Wedding Bands...

I worked in a fine jewlery store for five years. Men REALLY don't want to match their wives rings at all. Yes you're getting married but men want their rings to look manly, not like a "man version" of a women's ring.

Hubby and I do have matching bands - it was actually him that spotted them and liked the look of them (they are 2-tone, with white gold in the middle and yellow-gold along the outside edges). He knew I liked the 2-tone look and wanted matching bands if possible and they are not really "manly" or real "feminine" either. I think they were around $200 a piece (my diamond engagement ring was around $1200).

My husband and my bands dont match, except that they're both white gold. Well, except his new one is like, Tungsten steel or something, but it's the same color. I've never felt they needed to match unless you just wanted them to.

I agree with Christine, men don't want to match the woman's ring. Lord it would be funny if Troy's matched mine since I don't have a band. My mom passed away a month before we got engaged. My ring has my mom's ring embedded in it though it is a completely different ring. Even though we had the center marquis and some of the surrounding diamonds from my mom's ring, it still cost over $3,000.

We are going in a couple weeks to design his band. I can assure you my ring will not even factor into the process. I actually think guys like rings that any man can look at and see the wife didn't pick it out, ya know, the look, I am not controlled by my woman. I am not saying a woman controls a guy by making the ring match, it is done without thinking about it.

Come to think of it in your case it is the opposite. He has a reason for his ring so he will be happy. I guess you need to look at why would you want yours to match when only one event will they actually be displayed together. Design a ring that fits your feelings towards the relationship. Even though my ring has my mom's ring, it is unique to me.

We spent less than $50 to get matching plain sterling silver wedding bands. We had some old gold jewelry that we bartered with the jeweler for our rings. He deducted the value of the gold from the cost of our rings and we paid the difference.

I would take his band to a jeweler and talk to them about the possibility of a custom made band. A good jeweler should be able to do this. I just did a search on google for "custom made jewelry in Richmond, VA" and got several jeweler's sites, so you definitely have some options.

Otherwise, I'd take his band and see what they can do about finding a nice complementing ring for you. This is what we did. I inherited my aunt's wedding band, and then we picked out a ring for my husband that isn't a perfect match but goes well with the style of mine.

Ours don't match and neither was really very expensive.

My fiance bought my ring as a wedding set, so I didn't spend anything on it! LOL! But I am going to buy his band (when we can afford it... but it will be before the wedding...) we don't care if it matches... We both just want to find something that he likes. He has said that he does NOT want to spend more than $500 on it... at a maximum. He said that $100-$200 is his ideal price range... but he doesn't want stones or anything like that. Just a band. Of course, he works with his hands a lot, so he is more likely to lose it (he isn't so great about remembering to take things like that off...) so it needs to be easily replaced.

Ours are plain gold bands and we didn't spend a lot, but it was seven years ago now and I can't remember what it cost. No engraving or anything special. (I didn't actually know that people put their wedding date in their bands so I do wish I'd had that done.)

Sigh, we had matching wedding bands, my MIL gave them to us. When we went through a rough time we sold them, it was sad but I keep my self positive that soon we will get new ones and this time we both will pick what we want, even if they don't match and write something on them.
To answer your question, I don't know how much my MIL pay for them, BUT when we took them to sold them, surprise, surprise, mine was a cheap, we only got 1/5 of what we got for his. Oh well, at least that made me feel easier to say bye to them, next ones mine will be 5 times more expensive, hahaha.

Completely agree with Christine J. My husband's ring is very masculine and doesn't even come close to matching mine. We are just as married as those with matching rings!

Bottom line, get what YOU like. Your fiance has a wonderful heirloom ring, you don't need to match it. Now go and enjoy your new lives together!!

My husband now has a tungsten band. I had a white gold band that I had to have cut off when the sea anemone in our salt water tank stung me and my hand puffed up. I then had my purple sapphire engagement stone set on a new band which is white gold with channel set diamonds (tiny ones). Our rings don't match at all and I guess technically I only have an engagement ring.

we just bought ours & they match, his is just sized bigger, they are the same ring. They have 2 rows of tiny diamonds (40 total per ring) and are very sparkly. 250 each, not too bad, compared to some I saw in an expensive store. I used to work in a building that jewellers worked at, if you can find a jeweller that is a designer not attatched to a store, they actually work pretty cheap & you could have one made to match his... I would look into it!

As far as men wanting the rings to be different, I guess thats up to the individual man. My hubby to be picked ours out, I wanted plain gold bands. He wanted some bling & wanted them to match, plus he wanted them to look good with the other jewellery we wear. LOL he can be a bit of a girl sometimes.

Our bands don't match. My husband has a thing (well, for a man at least) plain, platinum band. I have a platinum band that has diamonds in it and is a set to my engagement ring.

You can get 18K white gold for a few hundred dollars.

