I've been married for 23 or so years and together for 30 and only last year did I relent to buying a wedding ring.......due to small talk.
I hate wedding rings with a passion (I'm a tradie....rings tend to have the side effect of not just cutting off ones testicl_s, but also the finger attached). However, the lack of a ring was viewed last year as meaning I was "looking", to a lady in a region where multiple wives are par for course. My definite demeanour of "one wife is one too many" did not tend to expose itself to her and the small talk, small actions (which still make my skin crawl) and her forthright suggestion that all I had to do to be the recipient of her affections, was to pay to her family, 50 pigs (she talked herself down from 55 without a word from me) and a token amount of cash, combined to make the purchase of the dreaded wedding ring seem so much more bearable!