The Nest

Band of gold

Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2007 8:07 PM

"So don't you linger, here's a ring for your finger
Isn't it a humdinger?
Come along and let the wedding chimes bring happy times
For Adam and me"

OK, so I took a little license with the words of Irving Berlin. I'm the bride… until my wedding day I think I'm allowed to do stuff like that.

Last weekend, Adam and his parents and I went in search of our wedding bands. We drove from the Valley down to 405 to a store in Beverly Hills called XIV Karats (at 314 S. Beverly Drive; 310-551-1212), which I would have driven right past if I hadn't known it was there). We walked into the building and took an elevator up to the store – a HUGE room filled with necklaces, earrings and bracelets – and a lot of couples who, like us, were selecting rings.

We waited just a few minutes for his mom to flag down a salesperson. Luckily, we knew what we wanted having explored out options at a few other stores. The clerk pulled out several trays of different rings… amazingly, within five minutes we had both selected which ones we wanted. Even more incredible was that both rings were in our sizes – so no ordering required.

Adam's ring suits him to a T. He selected a white gold, muted band (non-shiny) with a thin shiny band of black running through it. The not-so-fair thing is that in a Jewish wedding, the bride's band needs to be a solid ring – no jewels or other markings. But because in old world Judaism, the groom didn't even wear a ring, it doesn't matter what his looks like.

Because of this lovely bit of sexism, some brides opt to borrow a plain band for the ceremony so they can purchase one with a lot of bling. I went the simple route anyway (my engagement ring is bling enough on my I-can-barely-hold-a softball sized hand). I chose a solid, thing white gold band that fits perfectly with my engagement ring. I have my great-grandmother's ring that I'll be wearing on my right hand (a combo of my something old and something borrowed).

The ring-buying process has that potential to be nerve-wracking, but with a little research and pre-planning, it can be one of the wedding-related duties that you can plop into the "that was easy" category.