Who Keeps This Lovingly Designed Engagement Ring?
Stop the Presses; Newspaperman Tackles Ticklish Engagement Ring Ownership Subject
There sat the email from an East Coast reporter. Subject line: Broken Engagements – Who Keeps the Ring?
This reporter wanted a wedding Jeweler’s input on the delicate question: “What happens if an engagement is broken, to the admittedly expensive engagement ring?”
It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Living in Santa Barbara (one of the #1 wedding locales) and having designed many custom engagement rings and wedding rings, I do have an expert opinion about this. Here’s what I shared with him after reminding him as a Santa Barbara-based jewelry designer (note: this is not legal advice):
- If a couple is engaged more than a year I think she keeps it. However, if the center diamond is from his family and meaningful, she may need to return the family diamond.
- If they were planning the wedding and invitations went out, and he breaks it off, she totally keeps the ring. In a way as payback for investing her time, her heart, keeping herself free for him, and the embarrassment of not getting married after telling god and everyone they were going to.
- If she breaks the engagement, she returns the ring. If he was untrue, she keeps it.
- If he breaks it she keeps it. But if she was untrue she should return it.
- Back to the family diamond issue, if he breaks the engagement and invitations were sent, she keeps the ring. If the family offers a reasonable diamond to replace the family one, she should return the family diamond. It means more to his family than it would to her.
