Celebrating 20 Years in 2025!

Making your own wedding bands...

Couples really enjoy the process of planning, making and then finally polishing their own wedding rings. It is such a lovely way to bring meaning to your bands and really create your own story! 

During the sessions, couples often take photos and videos of each other, or ask their tutor to take photos of them both. These are fabulous additions to your wedding story or albums. 

 

We have been helping couples with their rings for many years

here are some key tips and things to consider: 

 

Comfort and durability :

Wedding bands are usually worn every day, and rarely taken off. We recommend that you have think about your daily activities and consider what type of band would be comfortable, and stand up to the rigours of everyday wear.  

The bands should be relatively sturdy - so they are strong and resist wearing down or deforming under pressure. 

Wider bands can feel much tighter on the hand as they compress more of your fingers. A gently curved inside profile can help make a wider band more comfortable for long term wear. 

Very narrow bands are comfortable, but you will want to ensure they are good fit. When your hands get colder in winter, or in cold environments, your fingers will shrink and loose rings are easier to lose. 

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If you are a person who works with your hands - for example, a builder, a gardener or a caregiver - you will want to ensure your rings are slightly thicker to stand up to the pressure of lifting and pressing on things. 

Office or admin work is generally a lot wearing on jewellery. 

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If you work with a lot of metal tools or like to work out at the gym, we strongly recommend you remove your rings beforehand as steel tools are very wearing on any wedding band. 

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In general, we find that narrow bands of around 2 - 3mm width do well if they

are at least 1.5 - 2mm in thickness.

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Wider bands could do well at a minimum thickness of 1mm but 1.2mm would be better. 

A good option is to go for a soft half rounded profile or an oval profile band. This means the central part of the ring is thicker, providing strength, while the edges are thinner, giving you optimal comfort. 

It's a lot to consider, but overall thickness, metal choice and finish of your wedding bands all play a part in both how nice the ring is to wear, and how long it will stand the test of time. 

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Metal choice :

Traditionally, gold is the metal of choice for wedding bands. Now, we're the first to say that we don't always advocate for sticking with tradition! 

So let's look at why you might choose a particular metal for your wedding bands. 

Our first consideration for our clients is always quality and durability . 

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Firstly we always recommend creating a wedding band in the same material as any engagement band it will be worn next to. This is to prevent unnecessary wear on either band - you ideally want to match the material hardness. 

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Lasting Strength:

Gold is a superior metal because it does not tarnish - or degrade. It is a strong, durable metal. Gold comes in a variety of alloys, which are made up from a mixture of pure gold, pure copper, pure silver and, depending on the colour - other metals like palladium and platinum.  Depending on the carat, you will have more, or less pure gold in the metal. Generally the other metal that is in the greatest quanitity in an alloy will be silver.

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The amazing part about gold is that it is very flexible and stays strong even with a lot of shocks or knocks. This is due to the malliability of gold. 

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Sterling Silver is made from an alloy of pure silver and pure copper. The addition of a small amount of copper creates a stronger material.  Sterling silver does wear out and become more brittle with continued knocks and flexing - if you imagine your wedding band having thousands of small bangs and flexing as you lift and hold heavy items, grab onto car doors and swing or lift a child up... you can soon see what impacts your jewellery. 

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Lasting Value: 

If you wish to create bands that can stand up to years of use, and still retain value, to be passed on to future generations of your family - then gold is an easy choice. Silver simply does not hold up to everyday wear as well, and old silver rings are often so worn and weak they are unwearable. If you simply have to use silver, then we recommend going for a chunkier band with a strong simple shape that will still look good after years of wear. 

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Aesthetic Value: 

For many couples, the colour or lustre of a metal is why they choose one over another. 

Gold can come in several colour tones: 

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If you like a white metal, then 9ct white is very close to silver - it is a slightly creamier tone, but really very white. Many commercial jewellers will plate white gold with a rhodium plating - however we do not recommend this as we find that customers complain that the plating wears off rapidly, resulting in uneven colour on the ring, and needing to be replated every year. 

