marriage, while others prefer to put it away safely, and there are yet others who join the two rings together and wear them as a single ring.