What Does a Promise Ring Mean Nowadays Anyway?

Lala Kent had another ring before her husband-to-be, Randall Emmett, gifted her with that blinding engagement ring — a promise ring. Wait, isn't that for sixth graders and adult virgins?

Turns out, some normal, functioning adults believe in promise rings, too.

Backing up for a sec. Lala explains (in the Vanderpump Rules After Show clip above) three weeks after meeting, she received a promise ring from Rand. This is after he started gifting her with cars and Chanel bags (and they had sex), by the way. Lala explains:

"I met Randall at SUR, Season 4 …  he was a 'fan girl.' He sent his assistant up to me, like 'Hey my boss would love to put you in a movie, it’s called The Row,'" she explains. "I get a phone call from my manager at the time, 'You should probably know who he is because you have a meeting with him tomorrow.' We started texting in, like not a flirtatious way, but then gifts started coming, like flawless gifts, like Chanel and s--t like that. Presents. I was getting presents."

They went to dinner and as Lala says, “I let him hit it the first night, you’re welcome.”

"And the rest is just history. I had a promise ring on my finger three weeks later, meeting the parents," she added.

But what exactly was he promising?

Jewelry Wise has an explanation for promise rings. "Most often it represents love and commitment. That could be a promise to someday become engaged at an unspecified time, perhaps after graduation, the end of a stint overseas or when it’s easier financially."

Promise rings are gaining in popularity, it also mentions. For many, the ring "is an outside symbol to people who move in together and have no immediate plans for marriage but are clearly in a committed relationship."

What hand is it worn on?

That's up to the individual. Promise rings can be worn on any finger, or sometimes they're worn on a chain around the neck.

The Knot explains the personal meaning of a promise ring can differ from couple to couple. "Many couples give or wear promise rings specifically to signify a future engagement, while others do so as more of a general symbol devotion to one another," it reports.

"You're promising yourself to each other," the report adds. "Now you’re more than just 'dating '— there's a physical symbol of the relationship to show the outside world."

The tradition dates back several hundred years and takes many different forms, eventually turning into the common engagement ring.

Many people don't realize there is a distinction between a promise ring and a purity ring. A purity ring is when you are promising abstinence, like when Joe Jonas told Details in 2008 he and his brothers’ rings symbolized "a promise to ourselves and to God that we'll stay pure till marriage."

As for a promise ring, it should be given after a couple has dated for a significant amount of time, like a year or more.

Unless you hook up with Lala. Then you gift her a Rolls Royce after the first night, and give her a promise ring three weeks later.