How to Choose the Perfect Engagement & Wedding Ring!

Oh, wedding bells! It’s an age old institution, and many people still get married every year. In fact, in the UK there is something of a resurgence in marriage with 8,657 more marriages in 2010 than 2009. That’s an increase of 3.7%.

However, marriage and proposals are very complicated. There are so many difficult decisions to make. For example, planning a wedding is mammoth task with many choices from food and drink to music and decorations.

But perhaps the most difficult choice is choosing the ring. Whether it’s an engagement ring for the proposal or a wedding ring for the marriage ceremony itself – it’s a whole quagmire of potential pitfalls.

So let’s look at how to choose the perfect engagement and wedding rings.

Well, you should probably know this already. However let’s just make absolutely clear that engagement rings are different from wedding rings. That’s right; you will need to buy 2 rings!

Just bear that in mind. It’s not likely to change the outcome, but it’s worth mentioning. There are also different styles in engagement rings as opposed to wedding rings. They are often quite exquisite, with quite ornate designs and are a little bit less subtle and more overtly feminine than wedding bands that most married people wear after they are wed.

There might be a few potential husbands having second thoughts, realising this for the first time. But don’t fear, according to a recent study plenty of women are willing to contribute to buy their own engagement rings - so you could get lucky.

You might want to give a diamond encrusted engagement ring that’s worth millions, but that’s not going to possible without a budget to match. Don’t fret though, you can still get rings that are much more affordable and look beautiful.

The options are many, if you’re looking for an engagement ring you don’t need to splash out on extravagant diamonds. In fact some people think that non-diamond engagement rings should be the norm. You can always give an engagement ring with no stone and it will still look great – but then again it’s up to you. Sometimes it’s nice to splash out.

Wedding bands are usually slightly less extravagant but are still important to budget for, however even platinum wedding rings are relatively affordable. And they’re worth it if you want to get something extra special.

Some rings are amazingly ornate, but they might not be practical. If you can’t wear your wedding ring daily because it’s so precisely put together or is simply so valuable that you don’t want to wear it whilst at work then it’s not practical.

The idea is to make sure that your wedding ring is something you never really take off. It’s something that’s meant to be there constantly as a symbol of your marriage. If you work in a trade or do some kind of mechanical job for a living then you may need to factor this in when choosing the ring.

Also, if you have a hobby like rock climbing or do a sport that is particularly vigorous then you may wish to favour a simple wedding band to make sure you can still wear it whilst doing such activities.

Sometimes you can become really bogged down with what the trends are that you lose sight of what you really want. You can get rings that aren’t conventional for a little bit more originality if you so desire.

For example, if you have such a desire, you could give a palladium wedding ring that is actually quite unique. Palladium is a pure chemical element, a sample of which is pictured above. Other alternative metals include titanium or silver.

There are bolder options still, should you deem them appropriate, including stone rings. You can get beautiful jade rings for example. Or, perhaps even wood rings would be suitable? It all depends on your tastes.

You need to know a little bit about the metal you choose because they have various properties. There are plenty of different ones to choose from, but one of the most popular is gold. Gold comes in varieties of densities, and this is known as the carat. The higher the carat the more pure gold is present in the final product.

Typically 18 carat gold is more expensive as it is denser. However there are alternatives including 14 carat and 9 carat that are less expensive. In addition to gold coming in a variety of carats, it also comes in a variety of colours including white, yellow and rose.

Titanium is a very lightweight metal, so it will feel light on the finger. It is also a very strong material, meaning it is highly unlikely to dent or scratch. Interestingly, it is also 100% hypoallergenic. It’s worth mentioning that although titanium is very strong rings can be cut off in an emergency should it be required!

Platinum is a very dense material, and as a result will feel heavy on the finger. However it lasts a very long time and does not need continual polishing.

Choosing wedding and engagement rings is a very important decision, so it obviously needs to be very well thought out. It’s not going to be an easy decision, but if you take the points that I’ve made to heart you should be able to come to a conclusion a little bit more easily.

Thanks for reading. I’d love to know what you think so please feel free to comment. Have a look at the rest of my work on Instructables. I’d recommend reading “Big Challenges For Big Industries”.

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