Nowadays, weddings are all about the “wow” factor. Anyone who’s ever been to a modern wedding or seen an episode of Four Weddings will tell you that these aren’t the low-key celebrations they once were. Things have definitely changed since our parents and grandparents walked down the aisle.
Although they were once a celebration of two people’s love for each other, weddings have become elaborate displays of wealth and excess. It’s like everyone’s trying to outdo every other wedding they’ve ever been to, and they just keep getting bigger and bigger.
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We can talk about the dress, the venue, and the decorations all we want, but for many women, it’s all about that BLING.
There’s a long history of newly engaged women taking to the internet to publicly shame the less-than-extraordinary rings their betrothed proposed to them with. And in most cases, their criticism doesn’t receive much support, because people typically tend to be of the belief that it’s not about how big the ring is, but what it represents.
One woman once tried unsuccessfully to get the internet to shame her “cheap” fiance with her.
She posted a photo of the simplistic ring online, along with the receipt which revealed what her groom-to-be paid for the piece of jewelry.
“His salary is nearing a 6 figure sum, and he’s usually very generous,” she wrote. “Having seen the receipt I know he paid $1,674 for it — which is a lot less than I would have imagined he would have spent on such a significant piece of jewelry.”
However, people online didn’t exactly sympathize with the disgruntled bride.
“Be happy to even get a ring,” one person wrote, while another added, “My rings are from the Wish app. Total of 25 dollars. I don’t care. Our love is more important than the cost of a ring.”
Someone else said what was perhaps on everyone’s mind when they wrote, “If he makes six figures perhaps he bought her a small ring to test her true colors and make sure he wasn’t going to marry a materialistic gold digger. Seems as though she didn’t pass the test.”
Suffice it to say, people are typically unanimous in their belief that it’s the gesture, not the price tag that matters.
However, there are some instances where the ring is just so shockingly small that the good people of the internet can’t help but agree with the insulted bride.
One man was pretty ruthlessly shamed on Reddit after pictures of his bride’s engagement ring made it onto the site.
The post went up on the subreddit r/weddingshaming on Monday after someone came across this disgruntled bride’s engagement ring photo.
As the caption goes, this woman’s partner of eight years saved up to buy her this admittedly simplistic ring, and she’s feeling pretty insulted about it.
If we can be real for a quick second, this is definitely one of the smallest engagement rings I’ve ever seen.
Even if you think ring size doesn’t matter, I think we can all admit this is a super small piece of jewelry.
That “rock” looks more like a fleck of glitter, and it definitely wasn’t what this bride-to-be was expecting from her man. Hence, her posting a photo of it online to see if anyone else agrees that it is unbelievably small.
And in a surprising twist, the people of Reddit actually all seemed to agree with her.
A quick scroll through the comments shows plenty of equally insulted users who don’t think this bride is being unreasonable.
“I’m not materialistic when it comes to things like this but if my man proposed with THAT I would be full on insulted,” one user wrote. “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.”
Most people were doubtful that the groom actually “saved up” to buy his bride this miniature ring.
“While I have no idea what this costs, it doesn’t look like a ring one would need to save up for,” a user wrote, while another added, “Honestly I feel like he’s probably lying about saving up for that ring.”
Others chimed with stories of their own engagement rings that were purchased on a serious budget.
However, the difference here is that theirs still mange to look significantly better than the one this bride-to-be ended up with on her finger: “My ring was $75 and it is the most beautiful thing I could have asked for. There is no excuse for the one in the pic.”
There were even a few people who defended this guy’s choice of ring.
“I kinda like her ring,” one person wrote. “It’s very modern and sleek looking. I’d wearing that in a heartbeat.”
“It’s totally the kind of ring that I’d wear,” someone else chimed in.
While my minimalist heart can appreciate his jewelry taste, I also think it’s fair to say he should know what his own bride-to-be’s taste is. And judging from her reaction, he was way off.
All in all, the general consensus seems to be that this bride and groom need to have a serious talk.
“This will hopefully lead to a budget discussion and set priorities,” one person wrote, while another added that if they were the bride, they would gently tell the groom they weren’t impressed with the bling and then join them at the jewelers to pick out something they both love.
In fact, this is something that several people agreed would help things tremendously.
“My husband bought some jewelry for me that wasn’t my taste,” one person wrote. “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.”
Even a few men agreed with this tactic, with one person saying he let his girlfriend pick out her own bling “because I knew I wouldn’t get the one she wanted and I knew she’d be the one wearing it forever.”
But, as one user pointed out, perhaps there are bigger things this couple needs to discuss.
Dropping an absolute truth-bomb into the Reddit thread, this person wrote, “When the ring is the issue, the ring is not the issue.”
Yikes . No comment.
