Enormous Engagement Ring

A woman receives an engagement ring, and it's huge, so much so that she has a major reaction to it. It shows that her fiance either makes some major money or otherwise is a major criminal. She may love it (possibly showing it off to everyone); a more down-to-earth character may think it's just too much to accept. Even if the character can't accept something so extravagant, she may take one last look at how beautiful it is before giving it back.

If hijinks ensue, see With This Ring. Sometimes paired with a fancy Fairytale Wedding Dress should the wedding actually happen.

Compare to Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction, where gemstones in general are much larger than phony old reality, and the ring might be extremely big, but nobody in-universe thinks it's unusual.

As what constitutes a "huge" ring is subjective, this is an in-universe trope. A character must react either verbally or physically to the size of it.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Parodied by the Canadian commercial for Harvey's, a burger chain. A man calls over three friends and shows them what some girl had just given him. The friends then proceed to gush over the size of it, and how it symbolizes her feelings, just like women stereotypically do.
• Used in an old Ring Pop commercial, only with a teenage boy asking a girl if she'd "wear his ring," not marry him. Rather than a class ring or promise ring, though, it's a Ring Pop.

Anime and Manga

• During the casino chapter in Eyeshield 21, Monta fantasises about proposing to Mamori with "a modest engagement ring" set with a diamond bigger than his entire body. Unfortunately he loses all the money he and Sena had won betting conservatively when he goes for a foolish long-shot bet.
• In the Sonic X episode "Emerald Anniversary", Mr. Thorndyke visits a jeweller in search of an anniversary gift for his wife. He picks out a ring made from the biggest and flashiest gem they have, which turns out to be a Chaos Emerald.

Asian Animation

• Lamput: In the Season 3 episode "Wig", Fat Doc falls in love with his partner in crime, Slim Doc, when he mistakes him for a woman after Lamput disguises himself as hair on his head. Fat Doc eventually decides to propose to his crush and purchases a ring with a diamond on it that looks to be just barely bigger than the actual ring itself.

Comedy

• Jeff Foxworthy made a bit about women getting an engagement ring from a man's perspective. Specifically, Foxworthy said that men hate it when someone else's wife gets a bigger ring than their own wife because that man knows he's going to get lectured about it.
  "Well, I guess Tom just loves Barbara more than you love me."
  "You tell Tom I'm kicking his ass next time I see him."

Comic Books

• In the Maniak's story in Showcase #69 from DC Comics, Silver gets engaged to a billionaire and gets an engagement ring with a diamond about the size of her head.

Film

• Nicole Bonnet (Audrey Hepburn's character) in How to Steal a Million yells at the sight of the gigantic diamond ring Mr. Leland gives her when he proposes.
• In The Palm Beach Story, Claudette Colbert's character is proposed to by one of the richest men in the world. It's so large, she tells him to put it away, or else the sight of it will convince her to go through with it (she is married already, anyway). She takes a final look at it before putting it away forever.
• In Gone with the Wind, Scarlet asks for a large ring and Rhett gives her one with a diamond that even she describes as "obscenely huge".
• Love Before Breakfast: Kay is surprised when Scott gives her three engagement rings. Not to choose from but to keep all three!
• The ring offered to Martha May Whovier by Mayor Augustus Maywho in the 2000 version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was very large (and also gaudy).
• Christmas Made-for-TV movie A Boyfriend for Christmas:
  • One of Holly's friends gets engaged and her ring is very big and very beautiful. She pretends the ring is so heavy that she has to drag her hand. However, she and her fiancé argue and by the end of the movie, they're broken up.
  • Holly, the protagonist, receives a huge engagement ring from her ex-boyfriend and Romantic False Lead. He is a rather important figure in journalism. She acknowledges that the ring is gorgeous and considers accepting his offer, but he's ultimately refused.
• In Titanic (1997), Rose tells Jack that Cal is worse than her boyfriend and shows him the engagement ring from him. He tells her that if she had jumped off the boat, she would have gone straight to the bottom.
• Sherlock Holmes (2009). Watson's fiancée Mary indicates the huge wedding ring Holmes has given her as a sign that he's finally accepted their marriage. The audience (and likely Watson too) recognizes the diamond as coming from the Maharajah's missing diamond necklace that Sherlock stole (back) off Irene Adler.
• Crazy Rich Asians has two examples:
  • Subverted with the ring Nick intends to propose Rachel, the ring looks fairly reasonably-sized despite Nick having the financial means to lavish her.
  • Played straight with Nick's mother, Eleanor, who wears a humongous emerald ring that was given to her by Nick's father when they got married. Nick uses Eleanor's ring to surprise and propose to Rachel as she's about to head home to New York. Rachel's reaction to Nick proposing with Eleanor's ring is not so much the size as it is Eleanor's blessing to let Rachel marry Nick.
• In Turning Red, Mei fantasizes about Robaire proposing to her onstage with a huge "four" shaped engagement ring the sight of which makes the pupils of Mei's eyes get big.
• Sweet Home Alabama: Melanie attempts to hide that she and Andrew are engaged by flipping her ring around so the diamond is hidden inside her hand. When they see Andrew's mother she takes Melanie's hand and, on feeling the ring, declares that "Melanie is wearing a skating rink on a very important finger".
• IQ: During Catherine's engagement to James she wears an engagement ring with a large stone.
  Albert: She's engaged you know.
  Ed: Yeah, I saw the ring.

