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Comment by Jiejeing | Hacker News Reader

I am curious, is the diamond thing a US-centric trope? I do not know anyone here who genuinely cares about that sort of thing, generally people want some discreet metal ring. It may be a precious ore to symbolize the commitment but otherwise I have not seen anything outlandish among my friends or family members who got married.

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Pretty much, the US makes up ~50% of the global diamond jewelry consumer market.

It seems the US-focused De Beers marketing campaign from half a century ago is still holding strong.

Eastern Europe. We didn't bother with the engagement stuff and the wedding rings were plain gold bands. Which we don't bother with any more after 20 years.

I've almost never heard of anyone buying engagement rings, diamonds or no diamonds.

I do know a nouveau riche (or aspirational nouveau riche) couple whose wedding bands have tiny diamonds on them.

In Germany it is not a thing either. Discreet gold/silver rings are much more common. I like it, it is less decadent and you can wear the ring every day.

That's weird, all my SO's friends who are engaged/married here in .de got diamond engagement rings. They also wear a wedding band, and tend to only wear the engagement ring on special occasions..

As we know, Germany is very diverse. Probably it depends on the region and the social environment. I know that in conservative families it is common that mothers give their inherited engagement ring to their oldest son/the first married son for example.

In my direct environment many people broke with that tradition.

Not US-centric - they're popular in the US and Canada, Japan, China and SE Asia.

in the balkans it's definitely a thing

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