The millennial generation is keen to embrace more personal, meaning-filled wedding ceremonies and celebrations – as found in a study by the Pew Research Center. This penchant for self-expression lends itself to everything from the choice of venue to jewelry, and high-end jewelry designers are taking note. Not only are these brands offering customized services to brides and grooms; they’re also displaying a wider array of wedding jewelry that veers slightly away from strict tradition with regards to gem choice and design.
Embracing Color
Modern brides do not necessarily feel bound to select a transparent diamond for the center stage of their engagement rings. Rather, they feel that their wedding jewelry should express their style, taste, and sense of fashion. Many brides and grooms are marrying tradition with innovation, choosing traditional styles set with colorful central stones. Cartier’s 1895 solitaire ring, for instance, features a gorgeous 3.49-karat sapphire surrounded by pavéd diamonds set in pristine platinum. Harry Winston, meanwhile has long been designing engagement rings in materials like pink diamond surrounded by transparent diamonds and set in rose gold. Today, rings that can be worn as fashion pieces as much as symbols of commitment are holding sway among those who like to dance to their own rhythm.
Stacked-Style Engagement Rings
Not all engagement ring recipients are into giant rocks that steal the show at a glance. The passion for stacked rings has led firms like Suárez, Katherine Kim, and Tous to design a wider range of eternity bands, which can serve as both engagement and wedding band, or as one of two or more stacked rings. Indeed, this has been somewhat of a custom in some European countries for many years, with eternity rings bearing not only diamonds, but also colorful stones such as emeralds, sapphires and rubies.
Vintage Styles And Cuts
Oscar-winning actor Emma Stone’s vintage pearl ring (featuring a central pearl surrounded by tiny diamond accents) is the perfect instance of the big comeback that vintage materials, styles and cuts are making on the current designer jewelry scene. Just a few styles making their presence felt include art-deco inspired designs, floral and other nature-inspired rings, and oval-shaped diamonds with milgrain framing. Marquise diamonds, engraved bands, and vintage-inspired diamonds set in a bezel encircled by colored diamonds, sapphires, emeralds or rubies and pavé accents are ideal choices for those who like to don artistic pieces embellished with detailed handcrafting.
Getting married these days is a much more personalized and creative affair – one in which everything from ceremonies to receptions and even wedding fashion and jewelry freely embrace both tradition and the avant-garde all at once. Color is back – as much in one’s choice of central stones as metals. Vintage styles and stacked rings are also holding sway among brides and grooms who prefer to see wedding jewelry as another important way to express one’s love for fashion and self-expression.
Photo by Orlova Maria on Unsplash