My diamond engagement ring came to me as just a diamond. Passed down from my now-husband's grandmother, the diamond was wrapped in paper, waiting for me to find a setting to put it in. Probably unfortunately, I fell in love with a somewhat-expensive setting, which partially negated the savings my husband would have had from getting the diamond for free. But it wasn't about saving money and 12 years later I love that ring. I expect that I'll continue to love it, which may make handing it down to my own son for his future wife much harder (but he's only three, so I don't have to worry about that for a while).

There are a million different types of diamonds around, and picking one out for someone else is hard. I'm sure I would have been happy getting anything that came with a marriage proposal, but by picking out my own ring I really got to choose something that reflected my own style (such as it is). People's personality is reflected in their jewelry (which is one of the reasons why it bothers me to not be able to wear rings right now - darn these fat pregnancy fingers!).

If you click the link above to primestyle.com, you'll find lots of diamonds to choose from at reasonably low prices. Of course, none of them will fit my fat fingers, but it's nice to know that they're there!