Would You Marry Someone Who Didn’t Buy You a Diamond?
This summer I proposed to my girlfriend in a beautiful, secluded spot in the Ronda, Spain, a place where “The entire town and as far as you can see in any direction is romantic background…”, according to Earnest Hemmingway. We went on a daytime hike around the base of the town’s famous massive stone bridge. Despite me briefly becoming an awkward, nervous mess in the minutes leading to me dropping to one knee to pop the question, everything went off without a hitch.
As traditional as this might all sound, I didn’t have a ring when I proposed. Knowing my fiancee, I banked on this not being an issue. The idea of an engagement ring itself, we’re both fine with. We get and appreciate the symbolism of it. It’s really just the natural diamond aspect that we both took issue with. As it turns out, however, once you aren’t constrained by the tradition of diamonds, the options for rings quickly become overwhelming. I knew I would need her input to make the right selection and decided to propose without one.
I do not have anything against people who like this tradition or who have practiced it, including my parents, my sister, and countless close friends. And I get that this is viewed by many people as something truly and deeply traditional, but that’s where my issues with diamond engagement rings begins. The mostly American practice of…
