I had budgeted $600 for a wedding ring. The fiance wants a shiny titanium number, so the fact that it isn’t gold greatly reduced the price on his ring.
But as I was doing my research, I realized that for what I wanted, $600 wasn’t happening. And it’s not for lack of trying. It’s because what I want doesn’t seem to exist, unless it’s custom-made.
I have a beautiful 3-stone princess-cut engagement ring with a pesky trellis setting and pave diamonds on the sides. This means that no regular wedding ring will sit flush against it. I definitely want to wear both my engagement and wedding rings together on the same hand. A solid-gold ring of any kind wouldn’t look right, so the search was on.
I found a number of curved or contoured wedding rings with pave settings, but they were made to accommodate solitares, not 3-stone princess-cut rings. I finally gave up and went to my local jeweler, who had a book full of contoured wedding rings. But only one went matched my ring’s shape perfectly. It has 4 small princess-cut diamonds staggered to go around the trellis setting, with pave-set diamonds and milgrain along the sides.
I inquired about the price — the book price was more than $1,500, but the jeweler said he’d charge about $1,200. He was very nice and said he could order the ring so I could try it on without committing to a purchase. Once I said that was fine, he further noted we could “work on the price.”
I really don’t want to pay that much for a ring, but as my future mother-in-law said, “Buy it now instead of saying, ‘Oh, I’ll get another ring in 5-10 years’ — because it won’t happen.” That type of logic works on me, because thinking ahead, our budget will be tighter once we have mortgage and a kid or two.
So, is $1,200 reasonable for a matching wedding ring? I really like it and can’t find anything else… *sigh*
