Fancy gifts are nice, but at the end of the day, they’re not what’s going to keep you happy in life.
This is the message being sent out by Ariel McRae, who recently married the love of her life.
Recalling her engagement for Love What Matters, Ariel admitted that neither she nor her partner have a lot of money – and so, when they decided to get married, they chose the nicest rings they could afford.
“He scraped up just enough money to buy me two matching rings from Pandora. Sterling silver and CZ to be exact. That’s what sits on my ring finger, and I am so in love with them,” she wrote.
However, something truly awful happened while the couple were purchasing their rings – someone shamed her husband over their choice of rings.
The woman selling the rings said: “'Can you believe that some men get these as engagement rings? How pathetic.’”
Ariel’s husband was, understandably, crushed in that moment.
“I watched my now husband’s face fall… He already felt like a failure, asking me again and again, ‘Are you sure you’ll be happy with these? Are you sure this is OK?’ He was so upset at the idea of not making me happy enough and of me not wanting to marry him because my rings didn’t cost enough money or weren’t flashy enough,” she added.
Ariel was, naturally, incensed by the shop assistant’s insensitivity; but rather than getting angry, she chose to take the high road – and she gave the most perfect response.
“Mature Ariel said, ‘It isn’t the ring that matters, it is the love that goes into buying one that is.’ We bought the rings and left,” she revealed.
Looking back on that moment, Ariel can’t help but lament the ‘sad’ fact that the world has become so obsessed with flashy material items and what they are supposed to represent.
In light of this, her final reflection is worth spreading: “Here I am, Court-House married, $130 ring set, the love of my life by my side, and happier than I could ever imagine.”
