Wedding Bands

How Much Should You Spend On Your Wedding Bands?

The hardest expenses are over. You’ve made the wedding plans, bought an engagement ring, and spend waaaaay too much on flowers by now. It’s not over though; you still need the wedding bands. The bands that will stay on your fingers until the day you die–or are divorced, or are doing the dishes and remove them so they don’t fall down the drain.

While these won’t cost as much as her engagement ring, they still can be expensive, and knowing what’s worth the money can be tricky. Some tips to help you get where you need to go.

Assess Your Budget

How much you spend should ideally be dictated by how much you can afford. There are wedding bands in the world worth literally more than their weight in gold. There are also ones that look like they came out of a vending machine. Finding something in the middle means knowing what your budget looks like, what else you’re spending elsewhere for your wedding, and where you can cut back.

Don’t Get Talked Into Something

There are going to be thousands of people on Internet forums saying things like “I spent $20 on my wedding band, so we could really binge on the honeymoon.” Do not listen to these people. Wedding bands should cost you an appropriate amount of money. While a bigger price tag doesn’t always mean better, a ridiculously small price tag almost certainly means worse. This should be something to want to spend your money on. And the proper amount you’ll pay isn’t the difference between going to Paris, France and Paris, Texas. It’s the difference between going windsurfing twice a day and going windsurfing once throughout the vacation—a perfectly reasonable tradeoff for a ring you’ll be wearing every day for the rest of your life.

Don’t Get Duped

While you shouldn’t pay too little, finding a great deal is totally possible. Sites like Etsy and Ebay can make for great, cost-effective options, but also run the risk of getting fake or not-as-described rings for your money. The best thing to do is to use an online site like James Allen  that’s been verified thoroughly or a jewelry craftsman that has a lot of experience making rings.

Spend Money In The Right Places

Your flowers are important. Your centerpieces are important. The thread count of the sheets in your wedding night suite is important. All that’s true, but you’re not going to be carrying those centerpieces around with you for the rest of your life. Don’t opt for the smallest carat or density in the ring just so you can have an extra few layers on your cake.  Spend what you can afford on the things that really matter.

Account For Disaster

Rings are on your hands, and hands get messy sometimes. Don’t get the fragile precious ring you plan to always keep shining like new—that’s a pipe dream. You don’t need to work on the railroad to encounter things that will potentially damage your ring. When buying, pay the extra amount for the Rhodium layer added for protection. Or, depending on your job, opt for the insurance or warranty guarantee on your rings. It may feel silly paying extra for that little gold circle, but it’ll do wonders when you find that first fissure in the side.

Bottom Line

Shop for wedding bands with the same care you did for the engagement ring. Just because they cost less doesn’t mean you should be any less careful.

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