When Ariel Desiree McRae eloped with her husband, Quinn, after two years of dating, she was on cloud nine. Nothing — not even a stranger's derogatory comment about her modest engagement ring — could bring her down.
In a moving Facebook post [2], Ariel recounted the story of shopping for rings with her husband. The newlyweds encountered a woman, who, upon seeing the unflashy rings they were examining, said, "Y'all can you believe that some men get these as engagement rings? How pathetic." Ariel described how her husband's face fell at the thought of not being able to afford the more expensive rings that flooded her Pinterest pages.
Her response to this stranger's rude comment? "Old Ariel would have ripped that woman a new one. Mature Ariel said, 'It isn't the ring that matters, it is the love that goes into buying one that is.'" [Insert clapping emoji here.] We couldn't agree more with Ariel's reaction, and we applaud how she responded so eloquently.
Her Facebook post went on to challenge society's notions about love equating with material possessions, saying, "Y'all I would have gotten married to this man if it had been a 25¢ gum ball machine ring. When did our nation fall so far to think the only way a man can truly love a woman is if he buys her $3,000+ jewelry and makes a public decree of his affection with said flashy ring?"
Ariel ended the post on a positive note, explaining that love is truly all we need. "But here I am though, Court-House married, $130 ring set, the love of my life by my side and happier than I could ever imagine," she wrote. Keep reading for the full Facebook post, which has garnered more than 53,000 well-deserved shares.