Literature

• Subverted in Rose Madder. The engagement ring Rose receives from her abusive future husband has a large stone which he claims is a diamond, but after she leaves him she discovers it's cubic zirconia.

Live-Action TV

• In Alice, Flo was once romanced by an oil sheik who gave her an engagement ring. The stone was so large the other waitresses thought it had to be fake. But then they did the "cut glass" test where Mel took the ring and scratched on the glass door to the diner. He tapped where he had just scratched with his knuckle in triumph. Then the circle he had just scratched fell out of the door.
• Played with in Aquí no hay quien viva: Belén is the most impressed with the big gem on the engagement ring Carlos buys for Lucía, to the point that it's her who shouts "I do!" when Lucía hesitates.
• Double Subverted in Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. One of the two girls accepts a proposal from a (supposedly) rich suitor. The other woman comments on its size ("I can see where the Titanic hit it!"), but Mr. Cooper calls it a cubic zirconium. She refuses to believe that it's a fake until the stone in the ring breaks in some accident. It ends with the suitor having a real diamond as well, but he was going to switch it due to resizing or resetting issues.
• In Not Going Out, Lucy is taken aback by the massive and expensive diamonds her slightly dodgy nightclub-owning boyfriend has given her as a sort of engagement gift. Her cynical and jealous flatmate Lee suggests this is all a scam to get otherwise chargeable jewellry through Customs for free as Lucy and her man are off on a dream holiday.
• Coronation Street: The hyper-jealous Eileen has seen her fireman boyfriend out with an attractive firewoman from his station. Suspecting he is cheating, Eileen and her dozy friend Julie embarrass themselves - and him - by breaking into the station. Angry and disgruntled, the boyfriend produces a large ornate engagement ring and says this is the reason he was out with his colleague. Her family owns a jewellers' store and she was helping him choose a ring. She's the right person to find the best and most beautiful ring, and she also gets a discount on it for him, so it is larger and better than what he might have been able to afford in normal circumstances. Eileen is sick twice over on seeing the ring. One, because it is big and ornate, and visibly so; two, because her insane and irrational jealousy has made him contemplate breaking the whole thing off and taking it back to the shop for a refund.
• In 'Allo 'Allo!, Madame Edith is forced to get engaged to the Italian Captain Bertorelli. He gets a huge ring from the Germans to impress his new fiancée. It was, of course, part of some convoluted plan.
• Lampshaded in Castle's sixth season premiere when Beckett accepted Castle's marriage proposal and he slipped the ring on her finger (the diamond, while a respectable size, was not overly ostentatious).
  Beckett: Wow, that's...big.
  Castle: No, you just have remarkably tiny fingers.
• In the series finale of The Mentalist, Patrick Jane purchases a very large diamond engagement ring to give to Teresa Lisbon. It's so big that Teresa thinks it's a fake one given to her as a joke, even though Jane is known to be filthy rich. Teresa thinks it's gorgeous but says it's too much and that she can't accept it. Jane insists on giving it to her and wins the argument.
• Tahani from The Good Place receives one of these from Larry Hemsworth after he proposes. It's so big Eleanor jokingly wonders how she's able to move her hand with it on. Missing the sarcasm, Tahani explains that she received training when she was young on how to properly wear exorbitant jewelry.
• Star Trek: Voyager. In "Bride of Chaotica!", Queen Arachnia is presented with a gaudy ring when she agrees to marry the egoistical Emperor Scientist Dr. Chaotica. She thinks it's for her, only to be told that she is to present it to her future husband at the wedding ceremony!
• In Get Smart, Max buys 99's ring at a jewelry store that is in the process of being robbed by KAOS agents- in order to prevent it from being stolen, the jeweler gives Max the massive Morris Diamond, worth $275,000, and makes Max think that it's a cheaper ring that he can afford on his low budget. 99 is shocked at how large the diamond is, and is even more shocked when she realizes that it's real and not a zircon- this discovery leads to them taking down the bowling-alley-based KAOS smuggling ring "The League of Bald Headed Men."
• Friends: In "The One with the Flashback", the newly-engaged Rachel bumps into Monica and excitedly shows off her ring. Monica quips that "you can't even see where the Titanic hit it".
• In the Seventh Season of The Office (US), Michael gets a very expensive engagement ring for Holly. Michael being a known Malaproper, doesn't use the correct notion of spending a "three month salary" on an engagement ring. He instead, spends a "three year salary" for the ring.

