An Essential Guide to Choosing & Buying Your Wedding Rings

Although it’s physically small, your wedding ring is something that requires a lot of thought – as you’ll want to wear it for the rest of your life! Whether you want a traditional band or something more unique, follow our top tips and choose the perfect wedding band style for you.

An Essential Guide to Choosing & Buying Your Wedding Rings

Choosing Precious Metals

Choosing the metal for your wedding ring is a good place to start. There are numerous metals available, all with different properties and styles that make some more suitable than others.

Yellow Gold

guide to wedding rings — Goldsmiths 4mm Slight Court Standard Wedding Ring In 18 Carat Yellow Gold

Yellow gold is a good choice for traditional brides and grooms-to-be. Generally, 22ct gold is too soft to wear every day, so consider buying a 18ct, 14ct or 9ct gold wedding ring. These rings are combined with stronger metals and are better suited to the demands of day-to-day life.

White Gold

This wedding ring is the perfect compliment to a platinum engagement ring. White gold wedding rings are often plated with rhodium to enhance their appearance. While this plating should be expected to wear off over time, it can be easily re-applied and make your wedding ring look as good as new.

Platinum

These wedding rings are becoming increasingly popular with modern couples. This white-coloured metal is extremely tough and stands up well to everyday wear and tear. It’s rarer than gold and much more expensive but a platinum wedding ring will last, unmarked, forever.

If a platinum wedding ring blows your budget, consider buying a palladium wedding ring instead. Palladium has become a popular alternative to platinum because of its similar colour yet more budget-friendly price tag.

Titanium

Titanium is one of the more modern jewellery metals. It’s strikingly different in colour to platinum and palladium, scratch-resistant and feels light on the finger.

Zirconium, black zirconium and tungsten carbide are other contemporary metals with similar properties and appearance.

Choosing Your Wedding Ring Shape

After you’ve decided on the metal, you need to consider if this new wedding ring will complement your engagement ring.

Both rings will be worn side by side for the rest of your life, so it’s important that they sit well together. You may have never considered the profile of the ring before, but you’ll begin to see subtle differences once you compare the styles side by side.

If this is case you may decide to choose a shaped wedding ring, often referred to as a curved or fitted wedding ring. These come in a range of designs including a delicate curve, a pronounced Z-shape or a cut-out in the ring.

Even if you don’t need it to be shaped, consider the ring profile – you’ll be able to choose from court shape (rounded on the inside and out), flat profiles (completely rectangular), D-shape (flat on the inside, round on the outside) and more.