For The Ladies

[The Cowboy]

As a mere mail could one of the many ladies on the answerbank please answer this?
On the ladies finger what is the correct position for the following rings. Engagement, wedding and eternity? your assistance is appreciated, and apologies editor if I have this in the wrong section

Cowboy.

[redcrx]

all rings go on third finger of left hand (ie finger next to little finger)

[pussnboots]

The correct position is engagement, wedding, eternity, but most people wear them as wedding, engagement, eternity.

[jake-the-peg]

The eternity ring was a concept invented by de Beers to sell a large amount of small diamonds it started to get.

That's why you never see antique eternity rings.

So there's no "correct" finger for that

[whiskeysheri]

The correct way to wear them is wedding ring, engagement ring and then eternity ring. It would make more sense for the engagement ring to go on first, but it's tradition that you take your engagement ring off for your wedding and then it goes back on over the wedding ring. :o)

[Pippa68]

WS is right.

Most women wear their wedding rings all the time, and their engagement rings only when they go out..or take it off to do the washing up, chores etc. It wouold be a pain to have to take the wedding ring off first, and traditionally it is considered bad luck to do so ;o)

Not sure about the eternity ring ~ Mr P has the same opinion as jake so I don't have one..however I did inherit my grandmothers one. I think it is an eternity ring, if not it is a full dress ring with diamonds all the way around it. It was made in the 1920's and I have read that eternity rings date back thousands of years.

Not sure if that is actually true though!

[jake-the-peg]

That's really interesting pippa

It's certainly the earliest ring of that type I've heard of.

the source of my information is a classic article "Have you ever tried to sell a diamond? " which was an expose of the industry in the 80's.

DeBeers devised the "eternity ring," made up of as many as twenty-five tiny Soviet diamonds, which could be sold to an entirely new market of older married women. The advertising campaign was based on the theme of recaptured love. Again, sentiments were born out of necessity: older American women received a ring of miniature diamonds because of the needs of a South African corporation to accommodate the Soviet Union.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond

It's quite an eye opener.

This refers to the eternity ring being devised in the late 50's and early 60's but what you describe certainly sounds like one.

Are you sure it doesn't date from then? I'd guess your Grandmother must have been quite young in the 20s

[Pippa68]

Yes jake ~ it surprised me too.

The ring was given to my grandmother by her mother in law, so I should have clarified that it was actually passed on to her.

I can only go by what I have been told..I have never been that interested enough to get the ring checked out, but I shall be doing that now!

[Pippa68]

Well jake, as you have had my mind wandering I took a look at ebay and found this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Art-Deco-9ct-Gold-Silver -Marcasite-Eternity-Ring_W0QQitemZ140158764263 QQihZ004QQcategoryZ58555QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ 1QQcmdZViewItem

Although mine is prettier, this seems to be in the same style. As I said before I don't think it was actually known, or indeed used as an eternity ring ~ more of a dress ring.

Did De Beers obviously invented the term 'eternity ring' for a product that already existed under a different name?

[rabbitygirl]

I have just celebrated 34 years with Mr Rabbity and have all 3 rings, the wedding band being quite wide (worn 1st). I wear all 3 all the time but the engagement ring - old and a resale with the value all in the solitaire - was remounted a few years ago as the rings either side had rubbed the soft gold dangerously narrow. The eternity ring is reducing now and as its low in value I hope to get it replaced next year for our 35th.

[jake-the-peg]

Nothing new under the sun.

That's a nice ring, looking a little worse for wear but nice to see something with a little more design to it than a bunch of stones glued to a ring!

[Lily_b]

I wear engagement ring first, then wedding ring. I refused to remove my engagement ring for the wedding, no-one could provide a good reason to do so apart from saying 'it's tradition'.

It's personal choice really. Just as taking engagement rings off is a personal choice, I only remove it for pastry/bread making when it might get gunged up.

[Ice-Maiden]

I wear my rings in the order they were bought - eternity, engagement and wedding.

[aka pixi]

I wear mine (from the bottom of my finger)...eternity, wedding, engagement ring. I had my eternity ring replaced a couple of weeks ago and the woman in the jewellery shop told me I had them on the wrong way, she said it should be (from bottom of finger) eternity, engagement, wedding ring.

I dont suppose it matters which way you wear them really.

[ksf4eva]

I don't have an eternity ring, hubby said he was going to buy one for our first anniversary because he believed that eternity rings were given on the birth of first born and as we're not having kids the first anniversary seemd the ideal time...however, after saying that I'm still waiting!!!!! LOL

I wear my engagement ring first then my wedding ring only for the reason that my engagement ring is larger in diameter size because I was quite fat when he gave it to me and when we got married I had lost quite a bit of weight and therefore my wedding ring is smaller and holds my engagement ring in place. Saves me having to get it resized ;o)

[The Cowboy]

Thank you each and everyone off you wonderful ladies for your replies.
Did you know this...the lady gets the engagement ring, the wedding ring and the eternity ring.
The man gets a wedding ring then the suffering....lol.
Please form an orderly line to beat my back.
Thank you ladies.

Cowboy

[The Cowboy]

I forgot to mention, my good lady and I celebrated 35 years together on September 22nd. I gave her the eternity ring as her present. Does not match what she gave me. In July she took me to a Glen Campbell concert where I spent 15 minuets with the great man himself.

Cowboy.