Wedding Bands

Wow-- I have not blogged in a while. Work and wedding planning can wipe a woman out- let me tell ya!

So. I was talking to my friend/bridesmaid/soon to be fellow bride, Amazonia last week via email (no- that is not her real name- but I covered this in my other blog posts, she wants to remain anonymous and so she shall...). So anyway- Amazonia emailed me and asked me where I was getting my wedding bands and what they were going to look like. I told her that we had already bought our wedding bands back in February at iGorman when they had a nice Valentine's day sale. My ring is a modified cushion cut diamond in white gold. Amazonia was proposed to with her fiance's mother's wedding ring. That is the ring she currently wears and it is yellow gold. She then asked how much I had paid for my ring because she had found a stunning ring but it was $5,000. I paid $2,500 for mine and I agonized over the purchase. One the one hand, I wanted a fabulous band to go with my ring (which I love). On the other hand- we are paying for 1/3 of the wedding ourselves and are on a very strict monthly budget so we can make our savings numbers. When the day came to make the decision in the store I thought- should I take the money away from some other area to get a fabulous wedding band? The band I will have forever- the flowers will be dead in a week. What to do? What to do? Then Mr. NationalHarbor, who is very Aries and metrosexual, decided that he also wanted a diamond in his band since he was going to have it forever as well and he did not want a speck of dust, either. No, he needed half a carat.

Now, I am not a big fan of diamonds in a man's wedding band- but who am I to argue with him? He wants a fabulous ring as well. He deserves one. We are in this together etc etc.. and so... the price for both bands jumped significantly. sigh.

To add to all of this- when Amazonia and I both looked for bands, the ones we fell in love with were made of Platinum. She asked me- does one dare to buy a wedding band that is of a different metal than what their engagement ring is made out of? Does one dare to have a mis-matched wedding ring set?

I told her I didn't think she should do it. I didn't. I got a channel set band in white gold. I just thought that in the end it is better to have a clean look. Yes white gold and platinum are similar- but with platinum the silver is just..."deeper" - if that makes any sense. It's like if you are feeling very sleek and want to wear a black top and black pants on the town for dinner on Saturday night and then you look in the mirror and the outfit just doesn't work for some reason. All blacks are not the same and you can see the slight variances in color sometimes. I did not want that unpolished look with my engagement ring and wedding band. Amazonia is still trying to decide what to get.....

The question I pose to you all is: what do you think? Do the metals have to match? How much have you spent on your bands or how much are you planning on spending?