Most couples spend less time choosing their wedding bands than they spend choosing the wedding cake. We understand why. The engagement ring has already absorbed months of decision-making, and by the time the bands come up, the energy has gone elsewhere, venues, dresses, seating plans, parents.
But the band is the ring that gets worn. It is on the hand the morning after the wedding, the morning after a difficult week, the morning of every anniversary that follows. It is on the hand when no photographs are being taken. The engagement ring sits in a box on Tuesday evenings; the band does not.
This guide exists to help you choose the band properly. Not to recommend a particular ring, or to convince you of a single right answer — there is no single right answer. But to give you the vocabulary and the questions before you walk in, so the conversation can be the right kind of conversation.
01. Profile
The profile is the cross-section of the band, the shape you would see if you cut the ring in half and looked at the cut edge. It is the single thing about a band that affects how it feels on the finger. Every other decision: width, metal, engraving, is downstream of this one.
There are four common profiles. The names vary by jeweller, but these are the ones we use:
Court
Rounded on the outside, rounded on the inside. The most common profile and the most forgiving. Comfortable from the first day, almost universally well-tolerated, and the profile most people choose if they cannot decide. The trade-off is that it is also the least distinctive, court bands tend to look similar across jewellers.
D-shape
Rounded outside, flat inside. The flat inside means the ring sits more firmly against the finger, it does not rotate as easily. This is useful for rings with a stone or detail you want to stay facing the right way. The flat inside also makes engraving sit more cleanly.
Flat court
Flat outside, rounded inside. The most modern-looking of the four. The flat outside catches light differently, straighter, more architectural. This is the profile we recommend most often to people who want a band that looks contemporary rather than traditional.
Knife-edge
A peak running along the centre of the band. Looks more delicate than it is, knife-edge bands are surprisingly comfortable because the peak does not press into adjacent fingers. The most distinctive profile, and the one that ages best because the slight wear it picks up over years softens the peak rather than ruining it.
Profile is the decision you cannot make from a photograph. The same band in a court profile and a flat court profile photographs identically. Worn for ten minutes each, the difference is unmistakable.
02. Width and weight
Width is measured in millimetres across the top of the band. Weight is measured in grams. They are related but not the same, and it is worth understanding both.
Width
Most wedding bands sit between 2mm and 6mm wide. Below 2mm tends to feel insubstantial and is more prone to bending. Above 6mm starts to feel cumbersome on smaller hands and can press against the next finger uncomfortably.
As a rough guide: 2-3mm is delicate and stacks well with engagement rings; 3-4mm is the most common width and the one we make most of; 4-5mm feels more substantial and suits hands with longer fingers; 5-6mm is bold and works best as a standalone band rather than stacked.
Most couples assume they want a wider band than they actually do. The width that looks right in a photograph often feels too much in person. We let people try widths in 0.5mm increments because the difference matters.
Weight
Two bands of the same width can be made heavier or lighter. A heavier band has more metal in it, a denser feel, more presence on the finger, and a price tag to match. A lighter band of the same width feels almost weightless after a week of wear.
Neither is correct. People who want to feel the ring on their finger choose heavier. People who want to forget they are wearing it choose lighter. Both are valid approaches to wearing a ring for sixty years.
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A NOTE ON CHEAPER BANDS When you see wedding bands online for very low prices, the saving is almost always in weight rather than design. The same width, in a much thinner gauge of metal, will bend over time, scratch through to the metal beneath if it is plated, and need re-tipping or replacing within a decade. We do not make bands that thin. We will not make bands that thin. It is the most common mistake people make in this category, and it is the one mistake that genuinely costs more in the long run. |
03. Metal
There are essentially four metals to choose from for a wedding band. We will not include silver in this list, silver is too soft for daily wear and tarnishes. Anyone selling silver wedding bands is selling something that will not last.
18ct yellow gold
The traditional choice, and the one that ages best. Yellow gold develops a soft warm patina over years that platinum and white gold do not. It is forgiving against engagement rings of any metal, and the colour suits most skin tones. The trade-off is that yellow gold scratches more easily than platinum, though the scratches blend into the patina rather than standing out.
Platinum
Heavier, denser, and slightly cooler in colour than white gold. Platinum is the most durable wedding band metal, it does not lose mass when scratched, only displaces. A platinum band twenty years old has the same weight as the day it was made, just with a softer surface texture. The price reflects this. Platinum bands cost roughly twice what an equivalent gold band would, sometimes more.
18ct white gold
White gold is yellow gold alloyed with white metals and rhodium-plated to achieve its silver colour. The plating wears off over time, typically every two to five years, and the band needs re-rhodium-plating to maintain the bright white look. We are honest about this when people ask. White gold looks identical to platinum on day one and noticeably different by year ten.
18ct rose gold
Yellow gold alloyed with copper. The copper gives it the pink hue and also makes it the hardest of the gold variants, rose gold scratches less than yellow gold. The colour deepens slightly with wear, which most people find they like. Rose gold has been more popular than the industry expected over the last decade and shows no sign of fading.
If you cannot decide between metals, choose the one that matches your other jewellery, the watches, the chains, the earrings you wear most days. The wedding band should sit beside the rest of how you dress, not against it.
