Engagement Rings Vs. Wedding Rings ?

Q: I recently (January 14th, '98) got asked by my girlfriend whether I wanted to get engaged to her. After giving the right/obvious answer, she told me that we should go and look for engagement rings. By now I am 'ringed' with a golden ring with her name and the date of the engagement in it. The thing I'm wondering about is the wedding: Do these engagement rings 'automatically' become wedding rings? In that case, shouldn't they have the date of the wedding inscribed instead of the engagement date?

A:If you want to get a different ring for the wedding, then you can by all means do so, tradition or not (heck, me proposing and my fiance wearing the band I bought certainly was against US tradition...). And at that point, you'd inscribe it with the wedding date. Adn you could choose a thin second ring and solder them together. Right-- and I think you misunderstood. My ENGAGEMENT ring is a plain band. My WEDDING ring has a 1/4 ct. diamond. My WRAP ring has rubies on it. So, it'll be wrap-rock-ring (wrap, wedding rock, plain engagement band), as the wrap is actually part of my wedding-ring ensemble, and the plain band I've had for over 2 yeras now! Actually.. my wedding ring is a wrap. It puts 2 stones on each side of my engagement ring and also adds a complete band below it (like an anniversary band). So it ends up looking like I'm wearing an engagement ring and a wedding band. They also have wraps that go around BOTH sides of the solitaire - that way it lookes like you're wearing 3 rings. In my case it does, I like the look that the two rings provide. Some people use an additional plain band though in addition to the wrap and engagement ring. Some people use the center ring (usually a diamond) as their wedding ring. I have small hands and found that the wrap was sufficient and an additional (and/or traditional) band would be over-powering. In essence, it all depends on your personal tastes. There are drawbacks as well as benefits. The biggest drawback is that you can't really wear the wrap without the engagement/other ring. In other words, I'm currently wearing my birthstone (aquamarine) while my engagement ring is getting worked on (I bent the band area while attempting to fix a sewing machine...won't go into the details *smile*). My wrap doesn't fit around the aquamarine, so it's currently waiting for it's

mate. Just to confuse things further, my wedding "band" actually IS two separate rings, worn on either side of my engagement ring. Which is a substantial-width band with a Celtic knot design engraved in it, with a solitaire diamond set in the center. The wedding bands are identical plain white gold 2mm bands. I asked the jeweler about a "ring guard" configuration, but he pointed out that, with my engagement ring, it would be a lot simpler and less bulky to just use two separate rings. Additional advantage is that I can keep one or both plain bands on at times that I don't want to wear the diamond (i.e., while swimming, while the diamond is being cleaned).