Erin Napier Accidentally Discovers The Price Tag Of Her Wedding Ring: 'Felt A Lump In My Throat'

Fan-favorite HGTV stars Erin and Ben Napier have been happily married since 2008. They met four years prior to saying "I do" while attending community college in Mississippi, when Erin was 19 and Ben was 21. The reality stars share two daughters; Helen, who was born in 2018, and Mae, who followed in 2021. Recently, Erin was stunned to discover just how much Ben had paid for her engagement ring during an unexpected trip down memory lane. The "Home Town" co-host was cleaning up after their basement flooded when she stumbled upon an old receipt Ben had left out on their steps to dry. 

It was dated September 2007, and showed the price tag of the engagement ring the entrepreneur had purchased for her when he decided to propose that very same year. "It rained for two months, and so our basement flooded. Ben keeps a shoebox of things that were special to him as a boy down there. Inside it are photos from high school, school and sports awards, colorful notes from girls who were cheering for him at the game, and this," Erin's July 8 Instagram post read. "He had it all spread out on the stairs drying, and I felt a lump in my throat seeing the dollar amount for what he sacrificed and worked so hard to give me when he could barely afford gas for his truck senior year at Ole Miss." 

She included a photo of the receipt showing that Ben had purchased a diamond ring worth $3,210 (or $5,159 when adjusted for inflation), which he agreed to pay for in installments for 24 months. There was also a close-up of it, as worn by Erin. "I didn't expect it at all and would've married him with a dandelion tied around my finger," she posited.

In 2018, Erin Napier looked back on the early days of her relationship with Ben Napier by posting a throwback from when he proposed over a decade prior. "11 years ago a boy who had saved all the money he could set aside for 3 years surprised me at @squarebooks with a diamond ring and a little leather bound book he made himself," she captioned her Instagram post. The snap showed Ben getting down on one knee and asking for Erin's hand while holding out a ring. "Thanks for this life and this adventure," she wrote. They had been dating for about three years at that point. 

The ring wasn't actually a complete surprise to Erin. Back in 2011, she published a post on their company's website, Laurel Mercantile Co., explaining that she and Ben looked for rings together long before he decided to propose to her. The "Home Town" co-hosts found the perfect one at a jewelry shop in Erin and Ben's hometown of Laurel, Mississippi, which she didn't imagine he'd ever be able to afford. "I didn't make a fuss, I didn't want him to feel pressured at all," Erin wrote, only to later discover that he'd secretly put a down payment on it.

"I didn't realize what he was sacrificing to give me that one little piece of jewelry some day. It took him a long time, and we were in no hurry," the HGTV star acknowledged. She remembered crying tears of joy upon seeing the ring when Ben finally did pop the question. Even now, it still brings a lump to her throat thinking about what Ben sacrificed, since, "It was a huge purchase for a college kid, a huge step toward the rest of our lives."