What to Consider When Picking Your Bridal Stack: Anatomy of an Engagement Ring and How to Pick the Perfect Wedding Band

There’s a lot to consider when choosing your engagement ring and wedding bands! We are here to fill you in on some secrets to ensure a lifelong love affair with your rings. Before we give you some specific guidelines, we’re starting with the basics. Below is the “anatomy of an engagement ring” and a great vocabulary lesson for grooms-to-be...as she bookmarks for later. ;)

Our Consider Bridal engagement ring line has been thoughtfully designed to feature unique details and settings that can accommodate any diamond shape or carat size. Some styles feature round shanks, flat shanks or knife-edge bands. Some are solitaire settings and others feature pavé diamonds or side stones. Some feature prong-set diamonds and others are bezel-set. Some have milgrain or hammered detail and others have hidden halos. All are characteristics worth noticing and considering when selecting an engagement ring.

Now that you’ve got the basics, below is our guide to picking or custom designing a beautiful wedding band stack to compliment your engagement ring. The Consider team has extensive knowledge and experience in helping brides and grooms for almost a decade, so you are sure to find a stack that you’ll be in love with forever. Here is some of the wisdom we’ve gleaned in helping couples:  

1. Other rings in your wedding set, such as wedding or anniversary bands, should compliment, not compete, with your engagement ring. We always want that engagement ring to be the star of the show!

2. Get personal. We love when couples engrave a special message, date, or mantra inside their wedding bands. It’s a forever love note that truly makes that wedding band a symbol of your story. These special sentiments can even be engraved in your own handwriting. At Consider, we can even set gemstones on the inside of your band. It might be to commemorate a loved one who will not be present at your ceremony, a birthstone, or just to have a little sparkle from within. Ring engraving and gemstone add-ons are available on metal bands 2mm and wider.

3. Bezel set, or lower set engagement rings, work great with arched bands if you are looking for your rings to sit flush together. Also, for lower settings, you can always add a cuff ring as a filler and then a straight across band to get a flush look.

4. Don't be afraid to mix in texture, different diamond shapes and metal colors into your stack! When you are making a purchase of quality jewelry and diamonds - there is really no way you can go wrong. 

5. Your stack should represent who you are now! Don’t worry about what will be in style in 20 years.  Fine jewelry is timeless and heirloom-worthy.  What you love now, you will love forever. So trust your gut and your partner and remember there are no rules! You will look back on these choices fondly because quality is always in style.

6. Colored stone bands can be wedding bands too! Love a specific color or gemstone? Or want to incorporate your wedding month’s birthstone into your stack? We say go for it.

7. We recommend ordering your wedding bands 3 months before the wedding. Allow about 4-6 weeks for production and sizing or engraving. This gives a great safety net in case something unexpected happens, you know, like a global pandemic. ;) We do have ready-to-ship options and pieces on our floor for elopements or last minute love  - it’s completely doable. 

8. Don’t be afraid to purchase a ring you haven’t seen in person or tried on! You might be surprised to know, we assist with lots of wedding stacks virtually. Text us, call us, email us, or DM us! Once we have a photo of your engagement ring, we can choose a similar engagement ring setting that we have in store and send you photos to show various band and stack options. With our Complimentary Ring Sizer, we are also able to deliver the perfect fit. If you’re considering CTWF but can’t make it into our flagship store in Nashville - don’t worry. The only thing you’ll miss out on is a glass of bubbly.

Remember that with bridal jewelry, while there are things to consider, it’s really all about what you love. It’s your story to tell and you can’t go wrong with quality and timeless jewelry… so trust yourself.

Thanks for reading and sharing. We want to see how you stack your engagement ring - tag us on Instagram! Happy ring shopping and dreaming friends...