Music

• Defied in Tracy Byrd's "Don't Love Make a Diamond Shine", which emphasizes that the meaning behind the ring is more important than its size or value. The second verse in particular draws attention to a wealthy lady who has a huge ring that "looks cheaper than a Cracker Jack prize / 'Cause her man don't know that it ain't the dough, you know all he needs to spend is time."

Video Games

• In Dragon Quest VIII, the party accompanies the prince of Argonia on a rite to slay an Argonian lizard and bring back its crystal "heart" to be made into an engagement ring - but the prince is disappointed to discover how small they are and insists the party get a big one (from a big Argonian lizard, of course) before returning home. Naturally, it is by far the largest such crystal anyone's seen. Then he ends up buying a bigger one from a shady merchant, making the whole ordeal useless. This doesn't go unnoticed by his father, however, and the one the party collected turns out to be very useful when it is discovered that the hero is a prince of Argonia himself.
• In The Curse of Monkey Island such a ring is part of the central story, which revolves around the main protagonist Guybrush Threepwood's attempt to restore his fiancée after accidentally turning her into a gold statue by giving her a cursed diamond ring. The only way to remove the curse is to replace the ring with one of equal size, which is acknowledged in-story as being very rare.
• Super Mario Odyssey: The Binding Band is so large, Peach has it around her waist and still has to hold it up.

Web Animation

• AstroLOLogy: In "Little Savings Big Love", after a less than ideal lunch and shopping spree, Taurus reveals that he saved up enough money to buy Pisces a massive diamond ring. The fortune message shows her having difficulty keeping her hand raised due to its sheer weight.

Western Animation

• From the Futurama movie The Beast with a Billion Backs, Yivo proposes to the universe with one of these ultra-large rings.
• "Blue Cat Blues" from Tom and Jerry: Tom and a rival tomcat (named "Butch") are trying to impress their love, a beautiful white female cat, and at one point, they each try impressing her with an engagement ring. The diamond on Tom's ring is so small that you need a magnifying glass just to get a good look at it. Butch's ring had a diamond so big, bright and shiny that you can't even look at it without eye protection — Tom and the white cat had to wear welding masks just to look at the ring that Butch gave her. The white cat ultimately chooses Butch over Tom (they get married in the end).
• In "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony" of The Simpsons, Selma marries the mafia boss Fat Tony. However, the wedding wasn't real and the ceremony was held in Italian (which Selma doesn't know), and she was only his house mistress. Fat Tony's real wife laughs at the size of Selma's ring, which is the ring of a mistress. The wife's ring is huge and the gem is as big as her fist.
• Kaeloo: In Episode 60, Quack Quack buys a wedding ring for Pretty, who he is being forced to marry. Not only is the gem incredibly huge (according to the characters, since the audience can't see it), it's also shiny enough to set someone on fire.

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