'Man-gagement' Rings Gaining Popularity

It's a big deal for a guy -- getting down on one knee, slipping the ring on the finger of his girlfriend and proposing marriage. Now many people are saying guys should be treated the same way.

According to Details magazine , more women are not only the recipients of rings, but are giving them to their guys. Some girls say that it isn't fair that they're the only ones getting a ring. They say that male bling, dubbed man-gagement rings, is a way for them to advertise that their men are taken.

"Otherwise, you're the only one marked," says Natalie Wigg-Stevenson, who surprised her now-husband, Tyler, with a man-gagement ring right after he proposed. "I mean, if I can't be sneaky, neither can he."

But Tyler said he actually liked it. "It makes more sense for both parties to have an engagement ring -- it's just not the way we generally do it."

A recent survey on Brides.com found that 55 percent of women surveyed wouldn't buy their fiances engagement rings. But 45 percent said they would.

"I think people are really just open to looking for new ways to commemorate their relationship, to celebrate their love and showing it earlier on before the big day," Elayne Fluker of Brides.com told ABC News . "I would say the men's engagement ring is definitely having its moment .... I don't know if it's a movement yet, but I think it's definitely having its moment."

Details writes that two years ago, British jeweler H. Samuel introduced a male engagement ring, and it was subsequently followed by Robbins Brothers, which now sells hundreds of options for guys. The average cost of a man-gagement ring, many of which are made of masculine materials like steel, tungsten and cobalt, is around $350-$400.

But some believe the movement in simply a marketing ploy. "The groom's engagement band is just a sales tactic invented by jewelers to trick young couples into spending money," said Chris Easter who runs TheManRegistry.com, a gift registry for grooms. "I don't think we've reached the point where we'll be seeing a man showing off his shiny new engagement ring to his buddies."

The Daily Mail writes that etiquette dictates that the man wear his man-gagement ring on the ring finger of his left hand until his wedding day. On that day, he should transfer the man-gagement ring to the ring finger of his right hand and wear his wedding band on his left hand.