The wedding band is a truly unique piece of precious jewellery. It is the one piece that matches perfectly with any outfit, and one that will serve as a touchstone and a symbol of your love every day. If you've asked your loved one the most important question of all, it's time to make the second most important "Yes!" you'll ever hear happen with a fantastic wedding ring. But with so many beautiful choices for wedding bands, where do you start your search?

Precious Metal Wedding Band Options

Most wedding rings are made with some type of precious metal, each with its own special distinction.

Yellow gold is a timeless and elegant choice - you'll typically wedding bands in 10 karat, 14 karat and 18 karat yellow gold. The karat purity represents the percentage of gold in the piece, which is expressed as 24 total parts. For example, a 10 karat gold wedding band will have 10/24ths of its makeup made of pure gold, while an 18 karat band will be made with 18/24ths gold, which equates to 75%.
Rose gold mixes gold with copper in a precious metal alloy, creating a very attractive and coveted rosy-pink hue. This precious metal may be used to create the entire ring, or it may be set into yellow or white gold as a contrasting accent, to call attention to small details or textures.
White gold is gold blended with a white-hued precious metal such as palladium to achieve the brightness of gold with a cooler hue. Like rose gold, it may be used as the chief material in your band, or married with yellow and/or rose gold accents for an intriguing multihued design.

Wedding Band Finish Options

A high-polish finish has traditionally been used for plain wedding bands, but today's intricate designs sometimes showcase a variety of finishes and textures. Matte bands, or bands with matte accents, have a "frosted" appearance that many modern couples find appealing. Others bring together both polished and matte components; a popular dual approach are rings that feature designs with rows, borders or braiding. This matte and polished combination brings out small details, much like mixing gold types in a design.

Diamond Wedding Band Options

Another design feature to consider is the inclusion of precious stones, such as diamonds. As with an engagement ring, using these stones in your wedding band can add a hint of gorgeous sparkle in all the right places. While gems were once relegated to the realm of signet or pinky rings for male wearers, this is thankfully no longer the case as trends have evolved. Men's wedding bands with diamonds tend to use the sparkling stones around the entirety of the band, circling the outside with small stones at regular intervals. Many brides-to-be prefer to keep their stones isolated to their engagement rings alone, but the sky's the limit for creativity and opulence when a walk down the aisle is in the near future.

Wedding Band Matching Options

Ultimately, your choice in wedding bands should reflect your taste and values, both as individuals and as part of a couple. While matching wedding bands have a long history as symbols of romance, so do rings that look nothing alike! Don't be afraid to step outside of the "matchy-matchy" comfort zone when selecting your styles during wedding band season: express yourselves. If one spouse-to-be prefers a slender band and the other a more substantial one, they'll still serve equally well as symbols of commitment. Remember, many popular motifs - slender borders, mixed finishes, precious stones, even metal colors - are available in a variety of widths.

If you'd like visibly different designs but a matching component is still desired, the inside of your bands can always be engraved with a special message, or one another's names, before the big day. The most important aspect of any pair of wedding rings is how much they mean to you and your spouse-to-be. Everything else is in the beautiful details!

How to Shop in Wedding Band Season

The demand for wedding bands, understandably, becomes more intense as warmer weather rolls around, in anticipation of June weddings, in particular. If you're considering a certain set of wedding bands for your nuptials, order them as far ahead of time as possible. That way, you'll avoid trying to find your special design at the peak of wedding band season, and you'll have plenty of time for extras, like engraving and sizing, before that wonderful day arrives when you say "I do."

There are many different options available, but we have curated a collection for our website for customers to view. Shop our wedding band collection here.