04. Edge
The edge of a band is where the top surface meets the side. It is a small detail and it changes everything.
A sharp edge, what jewellers call a chamfered or beveled edge, gives the band a more architectural look. The light catches it as a defined line. These bands look more contemporary, photograph more crisply, and tend to suit modern hands and modern engagement rings.
A rolled or softened edge looks gentler. The transition between top and side is a curve rather than a line. These bands feel softer against the next finger and against the engagement ring stacked above. They look more traditional and they age more gracefully, the small wear they pick up softens an already soft edge.
There is no rule here. Most people prefer one over the other within thirty seconds of trying both. The decision is worth slowing down for because the edge is the detail you will see closest, every day, for the rest of your life.
05. Sizing
Wedding band sizing is more important than engagement ring sizing because the band gets worn more constantly. An engagement ring that runs slightly loose can be taken off; a wedding band that runs slightly loose will be lost.
Time of day matters
Fingers are smaller in the morning and larger in the evening. They are smaller in winter and larger in summer. They are smaller after coffee and larger after wine. We size for the middle of the range, typically mid-afternoon, room temperature, before any salt-heavy meals. A ring sized at 7am on a January morning will be too tight by August.
Knuckle versus base
The widest part of the finger is usually the knuckle, not the base. A ring has to pass over the knuckle to get on, then settle at the base where it will live. If the knuckle and base are very different sizes, the ring will spin at the base or get stuck at the knuckle. We will measure both and decide which to size for. There are also techniques, sizing balls, hinged shanks, for hands where the knuckle is significantly larger than the base.
Weight gain and loss
Most rings can be resized within two sizes up or down without affecting the structure. Beyond that, the ring has to be remade. This matters less than people think, most fluctuations in finger size are within one size, and most rings will accommodate them. We resize rings for our customers without charge, for as long as the ring exists.
06. Engraving
Engraving is the detail nobody sees but the person wearing the ring. Which, in our view, is exactly why it is worth doing well.
There are two methods of engraving. The first is laser engraving, fast, cheap, and slightly soulless. The lettering is uniform and machine-precise. Most chain jewellers offer it, often included free with a band purchase, and the result is what you would expect: legible, accurate, and indistinguishable from any other laser-engraved band.
The second method is hand engraving. A jeweller cuts the lettering into the metal with a tool called a graver, by hand, one letter at a time. The lettering is not perfectly uniform. The depth varies slightly. The lines have the soft inflection of human movement. It takes longer, costs more, and looks like something a person made because it is.
We hand engrave. Throughout May, the engraving is included with every wedding band we make. Beyond May, hand engraving is part of the cost of the band rather than an upcharge, we have never seen the point of pretending it is an optional extra.
What to engrave
The most common choices, in roughly the order people choose them: the wedding date, the partner's initials, a single word that means something private to the couple, a short line from the ceremony, a date from before the relationship that mattered (a first meeting, a first trip), and, rarely but our favourites, a single specific reference that no one outside the couple would understand.
A note on length: short ages better than long. A wedding band has limited interior surface area, and a long inscription has to be smaller to fit. Smaller engraving wears more visibly over years of friction against the finger. A date and a pair of initials in larger lettering will still be crisp at year forty. A nine-word line in tiny lettering may not be.
The engraving you regret most is the one that was someone else's idea of romantic. The engraving you appreciate most, year after year, is the one no one else would understand.
07. Timeline
From consultation to ready-to-wear, a wedding band takes between four and eight weeks for a standard design and eight to twelve weeks for bespoke. This is more variable than people expect, and it is worth planning for.
If you have already chosen an engagement ring with us, your details are on file and we can move quickly. If you are starting from a fresh consultation, plan on six weeks minimum from booking the consultation to receiving the rings. For wedding dates within that window, we will tell you honestly whether we can make what you want in time, and what the alternatives are.
We do not believe in promising shorter timelines than the work requires. A band rushed in three weeks is a band finished in a hurry, and the finishing is what you see for the next sixty years.
08. What to bring to the consultation
Almost nothing. The consultation works best when you arrive without too much pre-decided.
If you have an engagement ring, bring it. We will work with the ring on your finger to see how the band sits beside it. If you have a partner, bring them, wedding band consultations work best with both people in the room, even if one of them claims not to care about the choice. They care more than they realise once the bands are out.
If you have inspiration images saved on your phone, bring them. They are useful, though almost always more useful for narrowing down what you do not want than for confirming what you do. Most couples arrive with a clear picture of one band and leave with something different, because what looks right on a screen is rarely what feels right on the finger.
If you have nothing, no images, no preferences, no idea where to start, that is also fine. We will start with a question and work from there.
There is no version of this where the band you choose is the wrong band. We have made bands for couples who agonised over the decision for months, and bands for couples who arrived knowing exactly what they wanted. The bands have all gone on to be worn for thousands of mornings, in kitchens, on walks, while holding babies, while arguing about parking, while reading in bed.
The choosing matters. The right band, made well, with a private line engraved inside, is a small object that earns its place on the hand for the rest of a life. We would like to help you find yours.