Jewellery News

Wedding rings are slipped on to the fourth finger of the left hand in a wedding ceremony. However, though this is the traditional way the wedding ring is worn, there are other customs that are followed when it comes to wedding rings. If you were to look all over the world, you will realise that some wear their wedding ring on the right hand and some even wear it on their toes.

Wedding Rings: Indian Style

A large section of the Indian population wears rings on their toes as soon as they get married. These are usually made of silver though some wear gold toe wedding rings as well. When a woman has on toe rings it means she is married. However, the fashion industry has appropriated this now and more and more young unmarried girls are seen wearing toe rings today. Time was when only one toe ring was worn on the second toe but today, very often you will find women wearing toe rings on more than one toe. In fact, when it comes to a statement of fashion, more than two toe rings are very de rigueur. However, wearing toe rings today does not mean that they don’t wear wedding rings when they get married. You’ll find that many women incorporate various global customs and wearing a finger wedding ring along with the toe rings is quite prevalent.

Wedding rings are usually taken for granted by most people. You want to get married – you go get yourself a set of wedding rings. That’s all there is to it, you think. There’s so much of a fuss made about the engagement ring that very often people forget about the wedding ring and see it only as a necessity to get through the wedding ceremony. It is only during the ceremony that perhaps the rings are imbued with more meaning as you take in the importance of what it stands for – ‘for better or for worse till death do you part’.

Wedding Rings And The Rest Of Your Life

The wedding ring really does stand of that. It stands for the rest of your life together from that moment on. That is why it is such an awesome symbol. When you listen to the wedding service and realise that you are making your vows before a higher power, suddenly the solemnity and the seriousness of the whole union hits most couples. The wedding ring is the symbol of this. It is also a symbol of the fact that no matter what life brings in the future, it will be the two of you together to face it. That is what slipping the wedding ring onto each others’ hands stands for. So even though you might pick up the wedding rings in a hurry, they are symbols of a lifetime of love – something that you should honour as long as you wear it.

Wedding rings can be bought, ordered, made by the couple at a jeweller’s workshop or even made at home. One of the popular and easy to make designs at home when it comes to wedding rings is the wire wrapped ring. Wire wrapping has been a part of the jewellery tradition since ancient times especially because the metal does not require to be melted or soldered. In fact, if you were to look at ancient jewellery in museums, you will find a lot of wire wrapped jewellery, including wedding rings. Roman jewellery has a lot of wire wrapped pieces.

Wedding Rings: How To Make Wire Wrapped Rings

All you need are wires – you can get wires in gold, silver, whatever metal you want. You could get them in one thickness or in different thicknesses. You also need pliers and cutters – not fancy ones but they should be able to cut through and bend the wire. Then make a loop to fit your finger with a double strand of wire and keep wrapping around the loop till it’s all done. There – you have your ring! You could even make wedding rings with different coloured strands of gold wire so you get the various shades in one wedding ring. What’s best is the fact that you know you have unique rings because you made them yourself!

Luxury goods make a statement in China today like never before. So whether it’s the huge rock on a woman’s finger or the designer bags she carries or the watch, car or yacht a person owns, they all contribute today to telling everyone just how rich one is. China has right now overtaken the US when it comes to luxury goods consumption and they are now in second place, close behind Japan.

Little wonder that when the major jewellery houses have their exhibitions or when the auction houses announce their auctions, there is always a presence in the Far East and very often the large and expensive diamonds that might not sell in the West are snapped up by Chinese buyers. Most of the luxury brands have a presence in China today as they eye a growing population of luxury seekers with large pockets.

If you don’t have an heirloom and you’ve always hankered after old fashioned designs when it comes to wedding rings, don’t lose hope. You can get yourself a great antique design ring without paying a fortune for it. What you would need to decide is what kind of an antique look you want. Once you are rather clear in your mind, it’s easier to track down the design you want – or maybe one that is closest to it. You also need to make sure that you buy from a jeweller who is reputed. When you are going to be paying more for a special ring, you need to be assured of the quality of the metal with which it is made. As well as the authenticity of any precious stones that may be used.

Wedding Rings: Where To Get Antique Designs

Today, many jeweller stock rings in antique designs and you will just have to make the rounds so you can get just what you are looking for. You can of course dispense with all this walking around and do a bit of armchair travelling by checking out online jewellers. You’ll be surprised to see a huge variety and an incredible choice of antique design jewellery. Just make sure that what you buy is well finished and has been made to look old instead of being an old design in shiny new looking metal.

Birthstones For Wedding Rings

Each month has one or more birthstones governing it. Astrology dictates that wearing your birthstone just makes your positive points stronger and weakens your negative points. In fact the connection between stones, colours and astrological signs go way back to pagan times. Here are the birthstones for the twelve months for those who believe:January – garnet; February – amethyst; March – aquamarine; April – diamond; May – emerald; June – pearl; July – ruby, August – peridot; September – sapphire; October – opal; November – topaz; December – turquoise.

