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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Hurt at proposal and ring

264 replies

Ungratefulornot · 25/09/2012 17:02

Hi all

I've NCd..

I need help here as I can't seem to feel better about this, I need some other perspectives.. My partner and I have been talking about marriage for a while and knew it was on the cards. We love each other very much. We're just back from holiday where he proposed (i wasn't expecting it) but nothing was how I imagined it and I'm finding it hard to feel happier about certain things... I'm sure I'm in for a flaming for being an ungrateful cow but here goes.

Firstly the proposal - basically 'why don't we get married?', a hug, then he says (in a nice way) 'I know that's what you want''.. Hmm So basically nothing about him wanting me to be his wife just that it was what I wanted. I immediately said 'isn't it what you want???' and he said of course it was..

He presented me with the ring, which is absolutely nothing like I would pick or expected and, as he told me voluntarily later that night, cheap! Because, as he told the woman in the jewellers, the engagement ring is only a token and it's the wedding ring that really counts Hmm It doesn't even look like an engagement ring, more like an eternity ring, and it's obviously cheap. We have plenty money btw and he'd think nothing of spending loads more than he spent on the ring at the drop of a hat on anything else.. To me an engagement ring is hugely symbolic and it's not about the money, it feels like he just didn't care enough to get something right...

Upshot is, I felt upset with it all, and while I kept it in that night we had a huge argument the next day because he was upset i was annoyed and that he felt I had threw it all back in his face when he'd tried to make me happy.. I then felt bad and backtracked and we had a lovely holiday planning our wedding.. But it was still playing on my mind.

But now we're back and while I've got over the proposal comment (given that I know he's genuinely as excited at marrying as I am) I just can't get over the ring issue. He's very generous to me generally and I can't believe that when it came to something as important as this, that i should be happy to wear every day for the rest of my life, he put so little of anything into it - money or thought.. I wouldnt have been looking for anything too expensive just less cheap than it is!!! Never asked me what I would like as he wanted it to be a surprise.. He's asked me if I wanted to swap ring but I couldn't bring myself to say yes so said no and he was happy with that but he knows I'm not happy with it. I need to get it resized as its a little big but tbh I just don't want to wear it and I feel annoyed every time I think about it. As well as me not liking it and the fact it doesnt look like an engagement ring, I can just imagine the looks it'll get from everyone when we officially announce our engagement - I'm ashamed to say I feel slightly embarrassed at the thought. I just feel I'd rather not wear it and just get a nice wedding ring.

I feel annoyed with him as I have spent my time and effort getting him things which he could value and love for the rest of his life and he hasn't paid me the same courtesy, and for something as symbolic as this.

Thanks in advance for any replies, good and bad. I'm aware this will probably be a controversial one!

OP posts:
LonelyCloud · 25/09/2012 20:27

Surely you minded about getting savaged by a mad swan Badvoc?

I also got proposed to in the rain. DH had decided that he was going to propose at a particular location, and wasn't going to let a torrential downpour put him off Grin

skyebluesapphire · 25/09/2012 20:28

Everybody - thats a good idea, I hadnt thought of that, still not sure if I could wear it though because of the memories, but I will give it some thought :)

Also, good point about the stone getting in the way. As I got married 7 months after getting engaged I still wore the engagement ring all the time as I hadnt had it long, but I had friends who had been engaged for a couple of years, who had a blingy engagement ring, with diamonds set into it etc, so that they could wear it all the time and it was flat.

Badvoc · 25/09/2012 20:35

Not really lonely it added to the ambience of the moment!
:)

EverybodysCryEyed · 25/09/2012 20:35

Skyblue - Phoenix from the flames! You are having a new start and so are your stones!

Badvoc · 25/09/2012 20:37

Mind you......he first made me trudge up a massive hill in Kendal...I could barely breath from the exertion once we got to the top.
Then apparently decided it wasn't romantic enough!!
(Either that or he thought I was about to have some sort of seizure....)

ProphetOfDoom · 25/09/2012 20:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

skyebluesapphire · 25/09/2012 20:39

Badvoc - laughing at that one I would have walked him back up it and pushed him off the top of the hill, lol

Badvoc · 25/09/2012 20:39

I did laugh once I could breathe again:)

Dryjuice25 · 25/09/2012 20:39

I feel your pain. He got me a £50 one.....l went and got myself one that cost 500% more lol. I laugh about it now but stll wear my very own engagement ring no ......lol

Congratulations and do change it and don't feel bad about it..Its ok to make a fuss about yourself once in a while and ffs it's your engagement ring and hopefully it will be your last..

