I have a simple gold wedding band I have worn since the day we were married in 1986. I never take it off. It's not big or fancy, and I certainly don't baby it. It's scuffed up and occasionally gets bent into an oval that I have to straighten out. But I wear it proudly to show my wife and the world that my heart belongs to her.
My wife has an equally simple gold band. When we got married we had it joined with my mother's wedding ring and band. So she has a simple diamond ring in the middle with a matching gold band on each side. Nothing extravagant, no giant rock or anything, just a symbol of our bond.
For much of our marriage my wife also proudly wore the small promise ring I bought her when we were dating. It's a very thin band with a tiny diamond "chipette". I only paid $50 for it, but it meant a lot to her. She wore through the band a couple times, and the chipette nearly fell out a couple times. We've probably spent hundreds of dollars repairing that little promise ring over the years, but it still means a lot to her.
For our 20th anniversary I bought my wife a ring for her right hand. I was prepared to spend big money on a ring since we had gone cheap on our other rings. I scoured the jewelry stores and online sites but nothing seemed like "her". I ended up selecting a very inexpensive gold ring (under $150 if I remember correctly) that had two small hearts next to each other with little diamonds on the edges. She loves it. I showed her photos of some of the other rings I was thinking of and told her we could get one of those if she preferred, but she said she liked the one I got the best. She hasn't taken it off since I gave it to her back in 2006.
Our rings are not fancy, but they mean a lot to us and we always wear them proudly.
.
