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Wedding Ring Guide
Gemstone Education

Traditional Western Wedding Rings – A History of Love

Wedding rings represent a symbol of eternal love and devotion that should be worn with pride. Early Egyptians thought wedding bands created a never-ending circle of love that carried over to the afterlife. The tradition of wearing a band on the third finger started with the ancient Greeks, who thought a vein linked that finger directly to the heart.

Key Purchasing DecisionsTo purchases the perfect wedding ring, you should consider a number of key questions:

  • Do you want a matching wedding ring or do you want a ring that reflects your personal styles?
  • Do you want your wedding ring to match the engagement ring?
  • What type of wedding ring would look best on your hand in terms of metal color and width of the band?

Gold Wedding Bands

The most popular metal selected for wedding bands in yellow or white gold. The decision as to which color gold to choose can depend on if you want to match the engagement ring or how the color works with your skin tone. Yellow gold’s warm glow can enhance darker skin tones while rings made of platinum or white gold are well-suited for fair skin tones.

Gold in its purest form is very soft and not well-suited for wedding band use. To make pure gold more strong and durable, jewelry manufacturers mix gold with other metals, such as copper and nickel. The simplest way to know how much gold a piece of jewelry contains is by looking at the karat weight. The higher the karat weight, the less durable the ring will be.

  • 14-karat (14k) gold is 58.3% pure, wedding bands are known for their durability and lower cost.
  • 18-karat (18k) gold is 75-percent pure and offers more durability than 24K
  • Pure 24-karat (24k) gold is 99% pure and has a rich color but bends easily with daily wear

 

Platinum Wedding Bands

Platinum wedding bands are gaining in popularity due to the high durability of this strong precious metal. Platinum is more expensive than gold and weighs about 60 percent more than gold, making it more difficult to bend or break. Platinum also typically retains its luster longer than gold.

 

 

Selecting a Wedding Ring Setting
metal types

Fact’s About Diamond Earrings

No two diamonds are alike. When buying earrings it is important to match each stone by the measurements, not by the size of the stone. If your buying GIA diamonds this is very important to have a matching set. These measurements should not be too far apart from each other to have a good set.

Prong Settings

The prong setting is the most commonly used setting for a gemstone ring, and especially for a solitaire diamond ring. A metal tip or bead actually touches the stone and holds it into place. This setting is usually a four-prong setting which shows more of the diamond or a six-prong setting offers a tight secure fit for the diamond. This particular setting allows the maximum amount of light to enter the stone from all angles. The prong setting can hold larger diamonds more securely.

Shared Prong Settings

Shared prong settings use grooved metal wire to hold gemstones in place side by side. This type of setting minimizes the presence of metal, allowing more light to pass through a diamond or gemstone.

Channel Settings

The art of setting a diamond or gemstone in a channel, in which two walls of metal between which a diamond or gem is set so it appears suspended in a groove. They stream in a continuous row of diamonds and no metals are used as a separation between them. A channel setting is popular with those that are looking for an engagement and wedding band set.

Invisible Settings

A channel setting using calibrated stones without any metal showing from the top The setter grooves in each stone’s girdle that slip into a metal frame below the surface of the stone is described as an invisible setting. The metal cannot be seen, and the stones sit next to each other to craft the appearance of a solid surface of stones. Invisible settings are used to create the illusion of a larger diamond.

Bar Channel

Diamonds or gemstones are secured in place between two vertical metal walls on either side of each diamond.

Pavé settings:

Pave is a type of setting where a number of small stones are set together. It literally means paved with diamonds. These are small stones that encrust the surface of the band and give the appearance of a solid diamond band instead of a metal one. This setting uses only tiny beads or prongs to hold the stone in place, which minimizes the appearance of the metal and makes the stone look much larger. Round or princess shaped stones are what a pave setting complements the most because the setting adds the necessary brilliance to the stone.