A wedding is a unique, individual experience for every lover, and a pair of custom diamond wedding rings can enhance unique memories.
Besides the benefit of uniqueness, there are many other advantages of buying custom-designed diamond rings over ready-made ones. Especially, you can have more freedom and flexibility for your spending, material choices, and of course, the diamond stone.
Here, we will share nine of the best tips in purchasing a pair custom diamond wedding rings, and let’s start with number one.
1. Expect To Invest Some Time
Custom-designed wedding and engagement rings can require at least a couple of weeks to several months until they are ready. So, make the order early, especially if you already have a planned date. The required time will depend on many different factors from design complexity, material choices to the jewelers themselves.
Also, expect to free up your schedule for meetings, phone calls, and revisions during the design process.
2. Have a Visual Cue
Whether you design the ring yourself or asked others to help you, have a rough sketch of your design if you can.
You can browse the internet and use various pictures of different rings as a starting point. For example, you might like the band design of a specific ring, while you like the stone placement and design ornaments of another ring.
You can literally borrow ideas from anywhere, but make sure to have a clear idea before approaching a jewelry designer. If you can sketch a picture, great, if you can create a computer-aided image (Photoshop or CAD), even better. The clearer your idea is, the higher the chance you’ll actually end up with what you want.
3. Deciding on Your Diamond
The most important part of any diamond ring is the stone, and will also be the one deciding the price of your ring. So, this is a very important step, and choosing a diamond stone can be harder than it seems.
Choosing your diamond ring will depend on primarily two things: your budget, obviously, and your personal taste. There are four main factors determining a stone’s quality: cut, carat weight, color, and clarity (the 4Cs).
The cut is arguably the most important one: cut is not solely the shape of the stone (round, square, princess, and so on), but will be the one that ultimately determines the brilliance and shine of the stone.
However, carat weight will be the most influential factor in determining the diamond’s price. If you want to save money, you can decide on a stone with a carat weight below the usual standard. For example, a 2.02-carat of a stone can cost significantly more (20-30%) than a 1.90-carat diamond, and ordinary people can’t differentiate the two with a naked eye.
4. Finding The Right Jewelry Designer
Finding the right jeweler to design your custom wedding rings is arguably the most important part, and can be really easy or really difficult depending on how you approach it.
You can work with Linara, a trusted jewelry maker who offers custom diamond wedding rings and charming Anniversary collection with options in eternity and multi-stone rings.
There are three main factors to consider when choosing a jeweler: first, whether they are trustworthy and reputable. You can check online for reviews, testimonies, and showcases of their previous works for this. Second, is the quality of their work, including whether they have access to special materials and design elements. Third, is their design style. You should acknowledge that most jewelry designers will add their own touches to your design. So, make sure you check out their previous works and decide whether you like them
5. Choosing Your Metal Material
There are many different metals to choose from when designing a custom wedding or engagement rings. There are traditional materials like yellow gold, silver, platinum, and white gold, and they are probably your first choices.
However, remember that you have absolute freedom when designing your custom-designed wedding rings. You can choose “modern” material choices like rose gold, titanium, and palladium, while you can also choose rather unorthodox choices like recycled metals, tungsten, ceramic, and many others.
6. Decide on A Diamond Cut
While we have briefly discussed choosing a diamond cut above, here we will discuss it a bit deeper.
As we have mentioned, ring cuts will not only determine the shape of the stone, but also its brilliance and shine. You can choose traditional cuts like cushion, round, princess, radiant, and so on, as well as uncommon choices like raw(uncut), shield-shaped cut, and so on.
7. Decide on Ring Setting
Just like your metal, you have freedom and flexibility in choosing your ring setting. If you are designing a pair of wedding bands, you will need to decide on two different settings for both the male and female rings.
There are classic choices like cathedral-style, halo, prong, bezel, bar, floating, suspension, and so on. There are also rather uncommon choices like the tension setting.
The ring setting can play a major part in the end-result of your design, so make sure you consider all the possibilities and pick the best ones for your pair. You might want to check out this guide for various available setting choices.
8. The Collaboration Process
Buying a custom-designed wedding ring is not a one-off process, but you should expect to meet the designer at least several times during the process.
Commonly, the jewelry designer will present a mock-up design at the beginning of the process, which can be in the form of a mock-up wax, a computerized image (CAD), or even 3d imaging and 3d-printed mock-up. Don’t be afraid to ask your questions, as well as voicing your concerns during this process. Ask for revisions when necessary.
9. Protecting Yourself
Make sure to review all guarantees and warranties offered by the jeweler. You would want every detail of your rings in writing from the agreed price, material choices, stone size and setting, design details, and so on. If necessary, you might want to insure your rings.
