Engagement Ring Shopping! Alone? Together? Informed?

I'm not a fan of engagement rings at all. But if you're going to have one, I can't imagine not involving the recipient. I can't count the number of times I've seen brides saying, "I don't want to hurt his feelings, but I just don't love the ring." If you're spending thousands of dollars on a ring that the recipient will wear for the rest of her life, why wouldn't you want to make sure she loves it?

I took her to a chain some friends of ours had recommended to see if we could find something she loved at a place with a lifetime warranty and all that jazz. Turned out, yep. And then I picked out a super-comfortable ring of my own on Etsy.

We went and looked at a few rings, but basically I told him the cut of diamond I liked and he went from there. It's perfect!!

He asked what I liked, I showed him a few pictures, we talked about which kind of stone and then he was on his own. He did great. I am obsessed with my ring.

We went together.

I wrote him a list of my likes and dislikes. He took me to a few stores and made me try on rings and tell him what I liked and didn't like about them.

Other than that, he picked it out himself. He says he didn't even refer to the list, he just fell in love with the ring himself, but it ended up being perfect! I definitely would've picked it for myself.

I am pretty sure that my FH did it mainly alone. He looked around and took pictures of the ring he liked theeeen he sent pictures to a couple friends right before he proposed. As far as I know he didn't have the ring for more than 24 hours before he proposed to me. Which is true fashion for him because he can't hold onto any gifts for more than a day.

We went together twice to the jewelry store we knew we'd buy from. We had a few stones and settings I liked, but he made the final choice! I love it, because we chose it together and it means a lot to us both.

We had already been living together for a while and discussing marriage, so one day we walked through a couple of stores in the mall (Kay, Zales) so I could give FH my opinion on different ring styles. He went on his own to buy the ring, and he did a great job. During those store visits, I had asked him not to spend more than our monthly rent on a ring (because we want to save money for a house), and he purchase a simple, yet beautiful, solitaire. So he listened. :-)

We went ring shopping together quite a few times. He eventually knew exactly what I wanted and proposed with the perfect ring!

We'd been talking marriage for a while and I knew he was saving for the ring. We looked online at styles together so I could show him what I liked. He then went shopping by himself and took pictures of his top 3 choices and showed them to me to gauge my reaction. While they were nice and I would have treasured any one of them, they didn't make me go "wow, I love that". So DH decided to take me ring shopping. We picked my ring out together and I'm so glad I went and tried rings on - I thought I wanted a solitaire but all of them seemed to overwhelm my finger. I ended up with a 3 stone with the twist detail on the side I definitely knew I wanted. While I knew he had the ring and the proposal was coming, he still managed to surprise the hell out of me when he did ask.

I originally picked a super cheap ring (my FH could have afforded more but I have this thing about not wanting to be a burden on people) and I wasn't in love with it at all. I wore it for 6 months and everyday I wanted to love it but I just couldn't. So last week I picked out a new one and FH and I exchanged it.

DH went and picked out something(s?) he thought I'd like, then took a mutual friend to get her stamp of approval For the record, I *love* my ring! The ering and wedding band, together, form a heart-- so cool!

We picked it togethet, but I ended up falling in love with a cushion cut copy of my exact same ring so we've just exchanged it.

He picked it out all by himself. Well, his mom went with him, but I've never told her what kind of ring I'd like either. I had pinned rings on pinterest, but I doubt he looked at it before buying the ring. The only thing I told him is that I didn't want anything too big since I have tiny hands (plus I didn't want him to spend a fortune).

I gave him hints. I showed him four different rings at different price points to show him the kind of things I liked, and his sister and I had looked before. He didn't consult her at all, and chose one of the exact ones I had sent him.

I think there is something really romantic about going together and seeing what you both like. I know it is my ring, but I also really wanted his input. I was also really surprised to see that some of the things I liked online I really didn't care for on my finger. If you don't want to go together, you may want to go alone so you can figure out what looks good on you. For example, I found that I needed a much more petite band than I originally thought and that certain settings just looked odd on my hand even though they were really my taste in photos.

We went browsing for what I liked and couldn't find anything I liked in our budget. We eventually got an idea by the jeweler and found my ring about a week later. We both picked it out

He proposed using his mother's ring so I could pick out whatever I wanted after we were engaged. I like that we did it that way so I wasn't anticipating anything beforehand.