How to choose a diamond wedding ring

Choosing a diamond wedding ring is not a simple or straightforward task.  But with a little information, we hope this will help to make the task easy.

Follow these simple six steps to know which diamond wedding ring is right for you.

Your wedding ring needs to sit neatly next to your engagement ring. Depending upon your engagement ring design, you may be able to wear a straight-edged wedding ring or you may need to wear a curved or fitted wedding ring.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll assume that you can wear a straight-edged wedding ring.

For straight-edged wedding rings, once you answer these six questions, you’ll know which wedding ring to choose.

1. What type of diamond is best for your wedding ring?
2. What style of diamond setting should you use?
3. How may diamonds you should have in your wedding ring?
4. What metal to have your wedding ring made in?
5. What width your wedding ring should be?
6. What band shape your ring should be?

See diamond wedding rings at the Gillett’s Jewellers website for inspiration on wedding ring styles.

Diamond wedding ring

Diamond shape

Round diamonds, also known as brilliant-cut diamonds are the most popular choice for diamond wedding rings.

The diamond shape traditionally matches the shape of the diamond used in your engagement ring. If you have an engagement ring with one round diamond, you would choose round diamonds for your wedding ring. See round diamond wedding rings for a selection of these styles.

If you have a princess cut diamond engagement ring, you would choose princess cut diamonds for your wedding ring. See princess cut diamond wedding rings.

If your engagement ring has a round diamond in the center, with princess cut diamonds in the band, you would choose princess cut diamonds for the wedding ring.

If your engagement ring has a round diamond or emerald cut diamond in the center, and baguette-cut diamonds in the engagement ring band, you would choose baguette-cut diamonds for your wedding ring. See baguette cut diamond wedding rings.

Diamond setting

There are three main types of diamond settings that are used in wedding rings – channel setting, grain setting, and hammer set.

Channel setting is by far the most popular.

Channel setting is a setting style where the diamonds sit in a row where the diamonds touch each other without metal in between.

Channel set diamonds to offer the brightest most sparkling option. See channel set diamond wedding rings.

Grain setting uses four mini-prongs on each corner of the diamond to hold the diamond in place. Grain setting is also known as pave setting. See grain set diamond wedding rings.

Hammer setting is a miniature form of bezel or rub-over setting. Hammer setting requires that the diamonds be spaced apart in the band. See hammer set diamond wedding rings.

If you have a solitaire diamond engagement ring, you can choose any of the diamond setting styles for your wedding ring.

If you have an engagement ring with channel set diamonds in the band, you should match that setting with channel set diamonds in the wedding ring.

If you have an engagement ring with grain set diamonds in the band, you should match that setting with grain set diamonds in the wedding ring.

How many diamonds?

If you have a solitaire engagement ring, you can choose as many diamonds in your wedding ring as you like.

For solitaire engagement rings, 7 diamonds are the most popular choice for the wedding ring.

Whichever number you choose, it’s best to choose an odd rather than even number of diamonds for the wedding ring as the proportions of an odd number of diamonds looks best. 5 or 9 diamonds are also popular choices.

For engagement rings that have diamonds in the band of the engagement ring, it’s best to have the wedding ring look like it was made to match the engagement ring. To achieve that, it’s best to have the diamond span across the wedding ring and match the same span of the diamonds on the engagement ring.

The size of the diamonds should also match the size of the diamonds in the engagement band when possible.

Which metal?

It’s generally best to have your wedding ring made in the same metal as the engagement ring.

If your engagement ring is yellow gold, you would have a yellow gold wedding ring.

It is best to also match the gold carat – with an 18ct engagement ring you would have an 18ct wedding ring.

It is possible to have a different carat if required, though it’s best to choose the same carat, preferably 18ct when possible.

Ring width

When choosing the width of your wedding ring, you need to consider the width of your engagement ring. You should do this for two reasons:

1. You need to consider the length of your fingers and how much room is available between the base of your finger and your knuckle to comfortably wear a ring
2. In keeping with the strategy of having your two rings look like they were made to be together, you need to consider the proportions of both rings. If the widths of both rings are proportional to one another, the rings appear to complement each other better.

The width of the engagement ring will strongly influence the width of your diamond wedding band.

When considering the width of the engagement ring, you should consider the width of the engagement ring on the side or base of the ring, not the top gemstone setting width.

As a general guide, a diamond wedding ring should be either the same width or very slightly wider than the engagement ring band.

Most wedding rings are 3mm or 3.5mm in width.

Band shape

If you turn your engagement ring on its side and look at the engagement ring band you will see that the band has a shape. The most common types of band shapes are softly rounded, high domed, and flat.

Most engagement rings are made with a soft rounded shape. The soft rounded shape has a gentle curve to the outside of the band. The gentle curve is about halfway between a high domed and flat shape.

A flat band has a flat outside surface with flat edges.

A high dome band has a slightly exaggerated rounded shape to it. High domed bands are most often made in narrower widths.

Your wedding ring should ideally have the same band shape as your engagement ring. Try to identify the shape of your engagement ring then look for a wedding ring that has the same or a similar band shape.

It is not essential that the band shapes be the same, though the rings will sit better together and look better together if they have the same band shape.

For example, a high domed band may look a little odd next to a flat style band.

After answering these six questions, you should now be able to easily find your perfect diamond wedding ring!