The search for wedding jewellery has now become the search for simplicity. In an era of easy money and easy pleasure, the ultimate sign of sophistication is understatement. This is why most of the young couples that are getting married today are choosing to be elegant rather than flashy, particularly in their choice of jewellery. The biggest and most visible shift has been the movement from wedding rings to wedding bands, with the plainest of the wedding bands eschewing even precious stones, and opting instead for an ultra-simplistic slickness.
As far as metals go, there is a broad range of options. Yellow gold is certainly out of fashion – far too flashy, particularly for something as subtle as a wedding band. Instead, the white gold wedding band has entered the style consciousness as a much more sophisticated option – particularly because women’s white gold wedding bands complement other articles of jewellery, rather than clashing with them. Similarly, white gold suits the rugged durability of the masculine figure much better than the daintiness of yellow gold, which explains the huge popularity of mens white gold wedding bands.
Other options include platinum and rhodium. Platinum has a very interesting brushed-metal look that very nicely complements the aesthetic of the wedding band – unfortunately, platinum also comes with quite a prohibitive price tag attached, leading many young people to move to much more affordable options. By contrast, a 14k white gold wedding band is a very reasonable choice; and for those with a bit more to spend, the 18k white gold wedding band is also a very stylish article of jewellery.
There is also a lot of debate as to the perfect design for a wedding band – many people feel that it should be plain, while others feel that the design deserves some highlight, in the form of engraving work. There is no consensus on this issue, which is good, because both sides have their points: while there are few things as elegant as the simplicity of a simple plain unengraved wedding band, there is also a lot of beauty to be found in some of the designs that modern jewellers have been engraving into their wedding bands. In particular, high-end Italian marques like Bulgari have made an absolute art out of creating bands with stunning white goldwork filigree engraved into them – twisting, intricate designs that are evocative of the imagery found in the jewellery that has survived since the ancient Roman era. It is difficult not to like some of the fantastic designs that are being created these days; a simple visit to a jewellery store that stocks even a small variety of wedding bands will show you how far the world of jewellery has come, particularly in terms of the technology used to create these masterpieces.
And for the young couple that seeks precious stones, of course, there are several designs that incorporate stones into the design of the wedding band. There are diamonds, of course, but a lot of semi-precious stones as well – rubies, emeralds, amethysts, sapphires, and so on. The trick with wedding bands is maintaining the simplicity by finding a striking combination – diamonds and white gold go particularly well together, as the diamond’s white dazzle and the reflectivity of white gold creates a sparkling interplay of light, allowing the lustre of white gold to complement the sparkle of the stone. Few metal/stone combinations are as striking, which explains why the white gold diamond wedding band has always been seen as a very, very stylish option.