When you announce your engagement, the first thing many will ask (as superficial as it may be) is “Omg can I see the ring?” We’ve all done it. And for a lot of people this is a very important part of the wedding process. Some fantasise for years about what type of ring they’d like to receive one day.
But it can be a little bit daunting committing to a ring you’ll love forever, or even buying one for your partner and hoping they adore it! The pressure is on, but where do you even start? We spoke to engagement ring expert Adam Jackson from Weir And Sons about everything you need to know when preparing to choose your token of love.
Firstly, we asked Adam if it’s more common for couples to choose rings together or one partner to do the deed. “To be honest, it’s both… Obviously the couples can come in together, but if it is [just one partner] nine out of 10 times [they] know [their partner’s] style. If we get it wrong, they can always come in after the proposal and we can exchange to a different style,” he explained.
And if you’re not sure of your own style, don’t worry, it’s nearly like finding THE dress, you have to see what there is to find what you want. Adam said, “It’s trial and error, trying different styles on and the process of elimination. Often, they’ll know what they don’t want, and it’s just narrowing that down. You’ll start to see a pattern emerge for each client, they’ll start to go for the same design over and over again. That’s when you know your style.”
As with all things wedding related, there are current trends and timeless styles, something to fit whatever your taste is, “You will always have like the most popular [ring] being a classic round single stone. It’s always going to be timeless,” he explained. “We have seen emerging trends of single oval diamonds in engagement rings. I think celeb culture has a bit of an effect,” Adam then referenced Kourtney Kardashian’s giant oval rock we saw her receive from Travis Barker last year, impacting the styles people have gone for in the following months. We are not surprised!
Continuing, Adam revealed some of the predicted trends in rings for this year, “In the next couple of months [we’re expecting] emerging trends to be three stones with fancy cuts, so it might be a round in the centre with two pears, or three emerald cut stones. Other emerging trends would be single emerald cuts and yellow diamonds as engagement rings.
“In the past year or two. We’ve seen that lab grown diamonds is kind of the evolution of the jewellery field. That’s something that’s been big.”
A trend we’ve seen a lot of lately is the engagement ring that slots into the wedding ring making what looks like one gorgeous ring when worn together, we asked Adam about this style as it seems popular at the moment. “All the engagement rings that we sell would be wed-fit, which means all our wedding rings would sit nice and plush with it. Normally the ones that are curved would be if the ring is set really low and would have to be made to be bespoke.
“The problem with those ones is if you’re not wearing your engagement with the wedding band, you’re left with a dip or a curved wedding band. Whereas if it’s completely all uniformed all the way around, it can be worn separate or together.”
It’s little details like this you’d forget to think of before buying! The choice of the band is a very important aspect for many. Some people are gold jewellery wearers and some prefer white metals, it’s nearly like cat and dog people debate, as many take their jewellery choice very seriously.
Adam said, “What’s popular for us is for white metal we would do platinum. Platinum is the most durable metal It’s also naturally white so it’s 95% pure white. It’s a hyper allergenic, so it’s the purest white metal you can get.
“In regards to yellow golds. Again, it’s an emerging trend. In times of uncertainty, we often see the cycle of people do revert back to tradition. Yellow gold is a massive emerging trend and in the past two years as well.”
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with wearing both! Mixing of metals has actually been pretty stylish recently with the likes of Hailey Bieber and Rihanna giving both their yellow gold and platinum pieces a moment at the same time.
As for what Adam’s top choice would be as an expert?“I always try and advise what I would pick, it will be a single round, brilliant cut diamond set in platinum. It’s just ageless, never goes out of trend and it goes with everything. It’s kind of quintessential of what you think of an engagement ring.”