Choosing a wedding ring

Jew­eller Leigh Maher shares some sound advice to make choos­ing the per­fect wed­ding ring eas­ier for you both.

Expert advice: choos­ing your ideal wed­ding ring

Trust­ing the qual­ity of your wed­ding ring

Qual­ity — Find­ing a rep­utable dealer should be pri­or­ity one when you search for the per­fect engage­ment ring or wed­ding band.

Once you’ve found a jew­eller that offers great cus­tomer ser­vice, proof of mate­ri­als used (this proof is known as a hall­mark or assay – your ring must be stamped to show its qual­ity), and an excel­lent guar­an­tee, you can pro­ceed to the next phase of the process.

Today, many brides use the Internet’s “global mar­ket­place” to seek out orig­i­nal, gor­geous designs. You are per­fectly safe buy­ing a wed­ding ring online as long as you do your home­work. Look for tes­ti­mo­ni­als from other cus­tomers before you buy.

Fall in love with the per­fect wed­ding ring

Beauty — Of course, you will feel a strong emo­tional pull towards the “right” ring – it should cap­ture some spirit of romance, tra­di­tion, or per­sonal style (and per­haps all three at once).

Whether you enjoy bold, mod­ern design, or fem­i­nine, del­i­cate style, you should feel that the per­fect ring is an exquis­ite object of beauty.

Let your emo­tions guide you dur­ing this part of the process…if you’re look­ing for some ele­ment of indi­vid­u­al­ity, con­sider find­ing a wed­ding ring that hon­ours your own ancestry.

Today, many brides look for rings engraved with the ancient sym­bols of their own cul­ture – for exam­ple, brides-to-be with Irish, Scot­tish, or Welsh her­itage often choose engage­ment rings or wed­ding bands carved with Claddagh sym­bols or Trin­ity Knots.

These sorts of rings have a sense of his­tory and the sym­bols engraved on their sur­face carry hid­den mean­ings. What­ever your ances­try, con­sider hon­our­ing it through your bridal jew­ellery – it’s a won­der­ful way to con­nect with the past and make your choice of ring really special.

Many grooms also enjoy wed­ding bands engraved with sym­bols – these motifs add a lit­tle dimen­sion and visual inter­est. For some men, a plain gold band can be a lit­tle dull…

Find a wed­ding ring that flatters

Width – Pay­ing atten­tion to your nat­ural body type can be a great way to select flat­ter­ing jewellery.

Tall men and women will be able to carry off wider, bolder designs. Today, there is a dizzy­ing array of widths for wed­ding bands. If you’re petite or del­i­cate, con­sider a thin­ner band that flat­ters your proportions.

If you’re try­ing to decide between a few wed­ding bands, look at widths and see what works best with your size and shape. It can be a great way to nar­row things down and get a per­fect result.

Of course, break­ing the rules works best for some men and women – in the end, the ring must feel right to you. Nonethe­less, think­ing about pro­por­tions can be a good way to find a ring that looks best on your hand.

Make sure your wed­ding ring’s a per­fect fit!

Siz­ing – Find­ing the per­fect size is impor­tant when you’re shop­ping for a ring you’ll wear all of the time.

You need a com­fort­able fit to really enjoy wear­ing an engage­ment ring or wed­ding band.

Many brides-to-be shy away from online shop­ping (even when the ring they really want is only avail­able online) because they are afraid of siz­ing errors or dif­fi­cul­ties. How­ever, this cau­tion may be unnecessary.

Today, whether you shop at a store or online, there are ways to ensure that your ring fits per­fectly – stan­dard­ized siz­ing means you can try on a ring that fits, note the size and width, and then order any­thing you want to those specifications.

You deserve the per­fect ring – be sure to take care­ful note of your size, so that you can shop freely for what­ever you like.

At his online jew­ellery store and blog, Leigh Maher writes about all things Irish and Celtic, includ­ing Celtic jew­elry, spe­cial­is­ing in Celtic wed­ding rings.