When it comes to budgeting for your wedding I bet you set aside a considerable amount of money just for the wedding bands. This amount varies from couple to couple depending on your overall budget. Our estimate was somewhere in the region of £600-£700 as we both wanted something simple. However if we could shave any money off the budgeted amount we could use the money elsewhere. If you have done a little research you will find that you could get two 9 ct yellow gold bands for about £500 however in 18 ct this would exceed the £800 mark needless to say this again depends on where you purchase them from.
You have another option but it may not be accessible to everyone; wedding ring redesign, resize or reshape can save you money. In order to do this though you need to have a ring first, you may have been handed down or a ring you have purchased second hand. You may able to find a not so pretty ring in a second hand jewelry store which you can turn into something you had in mind. If you have been passed down a ring which has been in the family or purchased a second hand ring and it does not exactly fit or look anything like you had in mind for your wedding band I would recommend a going to a Jewellery Desinger such as Cove Jewellery at http://www.covejewellery.co.uk/.
Now I have little knowledge of Jewellery or the fine art of its design however professionals like Cove Jewellery will give you options as to what you can do with an old ring. If feasible, resizing is the cheapest option with reshaping costing more due to the time it takes. We had a 22 ct band reshaped and resized and it was a very modest amount and to be honest the outcome is perfect. Now we did not want much done to it in the first place, only to bend the gold band around a diamond ring with a square setting. We were informed that it honestly depends on the what you want done as to its feasibility. One last option when it comes to revitalising an old piece of jewellery is to melt and remodel however this considerably more work thus costs more but not as much as you may think. If you compare a melt and remodel of a 18 ct ring to purchasing a new ring you are quids in every time. A melt and remodel starts at around £180-£200 (informed estimate) with the amount increasing depending on the difficulty of the ring you had envisaged and the amount of gold you have (that is if you want gold). Now compare this to an very plain 18 ct yellow gold 5 mm band from High Street Jewelers which can cost in excess of £300-00 (This price changes depending on jeweller) . This makes the remodeling option a viable one as you can save money and keep the family history with you.
I am fully aware that not everyone will have this option available to them but if you do make the most of it and save yourself some money in the process.
*Please note- Prices and estimates may vary depending on the Jewellery Designer and the nature of your request.
Cove Jewellery Twitter: @covejewellery
*The photo above pictures the reshaped ring however the photo does not do it justice as it is perfect.*
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