I have a bit of a dilema. I've been dating my intended for four years, and we've always known we wanted to get married but have been waiting to get engaged until we can actually act upon it in a decent time frame! That time has finally come, and we've been gearing up to choose a ring. My boyfriend's grandmother's ring is available to us, and his mother has encouraged me to accept it and to even take the stones out and re-set them, and to turn in the gold to go toward our new purchase.
This is incredibly generous, but I feel sort of bad accepting and essentially destroying a family heirloom, especially when I'm not willing to do the same to my own great-grandmother's ring. Future Mother-in-law assures me, as does my boyfriend, that this is totally fine with them, but I still feel a bit odd.
My question is, has anyone else been in this situation, and what did you do? Was there any in-law fallout down the road, such as them holding the fact that you accepted that ring against you or never letting you forget what a favor they did you?
We really can't afford anything NEARLY as nice on our own, and I've never thought of myself as the bridezilla type, or the type to go crazy over diamonds (I used to say I didn't care if I had one or not), but now that these diamonds have been basically promised to me my materialistic side is finding it hard to refuse them.
Help!! To accept the ring, or not to accept the ring?