About a month ago, my fiancé and I went shopping for his wedding band. After a few visits to some jewelry stores, he had it narrowed down to a comfort-style Tungsten band.*
The rings ranged anywhere from $200-$350, which was well within our budget for his wedding band. But, because we’re compulsive and not impulsive, we didn’t buy anything and we went home to research tungsten.
As it turns out, tungsten is one of the cheapest metals on earth. In fact, when you pay for Tungsten jewelry, in essence all you’re paying for is the labor required to make the jewelry. But, what’s really cool about it is that it is heavy. So, it’s not cheap feeling at all. There are a few downsides, like it can’t be resized.
With our new knowledge in hand, my fiancé did some comparison shopping. What he found was a Tungsten ring that looked identical to one of the bands he had tried on at one of the jewelry stores. The only difference? It wasn’t $300. It was $14.99.
So, my fiancé ordered two different sizes (Every jewelry store we went to sized him as something different). We ordered it from Amazon, which has an excellent return policy, so that we could make sure it was good quality. When the ring arrived, we were really wowed.
We decided to gather opinions about this ring. So, my fiancé brought the ring with him to work. He then proceeded to ask the very classy question, “How much do you think we paid for that? No seriously, you won’t offend me, just guess!” An woman he works with who is very into expensive jewelry guessed at least $400.
When we asked our wedding coordinator / neighbor, who describes herself as a “Tiffany Girl” said she thought it cost at least $800.
Revealing the price, it sets off a shitstorm of opinions. These opinions range from “Wow, I would’ve never guessed! That’s a great ring for that price!” to “I just couldn’t buy a wedding band that is $14.99. It feels like you don’t value your relationship.”
When I told my grandmother, I think she may have assumed that we were so poor that that’s all we could afford, and then proceeded to offer him my deceased grandfather’s wedding band.
Opinions have definitely leaned towards the “But it’s a wedding band. You HAVE to pay more than $14.99 for a wedding ring!”
Well, we disagree. In fact, my fiancé is keeping both the sizes he ordered, so that if he ever, ahem, outgrows the smaller one, he can just use the bigger one.
So, what do you think, lovely readers? Do you think we don’t value our marriage because we’re only paying $14.99 for a wedding ring? Should we pay $300 for the same ring just to demonstrate that it “means more” to us?
* By the way, if you have never tried a comfort band, they really are incredible. It’s hard to describe it, but his ring really is incredibly comfortable.
5 comments
We got the boy’s for $30 on Amazon. Maybe we’ll get a nicer one someday, but maybe we won’t. When you’re on a tight budget, you save money where you can. The point is that he’s wearing something to show the world he’s married. If that doesn’t say he values the relationship, what else does? It’s not like you leave the price tag on the thing.
At least he will wear a wedding ring. Due to my husband’s occupation (carpenter) he can’t wear one at work. So his expensive diamond wedding band is sitting in my jewelry box. As Liz pointed out, “the point is that he’s wearing something to show the world he is married” It shouldn’t matter what the cost is.
My fiance bought a tungsten ring off of Amazon for $15. It looks great, has a nice heft, and is supposed to be extremely scratch resistant. He ordered 2 sizes and one of them fit perfectly. I think his sister took the other one to use as a thumb ring. 🙂
I can’t stand it when people equate the value of your marriage to how much you spend on your wedding. That annoys the hell out of me. My engagement ring was $400. The diamond was his grandmother’s and we got an awesome deal on the platinum setting. Are we going to get divorced because he spent less than 3 months salary on my engagement ring???
Sorry, rant over.
Our rings were actually two of the things we “splurged” on. We spent about $700 on both. Chuck liked the tungsten rings, but was concerned about how to cut it off in an emergency, which is one of its downsides. He opted for titanium instead, which a gold inlay, which upped the price a bit. But, the vendor we bought it from will replace the ring for free if it needs resizing (which we did a week after we were married). We just pay shipping to and from the vendor. The extra cost covers those possible resizings.
Good for you and your $15 rings!
I am all for the cheap ring. My fiance is ordering a tungsten w/ wood inlay ring off of amazon for $24. It’s actually our favorite out of anything we’ve seen. I am also waiting to get my ring back from resizing, they’ll be replacing one stone with a brown one. It’s a family ring that had a different color for her birthstone. I’ll be getting a wood band too, so brown seemed like the natural choice. Although I found myself not telling anyone I was planning on a brown stone when they asked…to avoid opinions before I had it put in. Way to go on finding an affordable ring that you love.
PS: I found your site when googling saja knockoff dresses. We’re going down the knockoff road and I feel great about it.