How to choose your Wedding Band?

The most important thing to prepare for your ROM is your Wedding Band. There are many different types of wedding bands available in the market, yellow gold, white gold, rose gold, champagne gold, platinum, titanium, diamonds, engraved, embossed, glossy or matted and probably alot more than I know.

Of course, it all depends on what you prefer. Here's a few points to know when choosing the wedding bands:

1. Metal

The most traditional metal used in ring is Yellow gold. It comes in 24k, 18k and 14k, 24k being the purest. The purer the gold, the softer it is. So if you work with your hands, it might be wiser to get 14k or 24k to prevent scratches.

The more popular metal is white gold. It is actually a combination of gold and other metals. In the past, nickel was being used. But it was found to caused skin irritation on some people, so currently palladium is used instead. However the colour will go off-white after sometime, so you'll need to re-plate to get the original colour.

The metal that is getting more popular nowadays is platinum. It is one of the strongest metal in the world. So it is not easily scratched and hypoallergenic. The disadvantage is that it is much heavier than white gold.

Titanium is even stronger than platinum but is lightweight. It is also hypoallergenic and you can have different colours, but the colours can be scratched off. It is also more expensive than the other metals. The main disadvantage is that it cannot be soldered, so you'll not be able to resize your ring.



2. Gems

Depending on your budget as well as how durable you want the gem to be, here's the hardness level of some common gemstones used in rings:

Diamonds 10 (hardest)
Rubies 9
Sapphire 9
Emerald 8
Topaz 8
Aquamarine 7.5 to 8
Amethyst 7
Garnet 6.5 to 7.5
Opal 6

Most of us will prefer diamonds, as it suppose to symbolise eternity. Before buying diamonds, you'll first need to know about 4Cs - Colour, Cut, Clarity, Caret.

Caret is the easiest to see, as it meant the size of the diamond. Depending on preference and budget, 0.5 is a reasonable size for your everyday wear.

Colour refers to how colourless the diamond is. The more colourless it is, the more expensive it is. It range from on a scale from D (colorless) to Z (light yellow).
Cut refers to how the diamond is faceted. Eg. number of faces, the depth of the stone, and symmetry. The combination of these factors will determine how the light is reflected and therefore how much it sparkle. The most common cuts is the Heart and Arrow
Clarity is actually the toughest to determine for amateurs like you and me. It refers to the impurities present in the stone. Therefore refer to the certificate that comes with the diamond to check the grade that it belongs to:

• F Flawless - no internal or external inclusions.
• IF Internally Flawless - no internal inclusions, slight external inclusions.
• VVS1-VVS2Very Very Slightly Included - minute inclusions that are very difficult to detect under 10x magnification, even by an experienced grader.
• VS1-VS2 Very Slightly Included - minute inclusions that are invisible to the naked eye and seen only with difficulty under 10x magnification.
• SI1-SI2 Slightly Included - invisible to the naked eye, yet easily seen by an experienced grader under 10x magnification.
• I1-I3 Included - inclusions are visible to the naked eye and affect brilliance.

If you have a limited budget, you may want to sacrifice the clarity of the stone, as it is not visible through naked eye. Diamonds from VS1 to SI2 seemed good enough for everyday wear.
The most important thing to consider when it comes to choosing the wedding band, is that you are probably going to wear it everyday for the rest of your lives. So it will be more appropriate to choose something duration and something that both of you like.
So have a good time shopping!