ETERNITY RINGS

An Eternity ring is given to a spouse or partner sometime after a wedding or years of partnership. When to give the ring varies greatly and there are no set rules.

On the rare occasion, the bride is lucky enough to receive the eternity ring at the same time as the wedding ring, so she can have both rings put on at the wedding ceremony, symbolising commitment for an eternity. The bride may or may not be aware that she is getting the eternity ring for the wedding, and it can make for a wonderful surprise.

Nowadays, the most common time that a spouse would receive an eternity ring is on the couples’ first wedding anniversary.

Commonly, the groom contacts DDS Diamond Design Studios and asks us to make a duplicate of the wedding ring which he can present to his wife on their anniversary. Sometimes the bride pre-empts the gift and suggests they come in together to look at different designs, especially if she doesn’t want the exact same design on the other side of the engagement ring. She may even prefer to wear the ring on a different finger, such as the ring finger on the other hand, in which case, the design could be quite different.

The eternity ring can be any design that complements the engagement and wedding rings and is very much down to personal taste. Matching the wedding ring is the most popular, but really anything goes. At DDS, we design and manufacture “stacked” rings. These are individual rings of different designs which are stacked together, creating a fascinating combination of styles and even different coloured golds.

There are also no rules as to how much to spend on an eternity ring. Some women like their ring to be more elaborate than the wedding ring, maybe with larger diamonds but in the same style of setting. There are also the rare wives that want just a simple plain gold band, because they prefer the more subdued look.

Traditionally, when eternity rings were given after five, ten or even fifty years of marriage, they were often made to look more extravagant than the wedding ring. This is probably because wedding rings were relatively plain and money was often tight in the earlier years of marriage. So the tradition of making the eternity ring more elaborate than the wedding ring is often still applied and in keeping with that, coloured stones can be incorporated. It is popular to use coloured diamonds, such as pink diamonds or yellow diamonds, which may be alternating with white diamonds. When this option is beyond the customer’s budget, light-coloured pink sapphires or yellow sapphires can be used for a similar effect. There are also other coloured gems that work beautifully, including blue sapphires of all hues, red rubies of many different shades, green emeralds or green tsavorite garnets.

The eternity ring is generally made from the same material as the engagement and wedding rings, that being either 9ct or 18ct gold – white, yellow or rose in colour.  The highest quality gold used for hard wearing jewellery is 18ct gold. When all three rings are made from the same quality and carat weight of gold, the colour will match and when worn together they are less likely to rub and abrade each other.

Please come into DDS Diamond Design Studios to try on our huge range of eternity rings. We are confident there is a design which will complement your engagement and wedding ring.

Just call 08 83320707 to make an appointment to come to our Studio showrooms.