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How Much to Spend on a Wedding Ring: Top Secrets and Tricks Revealed

After spending a fortune on an engagement ring, grooms are not always ready to purchase an expensive wedding ring. If you’re a fiance like this, this guide is for you. Here, we’ll disclose all the secret knowledge to get this jewelry piece for the best price. Of course, we don't mean to teach how to cheap out on the rings for your beloved. But we can really help you with making a reasonable purchase and get real value-for-money.

Specifically, this overview reveals the key places and ring designs that fit a reasonable budget perfectly. Simply put, we’ll teach you how much to spend on a wedding ring.

How Much to Spend on a Wedding Ring

What’s the Average Wedding Ring Cost

Before we dive into determining a perfect wedding ring price, let’s start with the basics. Traditionally, the cost of this ring should be 3% of your total budget for the wedding. Nevertheless, this formula doesn't clarify how much to spend on a wedding ring. That’s why this number is just a reference point to start your own budget setting. As practice shows, your readiness to spend a certain sum on a ring she wants determines the average price more accurately than so-called “traditions.”

The average price for a wedding ring varies from $200 to $1,000

We always inquire clients on their price expectations before bringing our custom-made ring ideas for their wedding ceremony. As it turns, most of the respondents reveal readiness to cut expenses on ceremony organization if the wedding ring we’re about to offer is truly worth it. That’s why the average price paid for the ring is a very wide range — from $3 to $300,000. In the end, the price paid reaches up to 15% of yearly income for both engagement and wedding rings.

That’s why we recommend couples to select the desired design and style first and then proceed to adapt its cost to the budget limitations. This way, you’ll get the ring of your dreams without the feeling like you’re saving on it and prioritizing price before appearance.

Where People Are Buying Rings for the Wedding Ceremony

Most shoppers choose cheap chain stores like Kay Jewelers, Zales, and James Allen, expecting to save money on the wedding rings after springing for a proposal. Though seeming reasonable in theory, this choice turns poor in reality. Cheap jewelry is likely to lose its luster fast, get broken unexpectedly, or even contain fake materials and diamond simulants. Wise buyers know: there are smarter ways to save on the price of a wedding band.

3 Best Ways to Save on the Cost of a Wedding Ring in a Smart Way

  1. Get the wholesale diamond for your ring. Many couples reject highly decorated wedding ring designs because they don't want to overpay for a diamond. There’s no need to deny yourself the pleasure of getting a really beautiful ring — contact Diamond Registry experts instead! We offer the service of getting wholesale diamonds for any type of diamond jewelry, including wedding rings.
  2. Select a cost-effective setting and diamond. Frequently, shoppers adjust the key elements of a wedding band to save money. If you know how to pick the color and shape of a diamond and are ready to play with the metal in a setting, you can save a fortune!
  3. Avoid expensive locations. Make sure you shop from a place with moderate pricing models. For example, Zurich and Los Angeles are generally expensive cities, and the same applies to the jewelry sold there. Moreover, places like Bulgari and Tiffany & Co are expensive shops, no matter where exactly they’re located. That’s why we recommend going to places with moderate pricing and choose cities like Hong Kong and New York.

Besides, some shoppers choose to buy a wedding ring from the jewelry shop they’ve previously ordered engagement rings from. This decision promises to save time but creates more problems in practice. Either too limited or too broad selection of designs doesn’t make it easier and faster to pick the dream ring. Simply put, it’s hard to get the wedding ring of your dreams in the same jewelry shop, especially if this store doesn’t have an option to make a custom-made ring for you.

For the smartest choice and the fairest price for a wedding ring, request a personal consultation from a diamond jewelry expert. This way, you’ll save time on learning the peculiarities of wedding jewelry and be certain to maintain the balance between cost and quality in all the materials. Our respondents‘ experience confirms: only an expert can pick up a ring that is of the highest quality, desired style, and meets your budget constraints.

How Much to Spend on a Wedding Ring

The Most Popular Wedding Ring Types

As we’ve mentioned before, your choice of a wedding ring should start from selecting its specific design. Most couples acknowledge that and do their research on popular styles for rings before entering a jewelry shop. For those unprepared, we’ve made a short overview of the most common wedding ring styles.