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If you like a yellow tone, but not VERY yellow - then 9ct yellow is perfect. At only 37.5% pure gold, this marvelous alloy retains many of the usefull properties of gold, while being warm toned. 9ct gold can contain zinc which also gives the alloy strength - so it's often recommended for those who work with their hands. 

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If you love a bright yellow, but not as deep as 18ct, then consider 14ct yellow gold. 

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Rose gold. Once very popular, this alloy now as a vintage appeal. This is available in a range of carats, and has a pink or reddish tone due to a higher percentage of copper - and slightly less silver content. It can come as Rose (pinkish) or Red (more copper coloured) and often appeals to those who like bronze or copper jewellery but want the properties of gold. 

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Other white metals - white gold, platinum and palladium are all very strong, and beautiful materials. White gold has a combination of yellow (pure) gold, platinum and palladium in it - which makes it a complex material to work with, and there are large colour differences between the carats. 

White gold is also very heavy on the hand - which some folks enjoy, but for others it feels uncomfortable.  This is because of the weight of gold AND platinum which are both very dense materials.  

14ct and 18ct white golds are actually more of a steely grey colour, almost like the colour of titanium. 

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Budget Decisions: 

It can sometimes be hard to know whether to put budget at the top of a list of considerations or at the bottom. It's never the exciting part of the ring planning process, but we do want to support any couple's needs or hopes around budget. 

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We have set out already our costs for tuition for wedding ring sessions. The other costs are metal costs  - decided by weight, and type of metal, casting costs (if you are going to do the lost wax method), and if you plan on having any engraving, stones set or additional treatments. 

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Gold prices are quite volatile - they go up, and they come down. 

As we are a small, artist run establishment, we do not hold a gold stock purchased when prices come down, but are reliant on the price of the metals on the day of casting or purchase. 

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It is incredibly helpful for us if you can let us know your approximate budget for your bands at the outset. This will help us to direct you to the most effective making method, and the options that suit your budget. 

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You may have no clue as to what you want to spend - and you might be happy to go with the flow - that's great! Or you might not have any idea of the expected cost of gold wedding rings. 

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A ball park figure that we hope will help you in your planning process would be that a small, narrow band in 9ct gold may cost between $550 - $900, while a larger, wider band in the same material might cost between $1200 to $3500. 

All metals are valued per gram of metal. Gold weighs more than silver - so higher carat golds cost more, and weigh more! 

When we plan a cost estimate for you, that's a lot of calculations to process, so having an idea of budget is very time-saving. 

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What if you have some old family gold you would like to use? 

This is great! There are a few options available in this case. 

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If you plan to create your rings using fabricated (fresh) metals, or through the lost wax process, then your old gold would have to be sold back to the metal supplier at the "scrap"rate. 

This is much lower than the retail rate, because the metal suppliers must then process and refine your gold, in order to be able to re-sell it. 

The value of your gold will be deducted from the cost of the new metal. 

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If you want to use your old gold, and retain the actual metal itself, then you can choose either the sand-casting method, or a hand processed fabrication method. 

This is really nice if for example, you want to retain the actual metal that came from your family jewellery - and the meanings behind it. 

It is also a relatively budget - concious way to use your gold, and the most environmentally friendly way! 

The most budget friendly option is to sand-cast. This is because the making process does not require a lot of extra human-power to process the gold into useable material -  in a nutshell - its a melt and pour option. 

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Sand casting rings is not for everyone - the aesthetic may well not suit your ideas. 

Hand processing and fabricating your rings is possible - but takes a lot of time. The metal must be cleaned, melted, cleaned again and then slowly rolled into bar to then be formed into your rings. 

Sometimes old rings can have impurities in the metal - due to old repairs, or alloys not playing nicely with others. This can result in gold that cracks and breaks when you try to roll it down to size. If this happens then it requires a long, long process of melting and cleaning and rolling over and over again until the cracking stops. 

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So this method wouldn't really be budget friendly, but is more environmentally friendly, and also has the ability to keep your family gold in the ring. 

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We also have an in house celebrant if you want to get married on the spot!

Just kidding, but do check out www.bustercollins.co.nz/celebrant  

Workspace founder Annie Collins is Canterbury based but loves any excuse to travel back to Wellington.

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Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions!

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