getting pearled?
 

Hi, I'm looking to buy my girlfriend, who is in a sorority, pearls. I've heard that they mean something similar to a promise ring. But I've seen in a few places that most of the time they are just a single pearl on a necklace. Would a string of pearls mean the same thing?

I've never heard of that. However, an actual string of real pearls is pretty expensive so I think by default there is a certain permanence associated with them and the fact that they are a gift from a boyfriend. It's not a gift to be received willy-nilly no matter the relationship.

When I got mine my husband said I had reached the age where I should wear pearls. Take that for what it's worth, but he's no longer my husband ;)

No, a string of pearls is not the.same thing and will not have the same meaning. Talk to some of your girlfriend's sorority sisters if you don't know where to purchase this.

Meh. What's with men and pearls? My husband was obsessed with me having pearls for a few years. He finally got the message that I'm not a pearl girl no matter what he'd wish.

LOL at "men and pearls"

I think it's because they know that pearls are supposed to be classic and pretty and they think they can't get it wrong, the way they could get something more blingy and fashionable. It's the jewelry equivalent of red roses.

I think it's a desire to marry June Cleaver. He'd have loved for me to dress that way too.

ETA/and my princess feet do not go into heels except under duress. Forgetting the virtual cocktail dresses 7 days a week.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought getting pearled was the equivalent of getting pinned, but by a non-affiliated boyfriend. At least, this was the case at Duke. Thus, it is the equivalent to the seriousness of getting pinned, which at Duke was "engaged to be engaged." It was always a single pearl when I saw it done (similar to the look of a lavalier, I guess).

Never heard of it.

Not common at my campus. I've never heard of this tradition either. For us it's strictly lavaliering or engagement.

That's what it is. People have talked about it on here before.

So I don't want to turn this into another North vs. South discussion, but this whole thing with men thinking that women should have pearls; is that a southern thing?

I've never heard of a man "expecting" a woman to have pearls (or thinking that they've reached an age where they should have some). And I never really see women wearing them.

It seems fairly Southern. I'm Southern. My husband really has this idea of pearls= classy. I have a more modern jewelry aesthetic and don't find a reason to wear a string of pearls on any occasion. It took at least 6 years and multiple spurned offers to buy me pearls before he realized that I really didn't want them.

Definitely Southern. Pearls have also become more popular (again?) with college age girls (in the South, at least). I have a 16" strand of pearls. They get worn with everything from t-shirts to dresses, and are a regular part of gameday attire.

Women were pearled by non-Greek boyfriends at my very much not Southern school.

I haven't heard of it, but a lot of things like this never made it up to Maine where I went to school.

The only pearls I wear are on my badge, I'm partial to David Yurman jewelry.