Some of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history have taken place when our favorite movie characters got down on one knee and whispered those four words, “Will you marry me?” Admit it, it’s impossible not to get caught up in the moment when the camera flashes to those sparklers in high definition, magnified a hundred times on screen. For those about to walk down the aisle or those who merely frequent the aisles of the movie theater, we’ve recapped the best movie engagement rings of all time. Let us know your favorite in the comments below!
Costume designer Suzy Benzinger used clothes by Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Hermès to establish Cate Blanchett’s character, Jasmine, as an Upper East Side socialite with an eye for style. “We looked at photos of women who are married to guys in finance [for inspiration],” Benzinger said. All of the jewelry, save for a Cartier watch, was from Fred Leighton in New York, including her emerald-cut engagement ring. The pieces were so valuable, Leighton required Blanchett to have an armed bodyguard on set.
Only Holly Golightly, and, well, Audrey Hepburn, could make an engraved Cracker Jack prize look elegant. After all, according to Golightly, it’s “tacky” to wear diamonds before turning 40.
After a night spent watching TV, drinking beer, and eating Chinese takeout, Fletcher (Chris Pratt) makes sure Emma (Anne Hathaway) opens the right fortune cookie so she can find the round engagement ring he has hidden inside.
Shortly after discovering a Tiffany box in their apartment, an impatient Liv (Kate Hudson) storms into Daniel’s (Steve Howey) office to ask if he’ll marry her already. To this, he replies: “I’ve never met a more obnoxious, complicated, overbearing, smart, sexy woman in my life,” and then pops the question with the 5-carat Tiffany Novo cushion cut engagement ring—right there in front of his coworkers.
At the start of the movie, Annie (Kristen Wiig) works behind the counter of a jewelry store, hawking engagement rings to couples she glares at with jealousy. When her lifelong best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), becomes engaged, Annie is fake happy for her.
The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) goes to a jeweler in Amsterdam to buy an engagement ring for Laura (Penélope Cruz). The jeweler schools him on the 4 C’s of diamonds—cut, clarity, carat, and color—while delivering a thinly veiled metaphor for marriage. “There is no perfect diamond,” the jeweler says. He settles on a stunning 3.9-carat asscher cut style.
Costume designer Mary E. Vogt explained that the director, Jon Chu, always envisioned an emerald ring for Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh): “He really felt that it was a very regal color, a very strong color, [and] that it was just something that he associated with Eleanor.” As fate would have it, the sparkler that the grand dame dons in the film is from Yeoh’s personal jewelry collection. While emeralds tend to bear more cracks than most, Yeoh’s ring is a rare flawless gem. In the movie, it symbolizes her approval of Nick and Rachel’s marriage as she gifts her beloved bauble to her son for the proposal.
Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) proposes to Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) with an oval-cut diamond set on a pavé band. While many assumed it was from Cartier, it turns out that the ring and the red box were merely props.
Like most women, Barbra Streisand has a thing for antique and vintage jewelry, and has quite the collection to show for it. In Funny Girl, in which she played the real-life comedienne and legendary Ziegfield Follies star, Fanny Brice, Streisand wore many of her own jewels, or at least the ones that were in keeping with the early 1900s time period in which the film is set. As Streisand’s character says herself: “There’s nothing quite like an, uh, simple wedding band.”
Marilyn Monroe played a lovable gold digger in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes who has just about everything except an engagement ring. The popularity of diamonds saw an uptick following the film and by the end of the 1950s, a diamond engagement ring went hand in hand with an engagement. This was partially due to the creation of the slogan “a diamond is forever,” which was coined by an advertising agency for a company called De Beers, although Marilyn’s own “A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl’s best friend” is just as memorable.
While it’s hard to make out the precise details of Scarlett O’Hara’s engagement ring on-screen, the book’s author, Margaret Mitchell, gave readers a visual. Unapologetically ostentatious, Scarlett’s four-carat diamond ring was surrounded by emeralds and reached to her knuckle. After all, she says she wants a diamond ring, adding, “And Rhett, do buy a great big one!”
Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) wears a Tiffany & Co. cushion cut halo engagement ring in platinum that was valued at $3.9 million. A matching french-set wedding band amplifies the sparkle. With its Art Deco–inspired geometric angles and state of the art setting, Daisy’s ring would be considered incredibly modern for the time. Eagle-eyed viewers may also notice the custom signet ring, also by Tiffany & Co., that Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) wears throughout the film, which features a daisy etched into the centre stone as a symbol of his undying love.
The engagement ring, worn by exotic dancer Jade (Heather Graham) after she marries Stu (Ed Helms) on that drunken night in Las Vegas is well worth searching for. A square cut diamond in a wide setting with square accent stones, Stu’s ring, passed down from his grandmother, is one for the books.
Before she became the Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly’s emerald-cut engagement ring appeared in several of her movies. Coming in at 10.47 carats, flanked by two baguette diamonds, and set in platinum, it’s a ring that shines on the silver screen. Prince Rainier planned to propose with a more modest Cartier eternity band of rubies and diamonds; however, once he saw the engagement rings that Kelly’s Hollywood peers were wearing, he upgraded to this Cartier design, as seen in High Society.
The wedding ring that (Will Smith) gives (Vivica Fox) sparked a splashy new trend. The $1,200 ring features a gold dolphin cresting over a one-carat cubic zirconia. Fox loved it so much, producers gifted the ring to her and she vowed to wear it on her big day. ”It’s beautiful,” she told reporters at the time. ”Of course, at this stage of the game, I’d take a wedding ring any flavor that it came in.”
Who wouldn’t want to get engaged on top of a sprawling cliff overlooking the ocean? That’s exactly what happens to Anna (Amy Adams) when she unexpectedly falls for Declan (Matthew Goode), an Irish innkeeper, while on a journey to Dublin to propose to her then-current boyfriend. Declan makes it official with a gold Claddagh ring, which is considered a traditional Irish wedding band. The hands represent friendship, the heart represents love, and the crown represents loyalty.
Although Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) once swooned over the gleaming pear-cut Harry Winston that belonged to her ex-boyfriend’s grandmother, in the sequel, she realizes she is much better suited to an oval-shaped pink diamond with two side-stone accents (also by Harry Winston) given to her by Emmett (Luke Wilson). Fun fact: Witherspoon also had a hand in the ring’s design.
The real Marie Antoinette’s engagement ring was an enormous 5.64 carat pear-cut blue diamond solitaire. But for Sofia Coppola’s highly stylized film, costume designer Milena Canonero, sourced all of the jewels from legendary New York City vintage emporium Fred Leighton—including the heart-shape diamond wedding ring that Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) wears on screen, as well as the opal-and-diamond sparkler that Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) wears throughout the film.
There is much ado about the engagement ring in Meet the Parents. The airline loses Greg’s (Ben Stiller) suitcase containing the ring, which leads to a series of unfortunate events. Once back in his possession, he asks for Pam’s hand in marriage by tying the ring to a pillow worn around the family cat, Mr. Jink’s neck—along with a convincing speech about it representing a “circle of trust.”
After a failed proposal attempt, Bryan Bedford, played by Dylan McDermott, finally wins the heart of Dorey, (Elizabeth Perkins). After all, it would be hard to say no to this stunning emerald-cut Cartier diamond, the ultimate Christmas gift.
Jules (Julia Robert) wasn’t the only one who got stuck, literally, on Kim’s (Cameron Diaz) wedding ringl The round, channel-set diamond with micropavé band would also become one of the most popular engagement ring styles of the late ’90s, said to be a result of this 1997 film.
When Allie becomes engaged to Lon, he proposes with an emerald-cut diamond ring flanked with banquettes. Although we’d be remiss not to mention the ring box itself. In keeping with the Roaring Twenties time period, the box is made of sterling silver, as was customary when purchasing rings from luxury jewelers of the day.
For Baz Luhrmann’s reinterpretation of the classic Shakespearean tale of forbidden love, Juliet (Claire Danes) wears a sterling silver wedding band engraved with the couples’ initials: R+J.
