Engagement Rings can be traced all the way down to the 13th century. In 1215, Pope Innocent III declared that there should be a waiting period between the betrothal and marriage. This became to be known as the engagement period and it was made known that a woman was engaged to be by a simple ring
The earliest engagement rings consisted of simple gold and bronze bands. They were nothing fancy and most did not have any precious stone or diamond in them. The aristocracy and elite of the medieval period were the first to insert diamonds into their engagement rings. Early inclusions of precious stones were arranged in a way to symbolize the joining of two families into one.
It wasn't until the 20th century that engagement rings actually became the standard proclamation of an engagement. We can date the origins of the ring to a late medieval time, but the single bigggest contributing factor to the status of the ring is simple marketing
DeBeers coined the now famous slogan "A diamond is forever" and has forever changed our process of joining two people to create one family. It might simply be clever marketing, but really is there any better way to symbolize marriage more than the diamond engagement ring?