A friend told me that in Germany an engagement ring is a plain band worn on the left hand. At the ceremony it's switched to the right hand and becomes the wedding ring.

I don't know if my mother has an actual wedding band or not. I know growing up that what I thought was her wedding ring is what I found out to be described as an engagement ring. I do know my cousin is the first male on either side of the family to wear a wedding ring.

The males on both sides of my family (myself included) don't wear jewelry at all, so seeing my cousin with the wedding band always seems odd to me.

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CBS is sayingthat it's a 41 year old American. 2nd grade teacher.

As far as men and wedding rings, I think its fairly recent -- at least it being "standard" is. I remember wedding announcements specifying "it was a double ring ceremony" into the eighties at least.

I recently saw one of the late-night B&W reruns of "What's My Line" (the insomniac's refuge at 2:30 am is Game Show Network) where the person whose profession they were guessing was "wedding ring maker," and when one of the male panelists asked the contestant if he would use the product, his response led me to believe that men wearing wedding rings was just starting to become more widespread at that time (the late '50s).

My parents got married in 1959 and my dad has always worn a wedding band. His father, however, I don't think did. I always chalked that up to the fact that he was a farmer and jewelry + machinery is often a bad combination.

I've been without internet for two weeks. I didn't realise how much I missed it until I got back on. I'm almost tempted to waste class and just surf lj.

Love the new Natter title. I think it's my favorite one yet.

My parents married in 1961, and both had rings (and my mother had an engagemetn ring as well, but the stone fell out one Christmas day, and we never found it, despite picking through the trash, etc.). My father was a carpenter, so he didn't wear his ring all the time, but he wore it fairly often, especially if they were going somewhere.

My parents married in '58, and Dad has a wedding ring that I've never seen him wear (on account metal and his skin failing to play nicely, plus him being a large old man now instead of a skinny young one).

What's the confusion? You give $30K+ plus worth of diamond to your girl. Later, she tags your finger with a G, you tag hers with another G, and you get to buy everthing.

Seems plain to me.