CakeMeIAmYours · 25/09/2012 20:41

I don't think you're being shallow at all, this would have upset me too.

Do you think this might be a deeper issue than a ring though? I'd be more concerned that you and your DH are just not on the same page in that he was apparently completely unaware of what you would have preferred your proposal to be (ring, circumstances, words etc).

There have been a couple of crunch points in my marriage when I have had to completely trust DH's judgement and he mine. I wouldn't hesitate to put my complete faith in his decision on even the most major things and vice versa.

In light of this, would you do the same? I would be wary of entering into a commitment such as marriage (and presumably DCs at some point) with someone who didn't know what my values/opinions are and indeed to share them.

Time for a heart to heart, I think - and not just about the ring.

Badvoc · 25/09/2012 20:42

Seriously, it makes me so :( at all these -I am sure - very intelligent normal women who when they get engaged turn into mad wedding obsessed harpies :(
It is one day!! - well, 12 to 14 hours - of what will I hope be a long and happy life for you.
All this stuff really doesn't matter.
Honestly.
I am old and know things.
Listen to me.

Bunbaker · 25/09/2012 20:45

I must admit that I don't "get" engagement rings. OH proposed to me in a very unromantic way, but I didn't mind at all. I actually asked him not to bother with an engagement ring because I don't really like them. He sighed with relief as we were pretty skint at the time.

OH and I both wear wedding rings because of what they symbolise,my weeding ring is the only finger furniture I wear.

Bunbaker · 25/09/2012 20:45

wedding ring, not weeding ring. D'oh!

showtunesgirl · 25/09/2012 20:48

It's not the ring that's the problem here, it's the fact that you're not talking about it.

My DH didn't propose to me with a ring as he knew that I would like to have some kind of say in it and in the end we both picked it together. We went through hundreds of rings and when I put the right one on we both smiled at each other and went that one!

The thing is though, if he HAD picked a ring I hated, I would have just said so and it would've been fine.

A relationship where you can't talk about what's bugging you doesn't really have a good outlook.

QuintessentialShadows · 25/09/2012 20:50
Hmm

You sound like high maintenance, and a bit like you life in princess cloud coo-coo land.

I bet you would have thrown a ring from Argos in your fiances face and stomped out!

Empusa · 25/09/2012 20:53
Shagmundfreud · 25/09/2012 20:54

DH proposed to me while sitting on his sisters toilet (he wadn't crapping - lid was down, he was just taking a break while tiling her bathroom.

The proposal was made in a very grudging way ('I suppose we'd better get engaged') in response to me telling him Id been turned down for a visa to go to the states and live with him while he was working on a contract.

He didn't buy me a ring.

15 years on and we are still happily married.

He just doesn't do big displays of emotion. Niether do I.

Badvoc · 25/09/2012 20:56
Malificence · 25/09/2012 20:58

A decent man who loves you and treats you properly, who wants to spend his life with you, is worth a thousand flashy rings and proposals, they mean nothing .

Badvoc · 25/09/2012 21:00

One has to ask oneself why you feel the need for a big display of emotion, ring bling and hearts and flowers???
Surely the fact he has asked you to marry him is enough?
Or it should be.

Badvoc · 25/09/2012 21:00

Nods in malificence's direction.
She too is wise.

EugenesAxe · 25/09/2012 21:01

Haha! I knew I'd be flamed for that. But I stand by it, or the bridal industry wouldn't be as massive as it is.

Bizarrely, I am entirely not girly or saccharine, except on the subject of weddings and Barbies. I think it's because I am such a Victorian... I will never file for divorce myself, so when I married I knew I wanted it to be a day apart from the rest of my life and our married life together. I didn't have any pre-ordained idea about the proposal or our wedding (expect for the church)... I just let the organisation and themes unfurl at will and we had a great day.

A wedding and a marriage are not the same thing. I know the values that are important to the latter; I agree with what everyone has said about them and I stick by them very firmly. But I also didn't want to pass up my one opportunity to get a beautiful ring and waltz around in a fancy dress Grin.

On a serious note, everyone is right about not overthinking the communication, and needing to be able to discuss this freely.

mirry2 · 25/09/2012 21:01

Was it very expensive? You could always 'lose' it. Evil but possible.

Dozer · 25/09/2012 21:02

The ring is the easy bit: he can return that one and you can choose another one.

Badvoc · 25/09/2012 21:04

Exactly Eugene.
It is an industry now.
Lots of people and even magazines telling you that your day won't be perfect unless you release live butterflies released instead of confetti.
(Tip: do not do this on a really hot day. The butterflies die :( )