Engagement Rings And Wedding Rings ?

Q: Traditionally, it seems that the man proposes to the woman with an engagement ring, which she wears. Then at the actual wedding, both the man and the woman give one another wedding bands. This leaves the woman with both an engagement ring and a wedding band, whereas until the wedding day, the man has nothing on his finger and only a wedding band after that. I am curious if anyone has deviated from this. I'm sure there are woman out there who have proposed to her man and am wondering if a woman proposes to a man, if she gives him an engagement ring. Do you know of any men with both engagement rings and wedding rings and if so what does his engagement ring look like?

A:I gave Charles an engagement ring, a gold band with a Celtic design. He's sad he won't be able to wear it after the wedding, even though he likes our wedding rings very much. My fiance proposed first, but about 1 year into the engagement, I bought him an "engagement ring" and proposed to him over dinner. It was a simple sterling silver posey ring with "Vous et nul autre" engraved in it (you and no other). He wore his engagement ring up until the wedding day, but since it's silver, he doesn't wear it now that we're married. He keeps it in the "glass slipper" which he used to propose to me. We are 'deviating' from this in a number of ways: (1) I, the bride, proposed, with a 'brass' ring. He said yes, and I said I'd buy him a 'real ring' on our European bus trip-- which then became our "European Engagement Tour" (2) We choose his 'real' engagement ring together -- and chose mine together too. (we each paid for the other's ring, though, *and* I paid the difference between our rings towards his students loans, since mine was much more expensive). (3) We both wear our engagement rings daily, and are both intending to wear wedding rings too -- so *both* of us have two rings after the ceremony. Trick is now, where the rings will go (on which fingers). The groom's engagement ring is a large oval signet ring, with our initials intertwined as the main design, and two curls of white gold on either side of the oval for accent. It's too wide to accomodate a wedding band alongside it. So, he may have to switch the engagement ring to another finger, have his

grad ring resized, and then wear his wedding ring and grad ring on the left hand, and his engagement ring on the right. If he decides to have his grad ring sized for his 'pinky finger' on his left hand, I offered to get a grad ring from law school (hoping this will be the last university grad for me! atleast for a while), and then we'd both wear wedding and grad rings on the left hand. But, I have a few rings I wear daily already -- a signet ring from my Nana, a thin, double band from my parents (both on the right hand), and my engagement ring on the left; my wedding ring on the left will make two rings on each finger. That's maybe my limit for daily wear!