Who says true love is studded with diamonds? Ariel McRae, 22, proves this notion in a Facebook post on 26 November. “My husband doesn’t have a lot, neither of us do,” McRae explained. “We scrape and scrape to pay bills and put food in our bellies, but after almost 2 years of dating we decided that we couldn’t wait anymore, so we didn’t.”
McRae went on to elaborate on what many may consider to be one of the happiest moments of their lives – picking out their engagement and wedding bands. With her husband who who “scraped up just enough money to buy me two matching rings from Pandora,” she came to a decision and was excited about purchasing the $130 bands. However, not everyone in the store found the rings endearing…
“Another lady that was working there came over to help the lady selling them to us. She said, ‘Y’all can you believe that some men get these as engagement rings? How pathetic.’ When she said that I watched my now husband’s face fall. He already felt bad because he couldn’t afford the pear-shaped set that so obviously had my heart and covered my Pinterest page. He already felt like a failure, asking me again and again ‘Are you sure you’ll be happy with these? Are you sure this is okay?’ He was so upset at the idea of not making me happy enough and of me not wanting to marry him because my rings didn’t cost enough money or weren’t flashy enough.”
McRae then explained that though her old instinct would have been to tell the woman off, she instead responded with “’It isn’t the ring that matters, it is the love that goes into buying one that is.’ We bought the rings and left. Y’all I would have gotten married to this man if it had been a 25¢ gum ball machine ring.”
In a superficial world where everyone’s trying to get the biggest rock they can as a wedding ring, McRae does the unconventional and opts for a gorgeous pair of cubic zirconia wedding bands. The post now has more than 100,000 shares and reactions, as well as hundreds of comments from women supporting McRae and sharing the stories of their rings and marriages as well. Read Ariel’s full post here.
Though most girls often get hung up on the notion that it’s not a proposal without a diamond ring, it’s important to note that before the 1930s, diamond rings were never something that was used in a proposal…until after jewellery brand De Beers Diamon Corporation came to town with a marketing campaign that screamed “You’re not man enough unless you propose to her with a big shiny diamond.”
McRae’s experience also takes me back to when me and my husband shopped for wedding rings, and we had opted for less than stellar diamond wedding bands, much to the dismay of the sales associate. Though he (and certain family members) seemed quite unimpressed and questioned our choice several times (it got a little offensive TBH, but let’s not rehash the past), we decided to go ahead with the rings anyway because, well, “It isn’t the ring that matters, it is the love that goes into buying one that is.”
Watch this video on Why Engagement Rings Are A Scam by Adam Ruins Everything here:
