Wedding Rings

Start looking for your wedding bands a few months before your wedding and don’t buy the first thing you see!  Shop around and look in different jewelry stores, magazines, etc.  When choosing your wedding ring, remember that you will be wearing it every day, so be sure to choose a ring that best suits you and your lifestyle.  For example, if you work with your hands a lot, you might want to choose a ring that doesn’t have any space to trap dirt.  If you play sports regularly, you might want to choose a more comfortable band that fits well.  Think about your ring and make sure it is going to be something you are still going to like years from now.  

Size
Be sure to do your ring fitting when you are at a normal body temperature.  Fingers tend to swell up due to heat, exercise, menstruation, pregnancy, and water retention.  Keep these things in mind when choosing your wedding band size.

Metal
Yellow gold- yellow color, soft and pliable, color may fade eventually, not as pure, metal alloys may irritate skin
White gold- white color, tougher metal than yellow gold, soft, color may fade eventually, not as pure, metal alloys may irritate skin
Silver- least expensive, softer than other metals, more prone to oxidization, may irritate skin
Platinum-  most precious metal, rare, highly durable, dense, hypoallergenic, will not oxidize, never loses color, heavy, nicks and scratches easily, most expensive
Titanium-  hardest metal, very strong, light weight, hypoallergenic, more scratch resistant, cannot be resized
Palladium-  silvery-white color, tarnish resistant
Tungsten- grey color, durable, scratch resistant, hypoallergenic, cannot be resized or engraved, brittle

Protect your ring
Avoid wearing your ring during rough sports, working with bleach, cleaners, chlorine.  Certain rings can get scratches, nicks, chips, or lose color, so it is best to take good care of your ring.

Diamond
If you choose a band with diamonds, make sure you know your four C’s.

Cut
The cut refers to the shape and quality of the diamond.  
Popular diamonds shapes are round, princess, emerald, oval, marquise, radiant, heart

Color
Ranges from colorless (most rare and precious) to yellow shades (less rare)
Color grading scale:

• D = perfect, colorless
• E, F = colorless to naked eye
• G, H, I = near colorless to naked eye
• J, K, L, M = faint yellow tint

Clarity
Clarity grading scale:

• Perfect, flawless, internally flawless
• VVS1, VVS2 = flawless under a loupe
• VS1, VS2 = little with loupe, flawless to naked eye
• SI1, SI2 = more with loupe, flawless to naked eye
• I1 = some small inclusions visible to naked eye
• I2, I3 = large flaws, lack brilliance

Carat (weight)
Most popular are ¼, ½, 1, 2 carats
The greater the carat, the greater the size and price