It’s super sad to me that ring shaming is actually a thing. I mean, I get that we live in a materialistic world, and I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t help but drool over a Tiffany’s princess-cut—but to judge others by the size or price of their ring just seems utterly ridiculous.
The rock on your finger doesn’t have the capacity to anchor your marriage, nor does its size proportionately represent the depth of love a man has for you or the longevity of a relationship. Trust me, I’ve seen a girl with a $40,000 engagement ring not even make it to “I do” because the guy was a total schmuck.
Thankfully, a beautiful bride named Ariel Desiree McRae is reminding us all of that very truth in proud, cubic-zirconia style with a viral Facebook post that has been shared by media outlets across America:
My husband doesn’t have a lot, neither of us do. We scrape and scrape to pay bills and put food in our bellies, but after almost 2 years of dating we decided that we couldn’t wait anymore, so we didn’t.
I wasn’t even thinking about rings, I just wanted to marry my best friend, but he wouldn’t have it. He scraped up just enough money to buy me two matching rings from Pandora. Sterling silver and CZ to be exact. That’s what sits on my ring finger, and I am so in love with them.
While we were purchasing my rings however, another lady that was working there came over to help the lady selling them to us. She said, ‘Y’all can you believe that some men get these as engagement rings? How pathetic.’ When she said that I watched my now husband’s face fall. He already felt bad because he couldn’t afford the pear-shaped set that so obviously had my heart and covered my Pinterest page. He already felt like a failure, asking me again and again ‘Are you sure you’ll be happy with these? Are you sure this is okay?’ He was so upset at the idea of not making me happy enough and of me not wanting to marry him because my rings didn’t cost enough money or weren’t flashy enough.
Old Ariel would have ripped that woman a new one. Mature Ariel said, ‘It isn’t the ring that matters, it is the love that goes into buying one that is.’ We bought the rings and left.
