The perfect love story does exist — you go to a fancy ball, fall in love, she loses a stiletto and you search the island with her lone shoe to make her yours– but maybe only in fairytales. In real life, at least on this sunny island, falling in love means “BTO, ai mai?”, putting down a 5% downpayment and the tacit agreement that an engagement ring and a proposal would be down the road.
So how does this all work?
What’s the difference between an engagement ring, proposal ring and wedding ring? Why do we need to wear/ stack so many rings on a single finger? And which finger do you wear your engagement ring on? And which hand?
First things first, there are no hard and fast rules, but usually, when someone asks for their partner’s hand in marriage, they get down on a knee and pull out an engagement ring. Some people call it a ‘proposal ring’ since it’s the ring they presented during their proposal. This is usually the ring that has a sizeable stone, whereas the wedding band is a simpler piece, sometimes without any gems at all. At MADLY, ladies’ engagement rings usually start from 3.5K, women’s wedding bands start from 1.8K, while men’s wedding bands which are usually larger (since men tend to have bigger hands), have more masculine designs and thus thicker bands, start from 2.2K.
Nowadays, many people prefer for their wedding band to match their engagement ring so that they can be worn together, ‘stacked’ for a perfect fit, although it’s entirely your choice whether you’d like to wear them together, alone, or the engagement ring only for special occasions.
The engagement ring and wedding band are usually worn on the left ring finger, although some people like to wear their rings on both ring fingers, the wedding ring on one and the engagement ring/ proposal ring on the other.
Some people have come to us asking if engagement rings can be smaller than the wedding band, and our answer is — whatever you think your partner will love/ which you can afford is best! The most important thing is that you’re committed to a lifetime together, through thick and thin.