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12 CREATIVE WAYS TO CUSTOMIZE YOUR ENGAGEMENT RING
One of my fave things about getting engaged so far, has been shopping for THE RING! After Mr T proposed in Mexico, we decided to spend the day in Birmingham looking around the famous jewelry quarter, I had been told by friends and family that this was the place to go and I would surely find a ring there. We spent the whole day going from shop to shop and by the time we had reached the last store, I was feeling seriously underwhelmed. The rings we’d seen were either to traditional, to plain or just to big for my personal taste! I had been looking for something a little more unique, modern and as anyone who knows me knows I’m not really a jewelry person so it all also need to be discreet.
Feeling rather disappointed, I decided to look online for custom rings. After checking out a few websites and learning more about the process, I knew this was going to be the only way I would be able to find the ring of my dreams. But coming up with an initial design was difficult as we didn’t really know where to start, so today we have invited Sasha of CustomMade to share his top 12 ideas for creating your very own custom engagement ring.
“We love custom-designed jewelry. We love it so much we built our entire business around the single-minded goal of enabling every one of our customers to work with our artists to design and create custom pieces of jewelry. So if you’re thinking about an engagement ring, we’d argue there’s no better way to get the perfect ring. You’ll get the meaningful experience of putting something of yourself into the ring’s design, with the confidence boost of a gemologist helping you choose your center stone, an artist creating a design just for you, and a personal adviser to help with everything from budgeting to long term care.
OK, you’re sold on a custom designed engagement ring. But what does custom really mean? What personal or custom choices should you consider putting into your design? We’ve put together a few popular angles from which our customers approach custom ring design.
1. First, think about including your family
Whether it’s just the two of you or you’re bringing children, you can reflect your family in the ring design. Perhaps a toi-et-moi style two stone ring to represent your union, your birthstone set inside the band of her ring, or a set of accent gems around the center stone to represent your children, That’s just what you see in the band-style engagement ring pictured above, which represents the couple and their three children in ruby and sapphire.
2. Geek out and wear your fandom proudly
Design a ring around your shared love of the Harry Potter books with a subtle set of snitch wings or a band detailed like a wand handle. Or bring in something from the video game that brought you together. From Star Wars to Lord of the Rings, Zelda to Batman, if your fandom is central to your life, it should be in your ring design.
3. Start from a meaningful place
Some customers have the unique experience of mining their own gemstone in their travels. Including a gem you mined makes the ring incredibly personal. But you can also get a similar connection to a meaningful location by having us source a gem from that region. A Montana sapphire or an Oregon sunstone to honor her home state, a black opal to reflect a pivotal trip you shared to Australia, a diamond from the Canadian arctic to remind you of your ski adventures. The rings in the photo above feature montana sapphires this couple mined and we set into matching hers-and-hers bridal sets.
4. Bring in their favorite gem or color
Sometimes, the simplest choices are powerful starting points. If you know they love emeralds, that’s the perfect place to start your design. But even if they don’t have a favorite gem, you might know that they absolutely love deep purple. We can start by finding a beautiful purple sapphire, an amethyst, or a spinel to serve as the ring’s centerpiece. Or maybe you want a diamond ring, but you’d like to bring in a touch of their favorite bright orange. You can include spessartine garnet side stones or go subtle by tucking a citrine on the inside of the band. The three-stone ring above does just this with accents of burgundy red adding her favorite color to the diamond ring.
5. Give them their favorite flower
Flowers are among the most popular themes in ring design, from overtly sculptural rose rings to subtle flower petal-influenced halo designs. If they’ve always loved orchids, why not start from that petal structure for your ring design?
6. Include their birthstone
Make their ring every bit as individual as they are by including their birthstone. You might be surprised to know that not all newly engaged couples are opting for a diamond sparklers when it’s time to say “I do.”, many are now favoring their birthstone over bling. This not only adds a personal touch, but birthstones are also typically a lower cost which is a great alternative for those on a budget.
7. Feature your heritage
Bring in your Irish lineage with trinity knots or Celtic rope detailing. Look to the traditional art, design, or architecture of your heritage to find motifs and design elements that can give meaning and a personal connection to the ornamentation on your band.
8. Lean on your faith
If your faith is central to your life, bring a symbol of your religion into the design concept of the ring. Or simply include a reference to a favorite bible verse as an inscription on the inside of the band.
9. A new ring for an heirloom gem
A family diamond can be a great way to make your ring affordable, and it also brings a ton of history into your new design. Or maybe you have accent gems from an inherited pair of earrings that would lend a bit of personal detail as accent gems in the ring. Brides-to-be are becoming increasingly more interested in ethical fashion and are now more likely than ever to find ways of incorporating something old into something new just like the ring that’s pictured above, which includes a heirloom white montana sapphire from the customer’s grandmother’s ring.
10. Show your pride in their work
If they loves what they do, maybe it’s worth considering their career for design inspiration. If they’re an artist, what could be a better homage to their work than to design a ring with echoes of their artwork in the design? Or as one customer did, create a nature-inspired design which incorporates a DNA double-helix in the twisting band in honor of his fiance’s research work in the bio sciences. A few of our customers have designed pieces for women who work with horses, using the horseshoe or bridle as an inspiration for the ring concept. This may not work for every career, but it also doesn’t have to be too literal.
11. Let their tattoo guide you
Their ink may be a window into a really personal piece of artwork they already wear. Think about bringing elements of their tattoo art into the ring design. The ring above is inspired by a meaningful lotus flower tattoo this customer’s now-fiancee has on her back.
12. Start with their style
We put this last on the list, but it’s by far the most common starting point for a custom ring design. It’s almost too obvious to include… but the list wouldn’t be complete without it. Maybe they’ve left clues on a Pinterest board. Maybe you’ve thought about the jewelry they wear and spotted trends. Maybe they’ve told you about rings they’ve loved. You can’t go wrong if you start from what you know about their tastes. Do they only wear white metals? Do they like modern art and angular architecture? Is their overall style eclectic and bohemian? Have they taken you antiquing and talked about their love for Art Deco design? Once you start thinking about their tastes and style, you’ll have the start of a ring concept that’s just right for them.
Every one of these starting points leads to a ring that’s meaningful and personal and one they’ll absolutely love. It’s a trend we continue to see among this generation of engagement ring shoppers: the significance of the ring and the experience of creating it mean more than the price or the status symbol of a big diamond. What’s important is to have the ring tell just a bit of the couple’s story. These personal elements will often be subtle, but their significance and the thought put into their design makes the ring incredibly meaningful. Think of the recent story of Prince Harry’s ring for Meghan Markle. At first glance, it’s a classic design for a three-stone diamond engagement ring. But digging deeper reveals that he sourced the center stone from Botswana (a place he thinks of as a “second home”), the side stones are from his late mother’s personal collection, and the band and style reflect her love for elegant, yellow gold jewelry. A cottage industry of blogs and magazine articles on this wonderful ring hasn’t ruined it for us in the least… it’s a sweet design and a perfect example of what makes custom designed engagement rings wonderful.”
I love how you suggested using their favorite flower as a theme for the design of the ring itself, that sounds like such a fun and cool idea that will really help the ring stand out from the rest. My brother is asking for help with his custom engagement ring for his girlfriend and he’s unsure about how to design it since he really is clueless when it comes to these things. This article will be a big help in designing it, I’ll make sure he sees it so we can coordinate what kind of ring his girlfriend may like. Thanks for your tips, hopefully, she says yes!