When we got engaged I put the money I would have spent on a ring towards buying a farm (as someone said in a thread on news.yc "oh, you're The Farm Guy!"). My

When we got engaged I put the money I would have spent on a ring towards buying a farm (as someone said in a thread on news.yc "oh, you're The Farm Guy!"). My wife thanks me almost literally every day for the farm. I don't think she'd appreciate a diamond ring nearly as much. When it came time to actually get married I dropped around $2 or $2.5k on gold casting grain, carving wax, a small burn out kiln, a crucible, etc., and made wax blanks for our rings on my Sherline lathe, then cast them in gold using the burn out kiln and my blacksmithing forge. Meanwhile, she sewed her own dress from scratch. After the small church ceremony we had everyone back to our house for BLTs and tomato soup, using home made bacon and home made bread, etc. Our complete wedding cost maybe $3,000 or $3,500 and the cost was dominated by the burn out kiln and the gold. The good news is that the kiln and accessories still get used: a few weeks ago she carved a belt buckle from wax and I cast it in bronze. My advice: eschew consumerism. A DIY lifestyle is a lot more fun. [ edit ] here's a pix of my first practice rings in silver, and then one of the rough cast gold rings before cleanup. https://goo.gl/photos/tdLEjxQipMS2ZtQh8 https://goo.gl/photos/tdLEjxQipMS2ZtQh8