Tips to Consider When Designing Your Engagement & Wedding Rings
This is the fun part — designing rings that are completely you.
Your engagement and wedding rings are pieces you’ll wear together for years, so while choosing the diamond or gemstone might get most of the attention, there’s a little more to creating the perfect pair.
From how the rings sit together and the width of your bands, to metal choice, setting height and even your lifestyle, a few thoughtful decisions at the design stage can make all the difference.
So before you settle on the final design, here are some of our favourite things to consider when creating an engagement and wedding ring combination you’ll love wearing every day.
1. Design the Engagement Ring With the Wedding Band in Mind
We know — when you’re designing the engagement ring, the wedding band can feel like a decision for another day.
But thinking about it now can save you from having to compromise later.
One of the first things to consider is how you want the two rings to sit together. Do you love the clean look of two straight bands sitting completely flush? Are you happy with a small gap? Or would you prefer a curved or contoured wedding band that follows the shape of your engagement ring?
If you want a straight wedding band to sit flush, let your jeweller know from the beginning. The height, gallery and bridge beneath the centre stone can often be designed to create enough clearance for the wedding band.
Also think ahead to the style of wedding band you might eventually choose. Plain gold? A fine diamond band? Larger diamonds? An eternity-style design?
You don't need to decide on the exact wedding band now — you simply want to make sure your engagement ring doesn't unnecessarily limit your options later.
2. Think About Your Lifestyle
We love beautiful rings, but we also want them to work in the real world.
Think about what your hands actually do every day.
Do you work with your hands? Wear gloves regularly? Exercise frequently? Work in healthcare? Garden? Spend a lot of time around young children? Or are you simply someone who doesn't want to worry too much about delicate jewellery?
A very high setting with fine claws and lots of small diamonds may be beautiful, but it may also catch more easily and require more maintenance than a simpler, lower-profile design.
A bezel setting, lower profile or more substantial band might be better suited to someone with a particularly active lifestyle.
This doesn't mean sacrificing the design you love. It means designing it intelligently for the person who will actually wear it.
Beautiful and practical can absolutely coexist.
3. Look Beyond Carat Weight
Bigger carat weight doesn't always mean a diamond will look bigger.
Carat is a measurement of weight — not physical size.
Two diamonds weighing exactly 1.00ct can have noticeably different millimetre dimensions when viewed from above. One may carry more of its weight through its depth, while another may have greater visual spread across the finger.
Shape also makes a difference.
Elongated cuts such as oval, pear, marquise, emerald and radiant can create very different visual proportions compared with a round or cushion of the same carat weight.
That's why we recommend looking at the millimetre dimensions, proportions and overall appearance of a stone, rather than becoming too focused on the number written on the certificate.
A beautifully proportioned 0.90ct diamond may sometimes have more visual impact than a poorly proportioned 1.00ct stone.
The certificate matters — but so does what your eye is telling you.
4. Consider the Setting Height
Don't just look at your engagement ring from the top.
Turn it sideways.
The side profile of an engagement ring has a big influence on how the ring looks, feels and works with your future wedding band.
A higher centre setting can create a beautiful, elevated profile and may provide enough clearance underneath for a straight wedding band to sit flush.
A lower setting keeps the centre stone closer to the finger and can feel more streamlined and practical. However, depending on the design, it may mean your wedding band needs to curve around the setting.
There are practical considerations too. If you're someone who frequently catches rings on clothing or doesn't want a high setting, mention this during the design process.
There is no universally “correct” setting height.
The best height is the one that balances the look you love, your lifestyle and the wedding band you eventually want to wear beside it.
5. Choose a Band Width You Love
A millimetre doesn't sound like much — until it's on your finger.
Band width can completely change the character of an engagement ring.
A very fine band can create a delicate appearance and make the centre stone feel more prominent. A wider band creates more visual presence and can give even a traditional solitaire a strong, contemporary feel.
But don't think about your engagement ring in isolation.
Once you add a wedding band, you're suddenly looking at the combined width of two rings — and potentially three if you plan on adding an anniversary or eternity ring later.
You may want both bands to be exactly the same width for a beautifully balanced appearance. Alternatively, deliberately combining a fine engagement ring with a slightly wider wedding band can create contrast.
There are also structural considerations. Going extremely fine isn't appropriate for every ring design, gemstone size or lifestyle.
Your jeweller can help you find the balance between the proportions you love and the structure your ring needs for long-term wear.
