OK guys you decided to ask her to marry you. You went out and did all the “stuff” to get her an engagement ring…she said yes, and now guess what? You aren’t finished. You have to get bands…yes that means one for you too. Yup, you kinda have to. Most women do not like the idea of their significant other running around without a ring on their hand!

It doesn’t have to be too painful finding yourself a nice men’s ring. Since most men don’t wear a lot of jewellery it is a little trickier to decide what you like from the billions of options of there. I am going to give you three simple steps to getting a custom men’s ring that will make things a lot easier.

First step is to do a bit of research. Look you’re sitting down in front of the TV looking at reruns of Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, so get out your iPad or Surface and do some couch surfing.

Sure, you can start with Pinterest, but getting some good ideas there is insane, with all the designs. And you don’t do pinning boards. Let me give you three good sites. We carry many of these styles in our store. They are: Benchmark (https://www.benchmarkrings.com/), Lashbrook (https://www.lashbrookdesigns.com/) and Unique Settings of New York (https://uniquesettings.com/). These are not the only sites to look at but if you start with these, you can see literally millions of combinations of great men’s custom ring designs.

These three sites offer very different outlooks on custom men’s ring designs. Lashbrook will work with almost any metal from gold to zirconium and Damascus to the newest, tantalum.  You can create your very own personalized custom ring right there on their website. It’s an easy way to get some ideas on designs and pricing while seeing some very unique men’s rings.

Benchmark offers a huge number of unique men’s rings in mostly gold, titanium and tantalum but does not do any customization. They offer a huge variety of textures and you can usually get your wedding band within about 2 weeks.

Unique Settings of New York is a third site. They recently updated their website and allow for a great deal of customization. This company has more of the traditional look but with so many rings they have to choose from, likely a lot are not something you see everywhere. Get an idea of a design here whether it is traditional, vintage, modern or handmade. We also use this site for a start to design many other custom designs. This company works in precious metals only.

Save your favorites on your phone or in the cloud and hang on to them.

Step two, go look at a few rings…in a store. Like Troy Shoppe Jewellers (our plug for our store).  If you don’t try a men’s ring on, you won’t have a clue what it looks like, what width or profile you might like. Sure the big online sites have some apps that say “here is what it looks like on your hand” but those apps really are not the same as having an actual ring on your hand. You may think, “I want a 10 millimeter wide ring”. Then you go try a wide ring on and can’t close your hand because the ring feels more like a napkin holder than a ring, so you try on a six millimeter ring and that feels great. Maybe you don’t like the feel of a ring between your fingers but the design you liked has what jewellers call a high dome. That will mean when your hand is closed, you will feel the ring. And likely, it will drive you nuts! Or maybe you keep hearing about rose gold but there is no way you want any gold on your ring called “rose”. Then you come into Troy Shoppe Jewellers and see rose gold and realize it’s cool. You can’t see that from just surfing online. Comfort fit vs. regular fit? White gold vs. platinum? Gemstone vs. no gemstone? Can I incorporate some of the gold from my Dad’s ring into my ring? If the ring doesn’t fit properly from my order what can I do? I have webbing between my fingers, so will that make the ring sit funny? Getting the idea? There are lots of things to consider in your design. Having a person at a store talk you through the custom men’s ring design will make all the difference between wearing your ring and leaving it on a shelf in the medicine cabinet.  Unless you can’t wear your ring to work, that likely won’t impress your wife.

After you have finished looking and have an idea what you like, and it can be overwhelming, take a break if you need to. (Caution note! Don’t sit on things if the date is fast approaching. It is a good idea to decide at least two months in advance of your date or more.) Sure from here I can take you to step three but usually I find taking a break to think it over and give some thought to the points you want in your ring is a really good idea. After all, this ring is supposed to last a lifetime. Don’t rush now.

Step three is about pulling the plug and moving forward. You should have an idea of what you like and want in your ring design. Come in and go through the options, check your size and finalize everything. We can also give you options on the pricing such as what the difference is from white gold to platinum or if you throw in a small diamond or sapphire. Most rings take from four to six weeks to complete and there are also rings that we can get in under a week. Troy Shoppe has the largest selection of in stock wedding bands in the city so if you need something fast, chances are that we can find you one and size it with our on-site goldsmith in time!

Either way, now that you made your choice and have moved on, you are the hero! All done.  Leave it to us and when it’s ready you can come in and pick it up. That’s one more thing off the list of ‘to do’s” for the wedding.

Now if flowers and invites were that simple! And oh, the seating arrangement!