What is a boy's engagement ring?

I have always thought that the ring is the promise for both. But it is the girl’s ring. He gets the delight of seeing his beloved wear the gift he has given her.

They generally don’t wear one.

He gets the delight of seeing his beloved wear the gift he has given her.
Well that’s a crock of feel-good nonsense…

@Sarcasm Yeah… It feels really good for the girl. Unless its a crappy ring, that is.

@Iclamae Before the feminist movement, the guy’s prize was the dowry…Too bad so sad for you fellas :D

@Sarcasm Not to everyone it isn’t. Some guys are like that.

I use to always think they came in sets.

blow job.

Typically, there is no male equivalent to the female’s engagement ring. Many couples are okay with this. Others choose not to have an engagement ring at all, and just wait until they have the wedding rings. In others, the woman gets an engagement ring from the man, and the man gets an engagement gift of some value from the woman. (For a somewhat silly example, I knew a couple who became engaged a few years ago, and he got her a ring, while she got him a car stereo… ;) )

As far as the “three months salary” thing… that was frankly made up by jewelers… ;) Three months’ salary is a lot of money for most people, and—while I understand it’s a sign of commitment—it hardly seems responsible to enter into your new marriage having just gotten rid of such a (relatively) large portion of your assets. (Or worse, gone into debt for it.)

I think for most couples, one month’s salary is probably more reasonable…

Michael Jackson is no longer alive to ask. =)

Yeah I know, that’s in really bad taste, but I just couldn’t help myself.

Cock ring?

@eponymoushipster @Dr_C yup, I think you can typically find a boy’s engagement ring if you look a little lower than his fingers…and it’s usually red hehe

Eh, so that’s what “Ring of Fire” is all about.

De Beers is to engagement rings as Hallmark is to Mother’s Day.

One of my friends proposed to her now-husband with a ring. After the got engaged, she got one too. His was a plain band with a piece of steel cable running through a channel in the middle of it (they are members of the professional stage hand union, and steel cable for light rigging is part of their lives). I thought it was cool, if a bit unusual.

This is why the whole ring thing for engagement can get out of hand. I would guess the history of the engagement ring lets all other men know that woman is taken, but I am completely making that up, I don’t know if it is true. So along that line of thought men are acting macho and women don’t care because they get a pretty ring.

For me the wedding bands are more important than the engagement ring(s). @pdworkin is right, in the end it is just business, commercialism, and capitalism at its best.

@proXXi [non-mod says:] i’d stamp that with an “NSFW” if i were you…

I was mostly wondering what it would look like if you got one. I mean, would they get a diamond or just band?

@zephyr826 That’s pretty sweet, for them.

Agreed, mybad. would a Mod tag that for me?

@proXXi – The teak(?) one is, dare I say it, pretty!

The engagement ring is a gift to the bride for agreeing to marry the man or gift in contemplation of marriage. As such in most states the ring does not become the bride’s property until actually goes through with the wedding. The idea of the value being a certain number of months of the groom’s salary is simply an invention of the jewelry industry. The ring is a symbol, it is better for the marriage to keep 3 months salary as an emergency fund in the bank.

The promise to marry has in the past been a binding contract in which case if the marriage does not happen the wedding goes to the person who did not break the contract. Also a person could be sued for damages.

A male engagement ring doesn’t really make sense because the engagement rings are more ornate and impractical fo working with one’s hands. Also if the same conventions apply then if the marriage doesn’t come off he has to give back the ring. Why would the bride want that?

@galileogirl I don’t know about the states, but in Sweden they have been selling engagement rings for him and her in pairs for years.

Okay, let me word this differently.

I agree that 3 months’ salary is too much. We were discussing the other comments on the topic, not the actual topic.
I understand that the typical standard is to not get a guy an engagement ring but I’m intrigued by the idea.

I guess I’ll change the question. If you were to get a guy a ring or (as a guy) receive one, what would you want it to look like?

@oratio, oh really? That’s kind of cool. In the states, we don’t really do that, though there may be a few exceptions here and there.

@proXXi Male chastity rings? It’s a little late for that now, not to mention how sad it would make me.

I think anyone should be able to propose to anyone
I don’t think a ring is always necessary
I don’t think it should cost a lot
I don’t think it should even contain mined diamonds
but that’s my personal opinion

@Iclamae I would proudly wear an engagement ring.

There are many small things that are different between western countries. Like that it seems that guys pay for the date in the states and many other countries. It is not expected – or rather it would be kind of offensive – to do that here. I am not saying it’s better, just that it’s different. There are many things in America I would love to see here, though.

For my fiance’s wedding band he picked out a tungsten carbide ring. They’re very cool looking. Industrial almost. And ridiculously durable. Here’s a page of what they look like rings

I said ‘tag’, not ‘flag’! Argh!

@proXXi That is their way of editing…just re-post with NSFW.

@galileogirl your comment about a male working with his hands surprised me. And many of your comments seemed rather sexist.

@Iclamae if it became a popular idea most people would buy whatever the jewelry companies started marketing to everyone.

@oratio Still, it sounds very nice there.

@ItalianPrincess1217 ahh, ok. Those are very manly and very nice. Much better than what I found.

@JLeslie well no, I would actually be looking for something my guy likes but I don’t know anything about men’s jewelry at all (in terms of what’s weird to wear etc), so i went to fluther instead of a jeweler to get ideas.

@JLeslie I was speaking historically, so you can pack your surprise away in the misunderstood box for now. Until the last generation (speaking of a generation as 30 years) most of the paid employment was done by men and virtually all paid manual labor was done by men. Women who wore engagement rings and did manual labor often did not wear their engagement rings to work. Women who worked at home usually took off their rings when they were cleaning. I know this because virtually all married women who worked with me in the USPS unloading trucks and working with machinery left our rings at home. As a homemaker, I usually took my ring off to do the breakfast dishes and often didn’t put it on until the dinner dishes were done. Not sexism (such a nasty, judgemental word) but experience.

@Iclamae I owe you an apology, I forgot you were the original poster. I was just responding to your latest post and gave a rather sarcastic answer. My husband has several rings. We actually have matching Charlotte rings, you can change the center piece. The ring is stainless steel and then he has a center that is gold with a small diamond, and another one that is stainless with a larger diamond that his father gave him years ago and we had it put in the center button thingy, and he has a black “button” he can put in. He usually matches the ring to his watch. Here is the link http://www.charlotteshop.com/shop/charlotte21/men/rings/stainless-steel/stainless-steel/337-ring-swedish-steel-conical-stainless-steel-head-1mm-disc-cha-21/ but their website sucks. The center part you can take out and the gold piece he has fits down in the ring flush with the ring, not sticking out.

@galileogirl historically makes sense, a long long time ago, and maybe in the 1950’s and 60’s. My point was I know plenty of women who have jobs they cannot wear their rings, as you mentioned, I worked in retail, so my ring had the “diamonds” set low in the ring so I was less likely to pop a stone out of its setting moving around boxes and also so I would not snag any garments.

What you said about the ring does not become the bride’s property until actually goes through with the wedding in most states was very interesting to me. I did not realize that was the law.

@JLeslie Thank you and that’s a very interesting design. I’ve never seen it before. I’m sure it looks very nice with the diamonds pushed in.

Sigh…Betsy Ross’ youth was a long time ago. Mine, not so much.