6. Consider Your Metal — and Don't Be Afraid to Mix It
Metal colour has a surprisingly large influence on the overall personality of a ring.
Yellow gold brings warmth and creates beautiful contrast against white diamonds.
White gold provides a cooler appearance and visually blends into white diamonds, allowing the stones to take centre stage.
Rose gold offers a softer, warmer tone and can look particularly beautiful with certain coloured gemstones.
And you don't necessarily need to choose just one.
One of our favourite combinations is an 18ct yellow gold shank with an 18ct white gold setting. You still see the warmth of yellow gold around the finger, while the white setting visually disappears into the diamond rather than surrounding it with yellow.
You can also mix metal colours throughout your wedding stack.
One practical point to consider is the carat of the gold. Rings worn directly beside one another every day are constantly rubbing together. Where possible, we generally recommend pairing like with like — for example, 18ct alongside 18ct or 9ct alongside 9ct — as different alloys have different wearing characteristics.
If you're planning a mixed-metal or multi-ring stack, talk through the combination with your jeweller.
7. Think About Maintenance
Every engagement ring needs a little care, but some designs naturally require more attention than others.
Fine claws should be professionally inspected periodically to ensure they're still securely holding the stone.
Rings with pavé, grain-set diamonds or intricate halos have more individual settings to monitor than a simple solitaire or bezel-set ring.
White gold may also require occasional refinishing or rhodium plating if you want to maintain a particularly bright white appearance.
And even plain polished gold will naturally develop small scratches and marks over time — that's simply part of wearing jewellery.
If you're someone who wants the lowest-maintenance option possible, tell your jeweller.
The design can then take that into account from the beginning.
And regardless of style, we recommend having engagement and wedding rings professionally inspected and cleaned regularly, particularly when they're worn every day.
8. Don't Design Only for What's Trending
There's nothing wrong with falling in love with a trend.
Engagement rings have always evolved, and trends are a fantastic source of inspiration.
But ask yourself one question:
Do I love this because it's everywhere right now, or have I always been drawn to it?
Perhaps you've loved yellow gold for years. Maybe you've always gravitated towards emerald cuts. Or perhaps you've never been particularly traditional and a coloured gemstone feels much more like you than a white diamond.
Use trends to discover new ideas — east–west settings, bezel settings, wider bands, coloured gemstones and mixed diamond cuts — but then make the design your own.
A well-designed ring doesn't need to be completely traditional to be timeless.
Often the pieces that age best are the ones that genuinely reflect the person wearing them.
9. Try Rings On — Lots of Them
Pinterest and Instagram are great places to start, but they can't tell you how a ring will look on your hand.
Stone shape, finger length, ring size, band width and proportions all influence how a design looks once you're actually wearing it.
An oval you loved online may feel too elongated on your hand. The emerald cut you never considered might suddenly be perfect.
Try fine bands and wider ones. Yellow gold and white gold. Solitaires, trilogies and bezels. Round diamonds and elongated cuts.
And try different stone sizes.
Even if you're having a completely custom ring made, trying existing pieces gives you and your jeweller invaluable information about the proportions you naturally prefer.
Sometimes discovering what you don't like is just as helpful as discovering what you do.
10. Make It Yours
This might be the most important one.
There isn't a rulebook saying your engagement and wedding rings need to match.
You can absolutely keep things beautifully coordinated — the same metal, same band width and same diamond cuts.
But you can also have some fun with it.
Pair an oval engagement ring with a round brilliant diamond wedding band. Combine an emerald-cut centre with baguettes. Turn an elongated diamond east–west. Choose a plain gold wedding band against a diamond-set engagement ring.
Mix diamond cuts. Play with texture. Add coloured gemstones. Introduce a contrasting metal. Choose matching widths — or deliberately make them different.
You can even think beyond the wedding band and design the beginning of a future ring stack, leaving room for an eternity or anniversary ring later.
The goal isn't to make something different simply for the sake of being different.
It's about identifying the details that feel like you.
A Final Thought
There are plenty of decisions involved in designing an engagement and wedding ring, but don't let that take the fun out of it.
You don't need to know every jewellery term or arrive at your first appointment with the entire design worked out.
Bring your inspiration. Ask questions. Try things on. Tell your jeweller what you love — and what you definitely don't.
A good design should balance proportion, comfort, durability, craftsmanship and personal style while also considering how your engagement and wedding rings will live together over time.
Because ultimately, you're not just designing two beautiful rings.
You're designing the pair you're going to wear together every day — so make them yours.
