I've asked my wife about getting a manufactured diamond recently, and she says she would be cool with it. I think, though, for her engagement ring it wouldn't have flown, as much as she'd like to believe it now. Sometimes the heart is more forceful than the mind, and engagments are definitely heart things.

At any rate, I was very aware of the two month rule. My wife, however, was also aware of the fact that if we did that we'd have to wait a couple of years to get married, and she was more worried about getting married than trying to live up to De Beers marketing strategy. Although, I was in college at the time, and truly two month's salary didn't mean that much. But we'd have had to have waited until after I graduated, and at that point then my salary would have been much more. She wasn't willing to wait that long, so she "settled" for less than that.

So what I did was take the diamond from my mother's ring (she and my dad had already gotten divorced) and re-set that. I then went ahead and got the wedding band and presented her with them both when I asked (though I only let her have the engagement ring). The whole deal cost me less tham $200. Of course, I only got away with it because I was a college kid, but she loves her ring and wears it proudly.