Follow Your Heart: Choosing the Best Engagement Ring Design

There is so much advice given to any newly engaged couple, and the deluge seems to start immediately. Even something that should be fun and exciting – the choosing of the engagement ring – can become a source of stress for the couple. But it doesn’t have to be this way: If couples just follow their own tastes and their own hearts, they absolutely cannot make a mistake in choosing their engagement ring. Beautiful diamonds, of any cut, set in shining precious metals, of any hue, bought from reputable jewellers and jewellery outlets, are simply mistake-proof.

Look at celebrities. While much of what they do is frivolous, one thing is admirable, and that is that they choose what they like best, unhindered by the expectations of others. They set styles, not follow them. And that refusal to be bound by others’ tastes is something the bride-to-be can safely take as her own mantra.

Much of the advice is well-meaning, certainly. Some people are very thrifty, or very conscious of “the norms,” and they quickly and earnestly advise the couple to buy a single stone engagement ring featuring a round-cut brilliant diamond in a yellow gold setting, because that, to them, typifies what an engagement ring should be. Never mind that the poor couple prefers the bright silvery-white of a palladium setting, or the novelty of a heart-shaped cut. Their preferences are criticised, subtly or not-so-subtly, and they end up with a beautiful ring, certainly, but not the ring they dreamt about having for all time.

Sometimes a generational gap comes into play. The future mother-in-law might never have heard of palladium. She might think “white gold” isn’t really gold. So if the couple prefers silvery hues, a conflict quickly ensues. But it needn’t happen, really: By knowing their own hearts, the couple can take the opportunity to calmly explain that those metals are indeed fully precious metals.

It is difficult to stand up to pressure. But it’s easy to follow your own heart. If a person simply loves the look of a pear-shaped diamond, then they should choose that shape for the engagement ring. It doesn’t matter that none of their friends have a fancy-cut diamond in their rings. The object is to have an engagement ring that reflects the beauty of their love, not the taste of their friends. Choosing a symbol of love is personal, and need not be justified to others.

It isn’t always friends or family meddling with the couple’s choice, however. Sometimes, couples don’t trust their own tastes enough to choose freely. It’s helpful to keep this in mind: Beautiful diamonds, precious metals, and gorgeous settings can never be “wrong.”