You have proposed with your all wonderful diamond ring and she said yes (congratulation pal, on entering the prison without grills). The next step is find wedding rings or wedding bands (not the drum and guitar kind). What do you do, where do you start, how much do you need to spend. By this time, you would have burnt a huge hole in your pocket with the diamond ring you used for proposal. Quickly but surely, you’ll have to start planning on employing photographers, videographers, make up artists and many more things that requires $$money. Despite that, don’t expect to save on wedding rings. Your beautiful other half from Venus will remind you that YOU are going to ear it for life, and no effort nor money should be spared in getting the best. So here’s a few tips on choosing wedding rings, at an affordable price.
1) Decide on the type of material for the wedding bands
Essentially, this means yellow gold, white gold and platinum. The pros and Cons are stated below
a) Yellow gold
Pros: Traditionally this is the most valuable, it is also most easily traded back for money and it does not “turn yellow” with time (obviously)
Cons: Generally more expensive than white gold, limited designs, does not go well with diamonds
b) White gold
Pros: Cheaper than platinum or yellow gold, easily malleable, cheap to polish or re-coat
Cons: Tarnish faster than platinum, cheaper than platinum (this is a con to the girls)
c) Platinum
Pros: Bragging rights for the bride, less tarnishing
Cons: Expensive, and more expensive to polish and shine.
So what’s my take on this, if you are planning on anything but yellow gold, go for white gold rather than platinum. The most common argument for getting a platinum ring is that it tarnishes less. Lets see it in anyother way. A ring of similar design will cost $300 for white gold, but generally double at $600 for platinum. Re-coating a white gold ring costs about $20. That means if you coat it every 3 years, $300 can last you for 45 years. The maths and the logic for white gold is clear. What’s left of you to do is to convince you other half of benefits of white gold. Be informed that the above argument about money will not work, for love should not come with a cost. 🙂
2) Decide on the diamonds on the rings
It seems like most girls are not satisfied with the one huge diamond you gave them on proposal. Most would expect more diamonds (thankfully smaller ones) on their wedding ring. Usually, the rule is simple, the more the merrier. The money saving tip here is, get designs with multiple smaller diamonds than a few bigger ones. It will cost less but looking equally glamorous.
3) Decide on the weight of the wedding rings
Gold prices are at an all time high, so it’s natural that the more gold that is used, the more expensive it is. In fact, it has come to a point where a few small diamonds would be cheaper than a gold ring itself. Therefore, save on the gold. Look for wedding rings that are slightly thinner at the bottom, and normally thick at the top. Nobody can see the bottom of your ring in most situations and there is not much use in having a thick bottom, you ring will not break into pieces. So save the money for other uses.
4) Sales, Sales and Sales
But wedding bands on sales. Typically, every shop have seasons where they put up left over stocks for sales. And this can be up to 70% off. My own pair of wedding band was from a top jeweller and designed by some famous designer (ha..and i don’t know what that is) but went cheap only because it was the last pair left in that series and a new series was already out. Shop around and give yourself 2-3 months to find a good pair of wedding rings.
These are my little tips. I hope they help.