There are different designs for women and men. It’s popular to pick for females rich and moderately-decorated rings that frequently feature diamonds and other precious stones. A wedding ring for a groom has a more restrained styling — and a lower price.

Bridal wedding ring styles are generally more sophisticated and expensive. For the groom, it’s possible to find an excellent minimalistic ring for less than $500

The metal choice is also a determining factor for the ring’s cost. Generally, the white gold setting is very common for female models, while tungsten is mostly used in male rings. Besides, some couples pick platinum and palladium for their rings. Their choice increases the price dramatically but changes the jewelry piece's appearance and physical characteristics only slightly.

Finally, the presence of engravings and contours adds some dollars to your ring. The ring size matters here: the bigger the ring area, the more expensive its decorating turns.

Based on the answers of our respondents, the most popular types of wedding rings are:

  1. Traditional wedding band. A very cheap and simple design. This ring is plain, and its exact cost depends on the metal type and its amount used. A thick platinum wedding band is more expensive than a thin one created with yellow gold.
  2. Milgrain ring designs. Skipping the solitaire is one of the main tricks to save on the cost of a wedding ring. Milgrain ring satisfies this demand totally. The design is composed as a close-fitting row of tiny diamonds on a metal band and comes in various styles and sizes. This gives space to imagination and makes milgrain suitable for any budget.
  3. Pave diamond eternity ring. In this design, diamonds are set around a band. Because of that, it's not cost-saving. But if you adopt a wise approach to selecting tiny diamonds in a pave, you can afford this design for the same price as a classic engagement ring with a big diamond.
  4. Bezel setting. Classically, this ring has the appearance of a thick metal band with a solitaire diamond. Couples love this design for durability and uniqueness. Moreover, it’s suitable for people with an active lifestyle.

Wedding band vs. Engagement ring: How to adjust your budget for both?

To determine the exact correlation between these two jewelry pieces in your wedding budget, consider the purpose of gifting. This will help you a lot in deciding how much you specifically can spend on the ring.

To save money on a wedding ring, pick the right materials, buy wholesale diamond, and avoid expensive locations

Both engagement rings and wedding bands have a symbolic meaning of marking the life-changing moment when your love reaches a new level. That’s why it’s irrelevant even to consider an idea to save some on these pieces of jewelry. You will wear the ring for years, so it should have a corresponding appearance and quality.

Besides, proposing with an engagement ring is a very “Instagram” moment, meaning your happy bride-to-be will demonstrate it to the world. In its turn, the moment of exchanging wedding rings mostly happens in the closed circle of invited guests to the ceremony. That’s why it’s common to dedicate more attention and budget to the sparkling appearance of an engagement ring and the highest quality and durability of wedding rings.

Top 3 recommendations for wedding ring shoppers

  1. Pick the wedding ring style you prefer first, then consider the budget. It’s OK to save some money on the wedding ring, but the cost shouldn’t be your top priority.
  2. Aim at getting complementary rings. Couples want the wedding ring to mark the special event and represent the symbolic link between the two. That’s why the matching designs are so popular. You can find several set options in almost any jewelry store.
  3. Pick your spouse-to-be wherever it’s possible.Our respondents’ and clients’ experience shows that the more information you get from your fiance, the more accurate the wedding ring is ordered. Wise couples choose this approach — a girl picks the design, a groom decides how much to spend on a wedding ring.

How Much to Spend on a Wedding Ring 1

Get the wedding ring of your dreams from Diamond Registry

The idea of saving on a wedding ring cost has nothing with gifting your beloved an outdated ring. More accurately, we’ve discussed here the top ways to turn into reality the design of your dreams and not overpay for that.

With over 60 years of experience in the jewelry market, we are ready to help you get the wedding band with diamonds of any quantity and quality. Our goal is to provide the best selection of wholesale diamonds at an affordable price for all your fine jewelry needs. We want you to be comfortable with the purchase of your diamond engagement ring, eternity band, or wedding ring.

When you’re ready to design your dream ring, we’ll help you save money on a 100% conflict-free diamond. Contact us, and get a free quote from the diamond expert!

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