I was very fortunate, Mom had several very nice and fairly large diamond rings that belonged to me grandmother, I always knew I could use one of these when I wanted to give someone a ring. I let my fiance pick whichever one she wanted and told her she could have it set any way she wanted. She loved one just as it was, but as the setting was fairly old and some of the small diamonds on the side were a bit loose, she had an identical setting made, slightly lager, but also included some small diamonds that belonged to her grandmother.
Funny story about engagement rings, shortly after we started dating we were at an awards luncheon for her father. There were eight or so people at our table and I noticed one of the ladies had a HUGE diamond on, I'm not kidding, this thing was about the size of your first or second knuckle, it is tough to actually describe how big this damn thing was. Hell, I wanted to hit her over the head and steal the thing! Anyway, I commented on the size of this thing to then girlfriend, she shrugged and said they were friends of her parents and had a lot of money. I don't know **** about diamonds, but I'm sure this thing was worth north of $500k if not $1M.
Several days later I was reading an article in the paper and the individual in question was mentioned and described him as one of the wealthiest men in the country. I mentioned this to my girlfriend and said something to the effect of you said they had a lot of money, hell a lot of people have a lot of money, but being described as one of the richest men in the country is a bit different. She shrugged and said, "well, I said they had a lot of money."
