Greentext

The obvious answer is to buy a large synthetic one. It's still real.

Check with your partner and see what kind of ring they want for their engagement.

I went to the jewelry store with my partner and shopped for her engagement ring. Ended up doing a custom piece with a rose-gold band and a couple of blue topaz gems. She wanted a ring that would fit comfortably under exam gloves (she worked in a lab at the time). She's much happier with it than a big heavy pointy rock, and it was way cheaper (like 450 for the whole ring).

Got my wife a Moissanite ring, it's even shinyer than diamonds and way cheaper, i love being with a practical woman <3

Moissanite gang rise up

There is one type of natural diamond that doesn't lose its value. Those are mine cut diamonds. They haven't cut them at the mines since before the cartels took over. I found this out one day, because my GF would wear her late grandmother's wedding and engagement bands. We got curious one day, and wandered into the fancy jewelry story in the mall. I said to the guy, "I know you can't give us an official appraisal, but could you take a look and give us a ballpark." He slipped the loupe on and took a look. Immediately he said something like, "Oh, wow! Haven't seen one of these before." He explained that all 20 of the ¼ carat diamonds and the large 2 carat diamond were all mine cut, so the engagement band could have fetched $100,000 and the wedding band was worth about $250,0000 in 2000 dollars.

Needless to say, she stopped wearing it frequently after she found out.

If it loses 50-80% of the value as soon as it's used, might as well get a used one if you must have a natural diamond. This also applies to cars and plenty of other things. Let someone with more money than you take the hit.

Lab grown emeralds are a couple hundred bucks and are way prettier than diamonds.

I buy my wife jewelry with artificial diamonds, not because she wants it, but because I love to see her wearing it. She calls me a magpie for good reason.

Ooh sparkly things!

My ring is made of silicone. Nice little grooves so it doesn't trap sweat, too. Lightweight, durable, replacable, and a lifetime warranty.

Get ye some moissonite, son

Blaming Sooners is weird, since the trend is slowly moving away from diamonds

Wife and I decided on moissanite. It's big, extra sparkly, and 1/10 the price a similar diamond would be. Almost as hard, too - won't get scratched except by another moissanite or a diamond.

Damn, one of these without a "fake and gay" explanation, and I'm too tired to think of a good one. I've never gotten to be the fake and gay guy, and I'm missing my chance D:

But anyway, as others have said, lab grown, vintage, there are other options.

But has anyone considered a rock that doesn't just look like glass? There are so many cool rocks out there, people! I'd literally rather have a piece of quartz that my SO and I found together turned into a ring than I would have a piece of a much fancier/"valuable" stone that I have no attachment to.

When my parents got married, they had gone gem mining at one of those places with the troughs of dirt, and you pan it yourself. They found some rubies, and had wedding rings made from those. How fucking cool is that? Way cooler than a thing you have no connection to, I think.

Rings are socially relevant demarcations of sexual availability. Diamonds are just shiny rocks. Frankly, rings with any stones in them piss me off. They catch on your clothes and rip your favorite fucking sweater, and it’s laundry day so you can’t even grab something else because your other clothes are soaked in vomit because projectile vomiting all over a crowd is the most reasonable course of action when you’re a dumb asshole dicking around on a balcony on new years, apparently.