The “man-eating” Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) amassed a staggering four engagement rings—not including the one from Ike (Richard Gere) that ultimately sealed the deal. Each ring and accompanying proposal perfectly encapsulates the man. Father Brian popped the question with a classic solitaire diamond. Wannabe-rockstar-slash-mechanic, Gill, opts for a sculptural flower style fashioned after the rose tattoo he got for Maggie. Entomologist George asks for her hand with a vintage-inspired design while at a butterfly farm in St. Thomas (the ring was inside a cocoon!). And finally, Coach Bob selects a split-shank design for a scoreboard proposal during a seventh-inning stretch at an Oriole game.
Carrie Bradshaw’s black diamond ring ushered in a new wave for non-traditional engagement rings. In the movie, Carrie asks, “Why black?” to which Mr. Big replies: “Because you are not like anyone else.” Set in 18-karat white gold and surrounded by 80 pave diamonds, jewelry designer Itay Malkin worked closely with Sarah Jessica Parker and costume designer Patricia Field to create Carrie’s rogue ring. To the delight of SATC fans, Malkin later released a limited run of replicas for a cool $10,000 each.
It’s hard to imagine a more perfect proposal than when Andrew (Patrick Dempsey) proposes to Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) on the showroom floor of Tiffany & Co. in New York. “Pick one,” he says. She selects a round brilliant solitaire diamond ring with a classic Tiffany’s setting. The picture-perfect proposal was a scene straight from director Andy Tennant’s life. His wife’s former boyfriend had popped the question in a similar fashion at a Tiffany’s store; she said it was “the perfect proposal, but the wrong guy.” More recently, Nick Jonas closed down a Tiffany’s in New York when he went ring shopping for his now-fiancée, Priyanka Chopra.
What better way to wake up than to a proposal? Isabel (Julia Roberts) has been playing stepmom to Luke’s (Ed Harris) two kids, and he shows his love by popping the question with . . . a spool of thread. You see, he uses it to tie a string around Isabel’s finger, and delivers a winning speech.
While most will remember the heart-shaped diamond necklace in the film, Rose (Kate Winslet) also wears an engagement ring from fiancé, Cal, with a similarly unique backstory: The three-stone ring was inspired by a piece of jewelry found on the ship’s wreckage.
In this novel-turned-movie, Claire (Rachel McAdams) finds herself in a rather unconventional relationship with past and future husband Henry (Eric Bana). Even Henry’s choice of engagement ring is unconventional, and is known as an East West ring, or an oval diamond turned horizontally rather than vertically as is tradition.
Twilight author Stephanie Meyers and Infinite Jewelry Co. helped bring Bella Swan’s (Kristen Stewart) engagement ring to life. Featuring a large oval setting encrusted with tiny white diamonds, a delicate yellow-gold band, and vintage influences, the design was created according to Meyers’s description in the book.
When Paige, Rachel McAdams’s character, loses her memory after a car accident, this 18-karat gold eternity band by Parade Design serves as a reminder of her life prior to the crash. McAdams helped choose the design and selected a simple band with leaf detail that felt in keeping with Paige’s profession as a sculptor. “It seemed to really match Leo and Paige because it was an arty piece,” McAdams later said.
Lucy (Sandra Bullock) works at a toll booth collecting tokens for the Chicago Transit Authority. Every day she watches people come and go, including a handsome stranger named Peter, played by Peter Gallagher. One day, Peter is mugged and knocked out, so Lucy cares for him and is mistaken for his fiancé. Long story short: Lucy ultimately falls for Peter’s brother Jack (Bill Pullman) who fittingly proposes by dropping a diamond engagement ring into her token tray—and his entire extended family in tow.
To keep Queen Victoria’s (Emily Blunt) fashion authentic-looking for the 2009 period drama, designer Sandy Powell replicated the royal’s engagement ring, which famously featured a snake motif with an emerald-set head. At the time, birthstones rather than diamonds were all the rage and snakes were seen as a symbol of eternal love.
