The best kind of wedding...

You have your highly catered, socially proper, expensive black tie weddings.
Then you have your low-budget, matchy-match, buy everything at Wal-Mart wedding.
You have weddings with an ultra-religious theme, as if paying desperate homage to God will score you more points (hint: it won't)
You have the 'outdoorsy folks' wedding, with strapping bearded groomsmen and maybe skydiving vows or something else that makes your guests and friends uncomfortable.
I've even seen (never attended) alcohol fueled redneck binges involving the colors of your favorite racecar driver or something equally preposterous.

And then you have the wedding that truly reflects the personality of the people celebrating a union. These are the ones that are fun to attend, what with personal touches and custom cakes. I once went to a wedding of a successful artist. It was perfect- a harpist played softly in a corner, sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows- scattering jewel tones on the tablecloths. The cake was a pale peach, smooth under a blanket of fondant, with exquisite handwrought tiger lilies on top.
With this appreciation for things personal and unique, it seems fitting that I migrated into the business of custom jewelry design. For many years now, couples from all walks of life have recited their vows as they slid a creation of mine on one another's fingers. And that, my friends, is totally cool.

If you are getting married, now or ever, I am hoping that you would not just open a dating website, choose a face after a bit of browsing, and head over the the Justice of Peace. Right? If you would do this, please stop reading now and check yourself into a hospital. Or the Army.
No, in reality, you will spend time getting to know this person, discovering their unique attributes and quirks. You will fall in love with the way they pick all of the green marshmallows out of their cereal in the morning. You will grit your teeth when they change their mind at the restaurant and chase down the waiter to alter their order. You will know exactly what candy to bring them halfway through Lord of the Rings.

A ring will be the only permanent wearable element of your wedding, the one item that will outlast the cake, stay on once the rental tux goes back, and (hopefully) fit once the wedding dress does not. So make sure that this represents your love, your interests and personalities and tastes. Shop from a local jeweler, do a bit of research on who you're dealing with.
If you're brave enough, order a custom design, have a story to go along with you rings, wear something completely unique and out of the norm. Don't like diamonds? Fine, more and more people are admitting that a colorless gem holds no interest for them. No one is forcing you to wear something traditional.
Is your relationship conventional? Then why should your ring be? Did you pick your SO out of a mass-produced corporate morass? No? Then why pick the wedding band/commitment ring/promise ring out of the same mess?

Jewelry designs & photos copyright 2007 © Sarah Jane Christenson