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Top Tips for Buying Your Wedding Ring
Hopefully you’re going to be wearing your wedding ring for the rest of your life, and most people never take their wedding ring off. So they have to last, and look and feel good, for several decades of hard wear. You need to think seriously about what you buy.
Decide your budget
You can buy a wedding ring for under £100 or spend well over £1000, so you’ve got plenty of options whatever your budget. It’s not necessarily a question of “the more you pay the better”: you need a ring that suits you as well as your finances. An antique ring may be a good option if you’re on a very tight budget.
Choose your metal
Wedding rings no longer just come in gold or silver. You can choose from white, rose or yellow gold, platinum, titanium, cobalt, silver, palladium and tungsten, or a mixture of two or three different metals.
Yellow gold is the classic style. Pure 24 carat gold is too soft to use for rings. 18ct, containing 75% gold, or 9ct, with 37.5%, will last better and can be shaped in a variety of ways if you don’t want a plain band. Over time gold will mould itself to your hand, which is an advantage if you find rings tend to dig into the next-door finger.
White gold and rose gold are increasingly popular. White gold is mixed with nickel or zinc for colour, and then plated with rhodium to give it a harder surface. The plating will wear off after a while and the ring will need re-plating. Rose gold get its colour from copper, and doesn’t need plating.
Platinum and palladium are both great if you need a hypoallergenic ring. Platinum is heavier and more expensive than palladium. Both are very durable and share a soft, silky-looking finish, similar to sterling silver. Silver is cheaper than any of the metals mentioned so far, and will need cleaning more often, but some people prefer its quiet, restrained beauty.
Titanium is very lightweight but hard-wearing, while tungsten won’t tarnish or scratch. They’re both very strong so they won’t change shape; the disadvantage is that they’re too tough to be altered or resized. The new metal on the block is cobalt, which is white and resistant to corrosion and wear; if you like a heavy ring, this is the metal for you.
If you’ll both be wearing wedding rings, think about whether you want them to match. They don’t have to, if one of you likes a metal that the other can’t wear or finds too heavy, so don’t feel you have to take the conventional path.
Shape and setting
Wedding rings are just round, aren’t they? Not any more! They’re now often made to curl round the stone of an engagement ring, or the engagement and wedding rings may be shaped to look like one ring when worn together. It may be sensible to leave room on the finger for an eternity ring, too; they’re often given to celebrate a first baby or a milestone anniversary.
Wedding rings may be set with stones, but it’s important not to make the wedding ring fancier than the engagement ring. If you’re buying diamonds ask whether they are ethically produced, and get a certificate of authenticity.
Fitting
Don’t buy wedding rings without trying them on. Get them fitted properly – you want them to slide on easily at the ceremony. The best time to try on rings is in the afternoon, when your hands are a normal size and temperature for you. Never try on a ring if your hands are freezing cold, or it will be too small most of the time – and vice versa if they’re too hot, so don’t go to the jeweller on the way home from the gym.
Consider whether your rings are likely to need altering later. Have your parents’ hands shrunk as they got older, or did your mother’s hands swell when she was pregnant? Yours may do the same, so think ahead and choose a metal that can be alterered.
Memories of your wedding, like your wedding rings, should last you a lifetime. Let The Red House Hotel help you create them.
