My stuff is a little different...
The Claddagh ring is my own, I've always been entranced by the symbolism behind the Claddagh (the hands represent friendship, the crown is loyalty and the heart is love - it's an old Irish wedding ring tradition) and I bought this myself from a jewellers when I was 15. It was the biggest, most special thing I had ever bought myself at the time and I was and am so proud of it. Then I got together with Mike when I was 17, just about 18, and ALL the women in his family wear Claddagh rings! It felt like fate. (Sometimes it's really hard to stop myself from starting up a Captain Planet style chanting at the dinner table and making everyone else put their rings together)
3 years later we're still together and he's just gone overseas for 6 months - we are planning to get engaged this year but in the meantime, he got me the necklace as a promise. It incorporates the symbolism that is so important to me and to his family and it is also the first jewellery he has bought me
I wear them both 24/7!