Diamonds upset me, mainly because they’re not rare or precious stones by any means. Their worth is a direct product of marketing and branding, and diamonds are about as plentiful as quartz. So where does all of their value come from?
From a company who owns a bunch of diamonds basically creating this idea that they’re worth something.
It’d be great if we could start with exorbitantly-priced diamond rings, however. Because having to pay a crap-ton of money to prove you “love” somebody doesn’t really sound much like love at all.
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And Ariel Desiree McRae from Tennessee agrees.
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She shared an emotional Facebook post showing off her $130 wedding rings asking, “Why do material possessions equate love?”
Here’s her post in full:
My last share is EXACTLY how I feel.
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.
Y’all I would have gotten married to this man if it had been a 25¢ gum ball machine ring. When did our nation fall so far to think the only way a man can truly love a woman is if he buys her $3,000+ jewelry and makes a public decree of his affection with said flashy ring? Sure they are nice, sure the sentiment is wonderful and I’m not trying to cut down any of your experiences, but when did it come to all that? Why do material possessions equate love??
My husband was so afraid of me not wanting him because he couldn’t afford a piece of jewelry. He was afraid that the love I have for him would pale because he couldn’t afford the wedding set I wanted. The world has made it this way and it is so sad.
But here I am though, Court-House married, $130 ring set, the love of my life by my side and happier than I could ever imagine.
Her post was shared over 45,000 times (I’d imagine by a lot of men) by people who echoed her sentiments.
Commenters pointed out that they did the exact same thing and that when it comes to love, the amount of the ring really doesn’t matter.
After receiving so many shares, Ariel updated her post to relay the adorable story of how her and her hubby met.
Update: This post keeps growing much to my surprise, and I’ve been asked a thousand times how we met. So here is the short version! My husband and I met online at the age of 20, talked on the phone (and I mean actually talked not text) for 6+ hours a day for two days. He then drove an hour out of his way to take me on a date. I wore a tacky Christmas sweater (if you think I am lying, ask him) We ate wings, had a burping contest, and drove around listening to music and singing. I fell in love with him on the first date. If he had asked me to marry him the first time we met, I probably would have said yes. To be honest, we had wanted to elope three months into dating, but decided to take some extra time to get established beforehand. Ultimately we couldn’t wait any longer.. so we eloped. I’ve never been this happy in my life and I couldn’t imagine spending it with anyone else ever.
(Second update: I am adding my wedding hashtag as well as a hopeful hashtag that my favorite talk show host may see this now that this post is bigger than I could have ever imagined. If you share this and want to hastag it, please feel free to use the bottom hashtags so we can track how many people are being touched with this post. So blessed and thankful to be making an impact on your lives <3)
#MagicallyMcRae#getthemcraestoELLEN
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This Woman Bragged About Her $130 Wedding Rings Online To Show Material Possession Aren’t Everything
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