Weddingbee Blog

I’ll admit it: before that night in Germany when Mr. Carousel proposed, I never pictured myself wearing an engagement ring. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted one.

Before you start thinking I’m so above it all, that all changed about five minutes after the proposal when Mr. Carousel asked me, “Shall we pick a ring together?” and I answered “Yes—tomorrow!” Suddenly I could hardly wait to have a ring on my finger. (My transformation into a wedding-obsessed bride-to-be was starting…)

During our crazy drive to Amsterdam to get ourselves an engagement ring, Mr. Carousel and I discussed my ring preferences. All I knew was that I wanted something elegant with a diamond, but I reassured Mr. Carousel that there would be no need to break the bank! We agreed that we would start by looking for something equal to half or less of Mr. Carousel’s monthly salary.

We started at the Diamond Museum (neither of us knew anything about diamonds, so we figured it was a good place to begin), and that’s where we found the perfect ring: elegant, classy, sweet, beautiful, and…modest.

Please excuse the clumsiness of the pics. We’re totally amateurs.

We found it in the outlet part of the museum shop so, even though the diamond was very high quality, we spent less than the agreed budget.

I know that, especially by American standards, it’s a very modest ring. But, as a young couple who has yet to buy their own house (not to mention the upcoming wedding costs), we figured why spend more than what we could easily afford? Why wait to save money for a ring, postponing the engagement for months? This, at least, was what went through our minds.

However, in the end an engagement ring is a promise of love between two people, and every time I look at mine I feel this huge, happy inner smile. Do you?

If you did wait to save up for the ring, was it worth it?