Wedding Ring Buying Guide: 9 Steps to Choosing the Perfect Rings

Wedding Rings are the ultimate symbol of love. Circular and continuous, they represent commitment and fidelity.

More than any other piece of jewellery, your wedding ring should reflect your lifestyle and taste. After all, your wedding ring may be on your finger for 50+ years! Therefore, it’s important to choose a style you’ll love forever.

At James Porter & Son, we’ve been helping couples choose their wedding rings for over 160 years. In this guide, you’ll discover all you need to know about choosing wedding rings. Also, we’ll highlight the nine things to think about to help you choose the right wedding rings for you.

 

Wedding Rings: History and Symbolism

With their origins in Egyptian times, early wedding rings were woven from reeds and worn to symbolise eternal love. These rings soon evolved into more hard-wearing versions made from metals including gold, silver, and iron.

Historically, wedding rings were only worn by women and represented ownership by the husband. However, World War II represented a shift in the popularity of wedding rings for men. Many men chose to wear rings as a comforting reminder of their wives and loved ones back home. As women gained equal rights throughout the 20^th century, men’s wedding rings became even more popular. Now representing equality rather than ownership, today the exchange of two rings is commonplace.

Who Buys the Wedding Rings?

Traditionally, the bridegroom buys both the engagement and wedding ring for his bride-to-be. These days, the bride often buys the wedding ring for the groom, or couples simply buy them from their shared wedding budget.

Most couples choose their wedding rings together, deciding how much to spend and which styles will suit them best.

At James Porter & Son, we are delighted to offer a 10% discount off the price of our wedding rings to couples who purchase their engagement rings from us.

When to Buy Wedding Rings?

At James Porter & Son, all our wedding rings are made to order and take around 4-6 weeks. Therefore, it’s a good idea to start thinking about wedding rings nice and early so there’s no need to rush. Also, if you order them in plenty of time, it means you can try them on at different times and at different temperatures to ensure they are the perfect fit.

 

 

 

9 Things to Consider when Choosing Your Wedding Rings

 

1) Your choice of Precious Metal

If your wedding ring is to be worn alongside an engagement ring, it’s generally a good idea to match the metals. This is not only for aesthetic reasons but for practical reasons too. If one ring is purer (and therefore softer) than the other, the harder ring will wear against the softer one. Therefore, try to match platinum with platinum, 18ct white gold with 18ct white gold etc. For a man’s wedding ring or standalone women’s ring, you can choose any metal based on the tone, purity, durability, and price.

Platinum is a great choice for a wedding ring. The most pure and rare precious metal, it has a natural, bright white colour and never tarnishes. It’s also very durable and requires minimal maintenance.

White Gold is a popular choice. With the contemporary look of platinum, it has the advantage of a lower price tag. However, maintenance is required to keep it looking bright and shiny. When the rhodium coating wears off, it can look dull and yellow. Re-rhodium plating is necessary every few years to keep it looking its best.

Yellow Gold is always in style for wedding rings. The traditional choice, the warm tone of yellow gold complements most skin tones and looks great with diamonds.

Mixed Metals are a great option if you don’t want your wedding jewellery to constrain your future jewellery choices. A mixed metal wedding band looks at home with both white and yellow gold.

 

2) Your Budget

When thinking about precious metals, your budget will also influence your decision. The starting price for a plain, Women’s 9ct yellow gold 4mm Wedding Ring is £245. Depending on the weight, width and metal, prices increase incrementally with a heavy weight Men’s Platinum 7mm Court Wedding Ring costing £1,495.

Diamonds add sparkle and an added dimension to a Wedding Ring. Whether a Platinum Band with a Single Brilliant Cut Diamond (£895) or a Platinum Full Hoop Ring channel set with 1.00ct Princess Cut Diamonds (£2,675), you can add sparkle whatever your budget.

 

3) The Style of Your Engagement Ring

Your wedding ring should complement your engagement ring, not detract from it. If your engagement ring makes a statement, a diamond set wedding band or eternity style wedding ring won’t outshine it. On the other hand, if your engagement ring is understated, a simpler band will highlight it more effectively.

Also, the style of your engagement ring has an influence on the shape of your wedding ring. Most solitaires sit well alongside a wedding ring with straight sides. However, for shaped stones such as pear and marquise-shaped diamonds, a shaped wedding ring often looks best to avoid a large gap between the two rings.

 

4) Profile of the Wedding Ring

Wedding Rings are available in different profiles including Court, Flat, D-Shaped and Barrel. However, the most popular is undoubtedly Court shaped.

A Court Shaped Wedding Ring is rounded on both the inside and the outside. It feels comfortable to wear with beautifully rounded edges.

Wedding Rings that are flat on the outside but court-shaped on the inside are also very popular. This Platinum 6mm Court Wedding Ring is rounded on the inside for comfort. However, the exterior is flat with bevelled edges for a contemporary look and feel.

 

5) Width of the Wedding Ring

The width of your Wedding Ring is a personal choice. Think about the length and width of your fingers and what will suit them best.

For someone who uses their hands a lot, a narrow ring in a durable metal is a good option because it’s unobtrusive. Also, for maximum comfort, choose a flatter band with rounded edges and make sure it fits well.

If you’re wearing a wedding ring with an engagement ring, think about which width will suit it best. You could match the width to pair them as a suite or go wider on the wedding ring.

6) Plain, Patterned or Diamond Set?

Plain Wedding Rings are not set with stones and are usually in an elegant, polished finish.

Patterned Wedding Rings can give a more contemporary feel and incorporate a range of polished, satin, and brushed finishes. They are ideal for anyone looking for something a little different but without the sparkle of diamonds.

Diamond Set Wedding Rings are available either as a traditional diamond-set band or in an eternity ring style.

 

7) Should Your Wedding Ring Match Your Partner’s?

Some couples choose matching rings. However, often, couples choose rings which complement each other but are not the same. For example, they made be made from the same metal and in the same tone, but one could have a practical brushed finish whilst the other could be polished and/or diamond set.

The important thing is that you both love your Wedding Rings and choose a style that you will continue to love for many years, and which suits the way you live.

 

8) Personalisation

Personalising your wedding rings is a lovely way to make them unique to you. You could add a simple engraved message on the inside. Adding your names and the date of your wedding ensures you will never forget the date of your anniversary! Alternatively, you could engrave a special quote or song lyrics.

There are other ways to add personalised touches such as setting a gemstone on the inside of the ring. You could even plan to add the birthstones of your children as the years go by.

 

9) Bespoke Wedding Rings

If you are looking for a unique stone set Wedding Ring, then our Bespoke Service is perfect for you. We have sample ranges of blank shaped rings which can be stone set in many different styles. We can also incorporate stones from your unworn jewellery and re-use where possible. Our Bespoke Service is also ideal for making shaped stone-set wedding rings.

 

 

Book an in-store Consultation

At James Porter & Son, we believe that choosing Wedding Rings should be an enjoyable, unforgettable experience. We encourage couples to book a consultation and join us at our beautiful showroom in Glasgow’s famous Argyll Arcade. The consultation is free and there is no obligation to buy.  However, it does mean that you can enjoy the comfortable surroundings of our store and sip something cold and bubbly whilst viewing wedding rings at your own pace. A member of our experienced team will be delighted to discuss your options with you and answer any questions you may have.