I probably spent too much--I got probably the best deal I could get on it, but it was still probably too much. I had an idea of what I wanted to give her, and went in and got a great education on diamonds (which are basically a scam) and bought it. I'm very happy with it, she's ecstatic with it--and the price, when I finally told her, fell just underneath her dollar amount of "If you spend more than this, you're an idiot", so that was good. It was about 1.5 months of my gross, but I had made up my budget by saving from my side job for 2 months, and combining that with whatever my tax return happened to be.
My problem was that once I learned about the diamonds, I became really good at spotting flaws. Now most diamonds that I see, I can spot a flaw. I knew that if my wife's had a flaw, I would always hone in on it. It doesn't make our marriage any less, it would just constantly annoy me. So I paid more to have one that didn't annoy me for the rest of my life. I didn't care as much about color, so hers is the "worst" of the near colorless--I really can't tell much difference unless it is in bright light. I wish I cared about comparing it to others, because hers really is noticeably more brilliant (is that the right word) than most others when the girls do that comparing thing-but that to me is just an interesting part of it, I don't get enjoyment out of the fact that hers is better. At least it doesn't bother me either.
Then we went to look for her wedding ring at jewelers, Macy's, etc. We found what she really liked, looked at the price, and said "nope". Then we went back to the guy I bought her ring from (a truly wonderful shopping experience, btw--I wish everything was like that) and he showed us some cheap stuff, some expensive stuff, and then remembered about one he had custom made for someone that backed out of it. It was almost exactly like the one that she really wanted, but better diamonds. It was also 1/3 the cost of the others. Win.
My ring was whatever the price of gold was at the time, I can't remember. I looked at a lot and a lot of different materials before I settled on this one. It is the only piece of jewelry (other than a watch) that I'll ever wear, so I wasn't going to get one I wasn't happy with.
We are going to get a cheap steel band for both of us for our honeymoon though.