Results of a new study by jewellery comparison website, comparejewellery.com, has shown that more of us ladies in the UK would prefer to choose our own engagement ring, it seems many of us are no longer keen on the element of surprise anymore.
Weddings on Female First
The research was conducted to take a closer look at the jewellery purchasing habits and preferences of women in the UK. The website has spotted a rise in visitors comparing engagement rings over the past month. 2,003 women in the UK aged 18 and over took part in the study 55% of those women were single or unmarried and the other 45% were engaged or married.
It appears the 'surprise engagement ring' may be dying out, the study looking into jewellery preferences of women across the UK shows that 60% of single women claimed that they would prefer to choose their own engagement ring rather than having their potential fiancé choose a beautiful (or not so beautiful) ring. A brave 12% of engaged or married women admitted that they actually returned the original engagement ring given to them by partner when proposing and exhanged it for something that they liked better.
All the single ladies were asked whether or not they would like to be surprised with a ring picked out for them by their partner and 60% of them said they would rather pick out their own ring. 33% said they would leave it upto their partners and would like to be surprised and the remaining 7% were unsure.
The majority of women who said they would much rather choose their own ring explained that it was something they would have to wear everyday and therefore it would be extremely important for them to really love everything about the ring. A smaller number of women said they simply 'didn't trust their partners taste' and the rest said they would only pick out the ring themselves to 'take the pressure off' their partners.
Ali O'Neill, Head of Product at comparejewellery.com said: “Whilst tradition would govern that engagement rings be a well-thought out surprise for people to present to their hopeful fiancée, it seems that times may have changed, and women no longer want to be given a ring chosen solely at their partner’s discretion."
39% of women admitted they had 'briefed' their previous or past partner on what style and type of ring they would like to receive. When asked how they would react to a ring they disliked a third of the women said they would tell their partner right away and 5% said they would go as far as refusing the proposal altogether!
53% of engaged or married women who took part in the study claimed to have received a surprise ring from their partner and 41% were either involved in choosing their own or had known what ring they were going to get before they got it. 1 in 10 of these respondants admitted that they had returned the original ring given to them and said their partners were happy for them to do so, others admitted their partners were upset by their decision to change the ring.
It seems us ladies don't have a problem taking control of events in our lives, we know what we want and we aren't afraid to ask for it! Sometimes all it takes is a little shove in the right direction - after all, why should we hide our hands in our pockets when we could be out flashing our sparkling rings to the world?
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