My (now ex-) husband and I got gold bands from the same local designer, but not the same style. Mine cost $75 and his cost $125 (bigger). I still like our rings 20 years later, simple and elegant.

Wow what a wonderful ring for your husband,. It has such great meaning.

I can only think of 1 couple have ever known that had matching rings. My father and his second wife. They were super religious and purchased them from James Avery . They were beautiful.

My husband has beautiful plain gold band. I had it engraved on the inside.
He purchased my rings from the store I worked for , the other employees were in on the big secret.. .. it was a one of a kind original style, I had admired it for years. Very odd, like me. Unfortunately it was stolen along with another beautiflul ring my husband had designed for me. I have just never been able to replace them. Too emotional for us.

Our bands do not match... but they match us very well. His is plain polished titanium with a single diamond - he's in construction so this was not only the best choice of metal, but he's more of a plain and simple type of guy too. Mine I had to search and search for because my engagement ring had a curvature on both sides of the stone... which did not come as a set, something I hadn't thought of until I went band shopping. Mine is a beautiful peice of white gold swirls and scrolls and small diamonds. It fits with my engagement ring when I choose to wear it, but looks beautiful when worn alone too. My ring was $300 and his band was $230

Mine was $800 about 22 years ago, it is an 18 carat gold band with channel set emeralds and diamonds only along the top. My husband has a plain gold band. We do not match in rings, but match beautifully in life. I do not have an engagement diamond since where I am from (Netherlands) people only wear a single ring and sometimes people have commented "is that all he got you" but he took me into the store and asked me to pick anything I liked and that is what I liked. Get what you and you husband like and can afford. I have a girlfriend who has been married as long as I have and they could not afford much when they got married and got very simple affordable gold bands and many years later he was able to buy her a nice ring as an anniversary gift. Surprisingly, Amazon.com has some nice rings.

I spent more than my husband and then I lost it! You can bet the replacement was not as expensive as the first. Ours are both the same color but not the same metal or style.

Mine was about $1500 - that was engagement ring and wedding band. It's nothing like my hubby's. His band is titanium and cost us a whopping $70. I still look at mine and remember walking by the window of Zales while my husband and I were dating and saying, "I like something like that for my wedding set." He went and picked it up later that night. The memories are going to outweigh how nice the band is, not that I don't understand wanting something I nice - I SO do! I'm just saying, down the road, you won't care too much. :)

i lost my original set, so the nice plain gold band i have now doesn't match my husband's, who has the original yellow-and-white one that matched my original one. we didn't spend much on either. but i will say that when he said i should go pick out a nice band and engagement ring for our 25th anniversary this year, it made me squee!
:) khairete
S.

We did not spend a lot of money on our wedding bands, but I LOVE my wedding bands. I say bands, because I actually have two. I have a solitaire engagement ring and it's a radiant cut. I LOVE my engagement ring and it's my personal taste that I wanted it to be simple. So, that being said, I didn't want any diamonds on my wedding band. When we went and tried them on, one just didn't look right so I ended up getting to and there is one band on each side of my engagement ring. They are a thin white gold. One other little touch that we did was I had his name engraved on the band that I wear closest to my heart and mine is on the band that is towards the tip of my finger. I wanted to do this as a reminder to me that I am to place his needs above my own (he feels the same way - my needs are above his). Anyway, I always wear his name closest to my heart. My engagement ring also has an engraving inside the band as well that says, "The Two Shall Become One". He has his engraved on the inside in Latin that translates "God has joined us".

Oh and you asked price. My wedding bands were $70 each. My husband got a titanium band which mirrors the 3 bands I wear (they don't match but it looks like it is three parts in one ring) and his was $99. WE LOVE THEM! Less is more as far as I'm concerned :). Happy hunting for your wedding bands.

ours match and we spent maybe at the most 150 on them they are sterling silver, with gealic inscription that says my soul mate to me its what ever makes you happy dont have to be anything that costs just something thats special to you

Mine doesn't match at all. Mine's white gold with diamonds and his is gold w/ white gold (but mostly gold) and no diamonds.

Get something you like that you can afford right now. In 10 years on your 10 year anniversary, get an upgrade to something you like more.

oh and no we did not spend a lot on my band. (I used my old wedding band that my ex-husband got me. Didn't want to look at that any longer. We exhanged that one and got a store credit. So we only paid a little more to pay the difference in my upgrade).

I used to have to wear nitrile gloves all the time (like latex) so I bought a $50 "wide" white gold band... because the actual ones tore up my gloves. (I always though of it as 'death by wedding band'... to get contaminated with something from a patient because my glove would rip is not something that sounds fun, now does it?).

I fell far more in love with my plain $50 band than the teeny diamond one... because I got to wear it all the time / it symbolized my marriage to my husband. Of course, now all 3 have been sitting in a martini glass for a few years... but that's beside the issue. Point being the "mine" factor will out, regardless of which band you choose!

So excited for you!!!