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TheCytochromeC, this is not marital advice. This is advice on what the meaning of the price of the ring is with regard to how much you love your fiancée. I'm assuming that if you're thinking of marriage, you're thinking of permanence. I've been married for a little over 25 years, and I don't think I spent more than a few hundred dollars on my wife's engagement ring. She wasn't marrying the ring, she was marrying me. It wasn't the price of the ring that told her I loved her enough to marry her; it was that I was willing to give up the benefits of being single to spend the rest of my life with her that told her I loved her that much. It was the fact that I thought being married to her would make me more of who I am than less of who I am. It sounds trite, but "it's the thought that counts" is actually applicable here.

One thing to consider is this: what impact will paying "the price of a car" for a ring have on your family finances once you're married. When you tie that knot, the two of you become a family, even if you don't have kids yet. If you're buying that ring on credit, what impact will the future payments have on your monthly living expenses? Will you have to do without some things so that you can afford the ring payments? Will paying less for the ring mean that you'll have more for the honeymoon?

The type of metal or the choice of stone is purely a matter of personal taste, but before you indulge that taste, you should examine what effect it will have on other, equally important, decisions down the road.