Banded: choosing the wedding ring

October 23, 2015 by Pammy 3 Comments

With all the flurry of stuff to do while planning our upcoming wedding, one of it is to pick our rings.

We have decided early on that our rings will be in white gold. To match my engagement ring as well as to be easy on the eyes.

Plus Kei has this ridiculous rule that his ring must not have any stone and be plain as could be.

So I kind of went overboard (again) and pinned a whole lot of rings from pinterest.

These were among my picks.

pretty, shiny, sparkly stuff!

So, I showed everything to Kei and was met with a looks ok response. I particularly pointed out the two paired bands (left side of the photo) and asked if he liked any of those. Again I was met with the looks ok response. For the eternity rings (on the right side) his answer was no. I was like okay.

*well at least I tried. lols.

His reasons were practical. He told me to go for a half eternity. Not because he wanted me to have fewer stones but so that it would be practical to wear daily, can be re sized easily and I could easily twist the ring to hide the sparkly and the ring gets another look. And Kei’s name would be engraved inside of the band so the half eternity is the best choice.

And above all it should match the engagement ring. So my e-ring looks a bit like the photo below. (Which I don’t wear daily.)While some may think its odd. I choose to keep my e-ring and wear a “stand in” (significantly cheaper) ring for everyday. So, I will not worry that it gets lost, dinged, dirty, misplaced…etc. Plus, I’m clumsy at times. I am scared that I will lose a stone. 

a true classic

While I don’t plan to wear both the engagement ring and the wedding band on the same finger, I figured ok. I go for the classic look because it will be timeless.

So, half eternity and classic. Seems easy enough. And oh, also no stones that has corner/s. That criteria came from Kei’s mom. Apparently stones with corners would mean quarrels with your mate. Not really sure where that came from but to be sure, we would follow. That means no square, marquise or teardrop shaped stones. So, round stones. Round like my e-ring.

So I narrowed down my choices and here are my picks.

narrowed down

Kei disliked the chunky ones. That leaves me with the left most and the far right ring to choose from.

Since I am hard on my hands, I opted for the left most design. It is rather plain. A half eternity, in channel setting.

I wanted to tweak it a bit. If I am correct, I wanted a channel, with thread and grain or pave setting.

This time we have to get a jeweler’s opinion.

what my wedding ring will look like according to our criteria for searching. 

Since we already have a church friend that is on the jewelry making/selling business, we paid them a visit. Kei easily picked the design he liked from the rings on display. His was a plain polished white gold band with the comfort fit.

Kei’s pick looks a bit like this. Just make the whole thing polished. And add the comfort fit curve on the band.

Meanwhile, I kept on trying out ring after ring.

different styles I tried on

Yep. Tried them all. Atchie Helen (the jeweller) was so patient with me! I think I may have stayed at the shop for more than two hours just trying out rings.

All sparkly, all beautiful. But when I wear them on my hand, it is a different story. 

There are some I like and some I don’t. The chunky bands make may short fingers look chubbier and shorter. Delicate filigree rings made my hand look dainty. The thin bands created the illusion of having a slender hand. Infinity bands made me look sophisticated.

The weird thing is, I started to “envision” the band on my hand. True those I tried are all pretty, most of them are intricate.

But I cannot see myself wearing those fancy styled bands. Instead I started to think about what would really fit me. The normal boring real life me.

Example I will be cooking/washing the dishes wearing that delicate filigree ring… would it still look delicate then? How would it stand up to the daily life? Go on with my daily activities wearing that?  

I finally got what Kei meant when he told me to go for practicality. So, I asked Atchie Helen about the band I wanted even before I got distracted by all the pretty blings. The half eternity,channel, with thread and grain or pave setting. 

And I was told that it is a good and safe choice. So Atchie Helen (our jeweller) then helped me customize my “plain” ring and sketched + showed me stones that would be used. And even “matched” my ring to look similar to Kei’s ring.

our bands will look like this

So in the end I went with the plain looking/common one, and I cant wait to wear it daily. After this experience I think maybe, just maybe there is a reason why most wedding bands are plain. 

• The store we visited is Helen Jewelry Store  Located at 927 Ongpin St. Sta. Cruz Manila, Philippines. *updated as of July 2016*

 

 

 

• The shopkeeper/person to look for? HELEN. She gives the best prices and does custom designs. Confused? look for the prettiest lady in the shop. That would be her!  Tell her that you are a reader of Pam and Kei ‘s blog. You will be sure to get yourself a good price. 

Oh, the price? while I am not dropping numbers here, because that also depends on the jewelry design you choose. But, I can safely say that the price is good. A good 25% (or more) cheaper than prices at the mall. They also carry a variety of gems and jewelry.

 

*All my reviews, opinions, and other stuff expressed here are my own and based on my own experience with the product. This is not a sponsored post, Kei paid for this from his own pocket.

**All photos are taken from the internet. No photos for safety/privacy concerns.