Promise Rings

It’s very rare to find anyone who’s big on promises; and that’s quoted for truth. That is because even if how noble we think the keeping promises are, there are times when promises are just too impossible to keep, or else just not worth keeping.

Such is why it’s always an unexplained yet awe-inspiring mystery when people make the maybe the only lifetime promise they’re willing to keep. It’s the promise of forever, of a love that wouldn’t change no matter the circumstance or the outcome. And it is signified, symbolized by promise rings.

Promise rings could be rightly called without downbeat as engagement rings, though custom has it that engagement rings are for those marriages that are expected shortly and promise rings are for “longer term engagement”. Though it could be otherwise too, promise rings are usually given without much fuss (meaning there’s not much activity that’s typical of giving the engagement ring although it is not less symbolic. Promise ring could happen very privately between lovers, only like a mutual ring symbolizing their promises for each other, whether for marriage or otherwise.

The wide breadth of promise ring belief is the result of it coming from different cultures. It may not be jewelry rings at the start yet the principle of such gift giving remains the same. Centuries ago, other gifts suffice, like quilts, handkerchiefs, figurines and other jewelries like brooches. One of the biggest influences in promise rings came from the 1947 De Beers Company marketing strategy that also sprung up the famous ad line “A Diamond is Forever”. After which, it is already a custom that when one man wants to marry a woman, he gives her a promise ring as a token of his love and his promise to remain with here forever.

Since that famous De Beers ad line in 1940s, diamond promise rings became the standard most coveted and elegant promise rings to give to a betrothed; its being extremely expensive all the more became its plus aspect, an appreciated sign that the groom is really serious. Promise rings are usually solitaire rings, having a single palpable diamond mounted on a plain gold band or else a simple band that’s sometimes adorned with gems on a specific extent.

Simple unadorned bands are also highly sought out, but that is due to the necessitate of having a more hygienic material. Doctors and others on the medical and laboratory profession always choose plain metal bands, either the new trendy look of white gold promise rings or traditional yellow gold. The absence of openings and holes natural to heavily stylized rings would be a negative factor for sanitation purposes. The same goes to those that deal with amounts of stubborn dirt, e.g. like oil and grease. These people has the necessitate to choose plain bands as promise rings since heavily adorned rings can capture dirt easily or worse, get destroyed such as stones dislodging.

How are promise rings not engagement rings? Though it may seem absurd, promise rings do carry a belief out of mutual convention. Promise rings use certain materials out of a guiding concept. Long lasting metals like platinum or titanium (even in alloys) are, as a principle, materials intended for engagement rings. That is because their long lasting properties fits better the more serious occasion of engagement, and promise rings make do with materials like gold and silver. Of course, there is no regulation for promise rings apart from that custom, and anyone can choose not to stick with it.

So it leaves you as whether you need to give a promise ring or not. Remember, promise rings are in no way engagement rings and it’s important that the recipient understands that. Likewise, it’s also important that you, as the giver, understands that. Promises, after all, might be broken.