Getting married and want your rings made to order?
Here's what the bespoke wedding ring process actually looks like, from first email to wearing them on your wedding day.
Someone emails me in a mild panic. Wedding in six weeks. Haven't ordered rings yet. Can I help?
I can, but here's the thing: bespoke wedding rings take at least four weeks to create, sometimes a bit longer if we need to make any adjustments along the way.
Some people hear that timeline and decide it's too close for comfort, which I completely understand. But others pause for a moment and realise they'd rather have custom wedding bands made specifically for them than pick something off the shelf just to meet a deadline.
If you're in that second group, here's what the made-to-order wedding ring process looks like.
The Initial Consultation
You get in touch, either because you've seen something on the website or because you need help figuring out what will work with your engagement ring. Sometimes people order straight away, but more often there's a bit of back and forth first about sizing, fit, and finishes.
This is where we need to do some work; I'll need some measurements of your engagement ring if you're having a wedding band made to fit alongside it. The width at the base, the height of the setting, how it sits on your finger. Photos from different angles help too. And then there's your ring size, which most people either don't know it or think they know it, but it turns out to be off.
If you're not sure about sizing, I'll post ring sizers out to you. It's worth getting this bit right because a ring that's even slightly the wrong size becomes annoying very quickly.
The Trial Ring Option
Once we've got all the details sorted, I'll sometimes suggest making a trial ring first, especially if your engagement ring has a complicated setting. The trial is made in silver for a small fee, and it means you can check the fit properly before we go ahead with the real thing.
Occassionally, the trial ring comes back with a note saying it doesn't quite fit, which sounds like a problem but is exactly why we do trials. Much better to discover the sizing is slightly off when we're working with silver that costs £40 rather than gold that costs ten times that.
Making Your Wedding Rings
Once we've got the fit right, I make your wedding rings here in my Norfolk workshop. I order the gold specifically for your commission and spend the next week at my bench working on it. Then the rings go to London to be hallmarked, which is the legal requirement for all gold jewellery over a certain weight.
Final Adjustments and Delivery
Very occasionally something needs a small adjustment when the rings arrive. That's fine, that's what the extra time in the timeline is for, and it's usually something that can be sorted quickly. But most of the time, you open the box and slide the ring on and it just works.
I had a couple collect their bespoke wedding rings a few weeks ago who'd been anxious about the whole process. When the bride put her wedding band on for the first time and saw how it sat against her engagement ring, she went very quiet for a moment, and then she looked up and said, "Oh, it's exactly right."
That's what the four weeks gets you. Not stress or endless back and forth, but rings that work properly because we took the time to get all the details right before committing to gold.
Why Choose Made-to-Order Wedding Rings?
If you're getting married later this year and you'd like your rings to be made rather than bought, it's worth getting in touch sooner rather than later. Four weeks is genuinely how long it takes to create handmade wedding rings properly, and if we need to make a trial ring first or adjust anything afterwards, you'll want to have that time available.
There are faster options out there, obviously. But I'd rather you had rings that fit perfectly and are made with love. Every wedding ring I make is a genuine privilege. You're trusting me with something that marks one of the biggest days of your life, and I take that seriously. I want you to look at your hand in ten years, twenty years, and feel glad you waited those four weeks.
Ready to start your bespoke wedding ring journey? Get in touch via the website to discuss your commission.