With this Ring...

My grandparents were married for over 60 years before my grandfather passed away in 1992. They had four children and started their own business running a flower shop in rural Wisconsin. My grandmother wore her engagement ring and wedding band every single day. When she passed away in 2006 the wedding jewelery was passed along to my mother (her only living daughter). My grandmother had worn the rings for so long - 75 years - that the metal from the two rings had fused together into one.

Marge & Ole Odden
1931

When it came to choosing my wedding band I was at a complete blank. There was no particular style or design that I was looking for. I was hoping to find a white gold band with some smaller diamonds, but nothing too big or flashy.

I considered three eco-friendly wedding band options:
1. Use a family piece
2. Buy from a reputable business
3. Buy vintage

As you may remember, Mr. Olive designed my engagement ring using a diamond from his grandmother's collection. I thought it would be a lovely idea to use a ring from my family as the matching wedding band. The only ring that would have worked was my grandmother's and I didn't want to separate it from her engagement ring. My mom wears my grandmothers rings and I know that they will be passed along to me someday.

The next option I considered was buying a ring from a responsible vendor. Some of the eco-friendly businesses I checked out were:

Green Karat: Green Karat uses recycled gold in all of their pieces. You can even use recycle your own gold for store credit or use it to make a ring. This is a great option for taking a piece of family jewelery and creating a unique piece with sentimental history.

Brilliant Earth: Brilliant Earth uses conflict free diamonds from Canada, fair labor and environmental practices, and donate 5% of profits to African communities. I liked the wedding bands at Brilliant Earth the most because for me they were the most traditional.

Leber Jeweler: Offers the Earthwise Jewelry® Collection, combining conflict free diamonds, fairly traded colored gemstones and environmentally conscious precious metals.

Finally, I considered buying a vintage wedding band. This was the option that I was most interested in. Ultimately my goal is to reduce, reuse and recycle - in that order. I definitely wanted a wedding band so reduce wasn't an option here but by purchasing a vintage band I could reuse instead of buying a new piece (even if it is conflict free and recycled).

I searched in several different stores looking for wedding bands. They can be a bit harder to find than other vintage jewelry because they are usually kept in the family or worn into a state of disrepair (as was the case with my grandmother). Another challenge in purchasing vintage wedding bands is that some designs can't be sized (like eternity bands) so you need to find a ring that fits without sizing.

While we were in San Francisco for our big wedding planning weekend we had a chance to visit a great vintage jeweler, Old & New Estates.

2181A Union Street
San Francisco, CA 94123

It was here that I found the perfect wedding band! These beautiful band is an art deco style from the 1920s. It contains 9 tiny channel set diamonds into the front of the band and the rest of the band has a hand carved art deco design. I have never seen anything like it and I knew the minute I put it on that it was the right wring for me. It was the perfect combination of simplicity and elegance! I think it goes very well with my engagement ring which is wonderful because I plan to wear them together once we are married.

Back of Ring with Diamond Set in Front

Art Deco Engraving

How did you choose your wedding band? Will you wear your engagement ring with your wedding band?