Creating engagement ring inscription

Hi! I'm in need of some quick language help. I'm in the process of getting a ring to propose to my girlfriend. Neither of us are Japanese or proficient in the language, but Japan is really important to us as it's where we first met, reconnected years later and where we are planning our honeymoon. I'd love to inscribe something in Japanese on the ring, but not being fluent I want to verify before I inscribe something wrong or that doesn't make sense.

At first I was planning to write "I love you": 愛してる

But I ran across this somewhere else (I lost my notes on where): 友＆愛

To me, and the person that I got it from, it reads as "Friendship & Love". Additionally, it can be read as "yuu & ai", sounding like "You & I" in English.

I know 友 means friend, but I usually see it with other kanji to means friend or friendship. As it's written, does it make sense? Or is it at least close enough to mean what I'm hoping it means?

Thank you!

I just asked my Japanese husband, he thinks
友＆愛is a nice idea :)
Me too by the way!
Wish you and your girlfriend all the best!

ah and yes friendship would be 友情、but only 友is fine aswell, meaning friend ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F8qbF2hMsU

If Japan is that important to you and you're coming here on your honeymoon anyway, wait until you get here and have it engraved in Japan instead of relying on anonymous internet users like me who might recommend you options that others would make fun of by using Youtube videos. Personally, I would go for a simple 愛 but the font needs to be right. The last thing I'd go for is 愛してる

By the way, most people in Japan have English alphabet engraved into their precious rings, such as initials and dates and perhaps the word "Love". But I think hiragana would look nice too, especially if you love Japan instead of China. Here are some examples.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%E5%A9%9A%E7%B4%84%E6%8C%87%E8%BC%AA%E...

Yes Uco is right, a lot of Japanese people have english engravings!

I was working for a jewlerly store in Ginza selling engagement rings, so I have firstchand experience.

However I really like the idea 友＆愛
＝You and I

You should choose whatever you like and nobody can see it anyway, different to tatoos ;)

I'm married to a Japanese and wanted our rings to be special too.
I seperated one sentence into two parts,
in his ring the sentence starts in German (my mother language) and in my ring the sentence continues in Kanji and Hiragana :)

Btw I am the same, as in the second comment!

... guest: Thank you for the comments and insight, it means a lot to hear others like the idea :) I'm not just asking about this to understand the translation, but also the meaning. "Friend(ship) & Love" means something in English, to me it says she's both my friend and the person I love, that I have both types of feelings for her. I'd like it to also work in Japanese, to have the same meaning and carry the same message (or similar). So it does help a lot to hear someone that knows Japanese and a native speaker both like it!

Uco: After thinking about this longer, if I don't go with 友&愛 then I'll go with just 愛 as you suggest. I still prefer 友&愛 though. I considered something in English but I couldn't come up with anything that seemed meaningful for us. She's made a few comments on what she's considering for my ring and I suspect it'll also be in Japanese, so... And I'm asking others outside of this forum, so no worries on that :)

justmyday: Ha! Yeah, most my attempted research kept bringing up that old record rental chain, but I didn't realize there were commercials for it online. The silver lining is that store used both 友&愛 and "You & I" so there's confirmation the "pun" works!

Thanks everyone!

友＆愛to me sounds like something that a guy named 友○ and a girl named 愛△ woulf engrave on their ring. If that's not your case it just looks silly.