Wedding Rings: Setting Birthstones In Them

Considering that engagement rings usually have large stones in them and are very often diamond engagement rings with a solitaire, it might be better if the wedding ring wasn’t set in the same way. One recommended design would be a regular classic design with very small birthstones embedded flush in the band. This way, you get to see the beauty of the stones and they don’t disturb the smoothness of the ring.

Wedding rings are worn by almost all married women – young or old, rich or poor. The wedding ring is no discriminator of persons. However, the kind of wedding ring is. That’s what differentiates between those who have a lot more than the others. Today, celebrities wear wedding rings that cost the earth. Through the years, another group that has had wedding rings that were beyond the pale of the regular man was royalty. Whether it was heirlooms or very expensive rings, the royalty in most countries has been known for their amazing jewellery.

Wedding Rings: Traditional Gold

The gold for the wedding rings of the British royal family comes from Wales. This has been a tradition for years and the gold is made into 22 carat wedding rings by the Crown Jeweller. In fact, with the gold running out, whatever gold is mined is kept for the use of the royal family and their wedding rings. One of the exceptions who managed to get some in the recent past was the actor, Michael Douglas.

Wedding Rings: Heirlooms

There are other royal families in other countries who use family heirlooms for wedding rings. These are usually intricately designed and very often have precious stones set in them. Wherever the royal family comes from, one common factor is that the wedding rings are very, very expensive. They may not be as flashy as the wedding rings some celebrities wear but even if they look discreet, they usually cost a pretty packet.

Wedding rings are an important part of so many wedding ceremonies all over the world. Even in cultures that never used the wedding ring as the symbol of marriage, couples are increasingly getting themselves wedding rings to wear now. Very often, the wedding ring is incorporated as a part of the ceremony.

Wedding Rings: Traditional Vows

The traditions orders of worship have more or less similar wordings when it comes to the wedding ring exchange vows. The Protestant order of service has these words: “I give you this ring as a symbol of my love; and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The Catholics say, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, take and wear this ring as sign of my love and faithfulness.” Most of the others like the Baptists, the Methodists, etc. have something similar.

Wedding Rings: Other Religions

The Jewish vow, translated, is: “Behold, thou art consecrated unto me with this ring according to the law of Moses and of Israel”. The Muslims and Hindus don’t exchange rings traditionally though now many do wear wedding rings.

Maybe many people don’t even think about it. After all, very often, the engagement ring comes as a surprise – then the wedding rings are usually bought in haste because most couples settle for a simple band and don’t really think it matters a great deal to spend time choosing them. However, it would be nice if you thought of them all together and planned accordingly.

Wedding Rings To Go With The Engagement Ring

When you buy the engagement ring, if you have planned to get married very soon after the engagement, you might want to buy something that matches the engagement ring. If the engagement ring and the wedding ring on a woman’s finger looked like they were a set, imagine how good that would look. For the rest of her life, she will have rings that match – rings that were made to be worn on the same finger together.

Wedding Rings: A Set

Both the wedding rings could match too – so all three look similar. This just gives it a sense of oneness and belonging. So buying all three as a set makes a lot of sense. For one thing, an equal amount of thought and planning will go into buying the wedding rings as the engagement ring and this is a good thing considering how long those rings are going to be on your fingers.

If anyone has been following Tila Tequila’s tweets, there has been a surfeit of them telling the world just how much she misses Casey Johnson. They had only known each other a month when they got engaged and now she weeps virtually while at the same time refusing to part with the huge rock of an engagement ring that Casey apparently presented her with.

Casey dies of an overdose and the sad part is, she was alone and her body wasn’t found for a few days because it wasn’t noticed as it lay in a house that was rented. The case is under investigation and all who knew Casey feel that Tila’s overwhelming display of sorrow online is a bit farfetched and over done.

Wedding rings are really that – they are a reaffirmation of the unspoken vows that you made to each other on the day you got engaged. That was the first step. Man proposes, Woman accepts and they are both ecstatic. Then the planning begins – when, how, what, who, where. Through it all, there’s one thing that comes through very clearly – the fact that now it’s the two of you, not one anymore. The engagement is the turning point – the point when you start dreaming and making plans together. The wedding is, in one sense, a culmination of this planning stage.

Wedding Rings: For The Life Ahead

The first stage is usually ecstatic because this is when you are in a world of imagination – when everything seems great and the future rosy. With the wedding, life takes a different turn towards a more practical world. The wedding rings are symbolic of the vows that you take when you reaffirm your love and move from the dreaming and planning stage to the doing stage. This is when you start your life together and put into practice a lot of what you dreamed about. When you move from one stage to the other, it’s time to take stock and check if you have reaffirmed all the vows you promised to take for your life ahead together.