In my religious upbringing we didn't believe in blowing excessive amounts of money on things like jewelry, so the guys would often buy a nice watch for their girl. I bought a nice watch with some diamond chips in it and gave that to my wife when I proposed.
Im not sure where the watch us now but I know she still has it somewhere. She ended up buying her own ring from qvc. We went to a jewelry mart to purchase our wedding bands for way, way less than the engagement ring commercials want you to spend. No reason to go broke over this.
that being said, one of my coworkers treated her engagement ring like it was the Stanley cup.