10 Things You'll Want to Consider When Buying Your Wedding Ring

There is a certain criteria that applies to all fine jewelry, but there are even more tips you need to follow when selecting the wedding rings you plan to wear for the rest of your lives. Here are ten easy rules to follow when looking for, financing, and taking care of wedding rings.

1. Narrow Your Choices

Before setting out, make some preliminary decisions. After all, this is the most significant piece of jewelry that the both of you will own. Decide if you prefer yellow or white metal? Perhaps he would like a white metal, but all your jewelry is yellow gold. Consider a compromise. You can find beautiful wedding bands that contain both white and yellow metals. How elaborate do you want your bands? They can be simple in design or have colorful gemstones or diamonds.

2. Set Your Price Limit

Set your budget before you begin. When shopping, you will find that on average a set of simple gold bands will run between $125 and $200 a piece, while platinum will run from $400 to $600 each. The average of diamond wedding bands is $742.00, as related by the Diamond Information Center. If you choose to have your band engraved it will cost between $1 and $8 per character depending on font style and if it was engraved by hand or machine.

3. Allow Plenty of Time

Start shopping early so that you will have plenty of time to find the perfect ring before the wedding. You should give yourself at least two months. Take more time if you want a special custom item. You could wait up to 30 days for the engraving alone.

4. Think Practical

You should always keep your lifestyle in mind because there's no point to buying something, no matter how pretty it might be, if you won't be able to wear it. You need to remember that this band will be worn everyday. It is important to choose a ring that will fit in well with your lifestyle. People who enjoy sports or music, or make their livings that way, should choose rings that are slimmer and rounded on the edges. An engagement ring that cannot trap dirt is a better choice for someone who works with their hands. Invest in platinum if you are allergic to metal alloys. It is hypoallergenic for many people because of its purity.

5. Consider the Future

You can try something different but you should think about whether or not you will feel comfortable wearing in 20 years time.

6. Size Wisely

You should choose your wedding band sizes carefully since fingers can swell with heat, cold, weight gain, and hormonal changes.

7. Quality is Important

It is very important to check for quality. This applies to all jewelry purchases. The manufacturer's trademark and a quality mark needs to be inscribed inside the band of the ring. If your ring has more than one metal, there should be a quality mark for each.

8. Cleaning Your Ring

Cleaning a wedding ring is easy to do. For simple bands without stones, simply rub a ring with a soft, lint-free cloth or use a chamois. Dip the band in alcohol to remove grease. You can remove tarnish by soaking it in a solution of soap, water, and a few drops of ammonia, followed by a rinse of clean water rinse and drying with a soft cloth. If your ring has stones, you can clean it with a soft toothbrush or an eyebrow brush with some warm sudsy water. Soak it, brush, rinse, and then pat dry with a soft lint-free cloth.

9. Protect Your Investment

Protect your investment because all metals are vulnerable. Although you cannot avoid the occasional ding or scratch from ordinary daily life, you can avoid wearing your ring during extremely rough physical activities or when working with concentrated chlorine. Nicks or scratches will be most obvious on matte finishes, and will most easily occur on platinum, since it has a softer surface than gold. A jeweler can change the finish on your ring to restore its beauty.

10. Wear It

Keep your wedding ring on your hand. It is so easy to lose your ring. Pick one that you don't usually take off but if it is absolutely necessary to take the ring off, then you should put it in a safe place away from any sinks. Your ring is likely to get knocked down the drain either by you, a child or your playful pet. The worst possible time to take your ring off is when you're away from home. When traveling, rings are easily lost or misplaced. According to the insurance industry, you have the greatest chance of losing or damaging your wedding rings and stones during your first year of marriage.

By: Tiffany L’orfevre

Men's Titanium Rings Are Affordable And Beautiful

A titanium wedding band represents one of the most advanced forms in modern jewelry. The structure of the ring so resistant to general wear and scratches that many men will choose to wear their ring even when doing manual labor. An important consideration when buying titanium wedding rings is therefore how well they hold up compared to the softer gold wedding bands. Due to their high sentimental value, most people want a band that will hold up to a lifetime of daily wear and be as comfortable years later as when they were first put on their finger.

Titanium rings are strong and durable. As they can be scratched only by diamonds or some other hard material, they are good for everyday use. Moreover, any minor blemish can be removed with a quick refinish. This is probably why they are popular and hence available in many varieties. They can be fully customized, inlaid, carved, sculpted, colored and can be accented with gold or precious stones. The Abyss ring is one such customized ring.

Titanium has extremely high ductile strength. However, under extreme circumstances, titanium rings could bend out of round. If a high pressure is applied on a square wave ring, which could happen when being hit by a car door, the ring would bend when the force is strong enough. These are quite extreme and rare in nature, and any deformation can then be corrected at your local jeweler.

Titanium will not change color with normal wear. It is an inert metal. This means it will not change color when exposed to sunlight or submerged in salt water or swimming pool water. It is also fine to let titanium come in contact with cosmetics. This will not alter the metal. A jeweler can color the metal if desired, but it will not happen from normal wear.

Often people need to resize their rings. This is because our weight fluctuates throughout our lives, and so do our ring sizes. Titanium is more difficult than other metals to resize, but titanium rings can actually be sized up or down one size. This requires special equipment to compress or stretch the titanium. That way, men can wear the same wedding band from the day they are married for the rest of their lives.

Due to the raising popularity of titanium wedding rings, they are widely available at most jewelery stores. In addition to becoming more widespread, the raising demand has lowered costs for these rings. A cheap ring is therefore now a great choice to consider as an alternative to the traditional gold wedding band.

By: Sandra Oriel