When social media over-sharing meets publicity obsession, the result is misbehavior like Rochelle Mindrum’s.
The 29-year-old was expecting her boyfriend Jak Keller to pop the question, and had even gone ring shopping with him. She specified that she wanted the proposal to be done “in nature.” When they took a trip to Georgia together, she figured it must be coming soon. Sure enough, after a hike, on the side of a cliff, Keller set up his phone to take a video. He took Mindrum’s hands in his, got down on one knee, and proposed. But when Mindrum looked down at the ring, she saw that her fiancé had chosen a blue diamond rather than the colorless diamond she’d picked out. And she blurted out her disappointment on camera: “It’s so blue!”
Rochelle accepted, then posted the video on Tik-Tok along with a note that she was disappointed with the color. “I was extremely surprised by the blue diamond,” she says now. “The box it was in was dark blue, so at first I thought it was a reflection of the box. Once it was on my finger though, I was able to see that the diamond was in fact blue.”
The Amityville House has some advice for Jak, her already hen-pecked fiancé:
Unbelievable! This guy tries his best to give his girlfriend the proposal she dreams of, and the thanks he gets is to have her complain about the color of the diamond on TikTok, where it went viral. Why? Because she’s an ungrateful ethics dunce, and viewers were horrified.
It gets worse! Since the video was getting so much attention, “People” magazine, which apparently has nothing better to write about, gave Rachel another platform to bitch from, and sure enough, she did. From the article “Woman Surprised When Boyfriend Got Down on One Knee and Proposed. The Type of Ring He Chose Left Her ‘Shocked’ (Exclusive)”:
“I thought the ring was gorgeous, however, I had always dreamed of my engagement ring being a colorless diamond, so it just didn’t fit my vision,” she explains. “It does not help that my birthstone is aquamarine, so I am used to receiving blue-hued stones.” “It turns out he was trying to get me a higher quality diamond and the website was a little confusing, so he thought the higher quality diamonds all threw off a little blue hue, as the pictures online were a very faint blue,” continues Mindrum. “He was scared to drop the ring, so he never took it out of the box. He only looked at in the box. So he was just as shocked as I was with how blue it was!”
Ethics Alarms 
my wife (then fiancée) and I discussed rings and diamonds at one point.
I asked, half jokingly, what she thought of heart-shaped diamonds.
she disapproved; I agreed. I think heart-shaped diamonds are stupid.
unfortunately, I decided I give her a Claddagh ring, a traditional Irish ring that features a heart in the center of its design.
so, I got a heart-shaped diamond I purchased on line and had it placed in a Claddagh designed ring
She loves it, has never complained and remembers our earlier conversation about diamond shapes as an amusing exchange
-Jut
I thought blue diamonds were rarer that colorless diamonds. I think most people opt for the colorless diamonds but blue diamonds per karat are more valuable if I’m not mistaken.
She should have just graciously accepted the ring as a symbol of his devotion to her. If I had been in his place I would have been quite angry and said flat out, “how could you be so ungrateful?”
I’ve received many gifts from friends and relatives over the years that I didn’t really like or need but out of common courtesy and respect I accepted the gifts and thanked them accordingly. Isn’t that one of those unwritten social rules? It should hold even more weight for something as important as a marriage proposal.
In addition to not knowing how to spell “Jack,” Jak is doomed. He’ll have a ring through his nose before he knows it…
As a CVD lab grown diamond, that is probably an $8000 stone. As a natural diamond, it would exceed the average price of a new hone today.
I have a terrific ability of ignoring things that simply do not interest me at all. This supposed story doesn’t even rate on the Ignore It Scale.
jvb
That larger issue does matter: she doesn’t. People have lost any sense of what is fair, ethical and civil behavior regarding personal interactions and privacy. That was a betrayal.
Agreed but for her the ethics train left the station decades ago.
jvb
Truly shallow, mundane couple issue that was made unnecessarily “newsworthy” by her posting it on social media. Her complaints about the comments are disingenuous at best and stupidly attention-obsessed at worst.
Bingo. I have no hope for that union.
Proe expresses my thoughts much better.
jvb
Not long ago, I would’ve agreed with you on about all of this, and I still do to a certain extent.
What I’ve come to realize is how important the ring is to a woman. Many of them really want the ring to be something specific, and it makes sense to me now. If I were to look for a criterion movie or something like that for my birthday, and then my significant other got me the regular version, I would be disappointed. I would still be grateful for the movie, but there is such a thing as putting thought into a gift, ESPECIALLY when it’s an engagement ring. For women, that engagement ring is a huge deal.
Regular gifts and such are different, but this is the ring that is supposed to symbolize your union (forever, if vows meant anything at all).
Now, I don’t think she’s out of the woods yet. Even though I think she’s not wrong to be a little bit upset, her attitude is still pretty awful. I don’t like the trend of recording engagements and making them into some kind of giant production to post on social media; it’s supposed to be a special moment for the couple, and her time to voice her displeasure is not in the moment when he proposes. I’m sure she can get the color changed, and if they have enough money to throw around on expensive rings, that is a fairly easy fix.
Not being married, here my comments.
The wedding industry and jewelry industry vastly oversell the importance of expensive rings and wedding events. The ring is worth two months of salary, the wedding a year salary. The next years will be filled with fights on how to pay all this off. Our grandparents had much cheaper weddings, which on average were also much better.
This story also mirrors warnings by the manosphere. A woman who complains about the ring’s size, cost, or lack of prestige, the manosphere labels her a “gold digger” or hypergamous, advising the man to break off the relationship. These women tend not to marry because they are truly attracted to them, but to this availability to provide. When the marriage fails divorce court will reward her with cash and prices.
Never been called part of the “manosphere” before. I just think she acted like a controlling, selfish jerk whom I would warn any man, woman or child against getting too involved with. Women don’t notice such signs?
I did not call you part of the manosphere. I tend to follow YouTube content that qualifies as “Manosphere”. The red pilled manosphere ecosystem has a lot of red flag content, warning men against women displaying red flag behavior and therefore to be avoided. The red pilled manosphere tends to have a rather negative view on the institute of marriage in the United States today.
This reminds me of the study that looked at marital length and how expensive a ring is. The spoiler is that people who put a lot of thought into expenses are less likely to stay married.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-myths-of-sex/202402/the-bigger-the-bling-the-shorter-the-marriage
Choice of ring is important to the extent that she will be wearing it every day for the rest of her life, and it should please ‘her’ eye.
Having said that, this particular young man should run. His beloved has proven herself unworthy, immature, rude, thoughtless and grubbing.
Celebrating our 44th in a few days. My wedding ring cost $10 at a warehouse catalog store, and Danny’s was $60 at Sears. With four children between us, we didn’t have money for an engagement ring, or a wedding. We eloped to Nevada.
He’s still my Favorite.