Offbeat Bride has talked about how much we love the idea of making your own wedding ring before. So how could we not take this opportunity to show you exactly how OBT member "merryf" and her FH created their own wedding bands.

Last Saturday my FH and I did the most extraordinary thing and made our own wedding rings. Not designed, but actually took metal and, after eight hours, ended up with wedding rings.

My FH found a ring making studio in New York while surfing the Web. It was all his idea, and I went along with it. This was the one thing that he wanted to spend money on for the wedding. How could I say no?

New York Wedding Ring is right in Lower Manhattan, a few blocks from the WTC subway. The goldsmith, Sam, was so nice, and so helpful. He takes just one couple at a time, so all his attention was on us. The nicest thing was that he didn't touch our rings at all — they were ours to make, and he demonstrated what he wanted us to do on a ring that he made at the same time. (Well, at one point he did help me when I got frustrated and threw it down on the table.) At one point I helped my FH and then he helped me, and that's nice to know that my ring has a bit of him in it, and his has a bit of me.

It wasn't all fun — the sanding and polishing almost put me to sleep and for the life of me I could not file the edge in a straight line. And my FH got a "corkscrew" instead of a circle when he bent it in a machine. And it was not cheap — it was about $1,400 and the actual cost of the metal was just a fraction of that, (the main cost was the time we spent there) but we had a lot of fun, and I learned that I can use those sort of tools and I'm not afraid. It's the ultimate DIY project.

And here is how we did it…

Continue reading "Fire! Hot Metal! We made our own wedding rings!" →

I have a question that is probably going to make me sound really mean, but here goes: how do I gracefully turn down offers of jewelry or other accessories to wear on my wedding day?

Both my mom and mother-in-law-to-be are very nice, generous people. But they have taste in clothes & jewelry that really clashes with mine. They love delicate gold sparkly pretty princess things, and I love big chunky bold modern stuff — soooo very different.

I will let them know in advance that I have already purchased everything I need, but that might not get the point across. Is there a decent way of pre-emptively saying "please don’t give me anything, no really, please DO NOT"? How do I say this TACTFULLY but make sure the message is loud and clear? OR, if they ignore me and give me something and it's awful, how do I turn it down tactfully?

Definitely make it clear that you've already purchased your jewelry. Show off what you've gotten in person or via email. Explain why you love it so much and how excited you are about it. Hopefully this will nip things in the bud. But if they insist on giving you jewelry anyway, try this technique:

Continue reading "How to deal with gifted accessories that just don't go" →

If you're searching for a truly unique wedding band for both you and your partner, definitely check out the Fabuluster rings on Etsy. You might remember them from their first time on OBB — they were the fingerprint rings that got picked up all over the blogosphere. I loved Gizmodo's take on them.

And just how DO they do it? Allow the designer to explain…

I send you my Impression Kit in the mail. Once you receive it, imprint the entire length of your finger and/or your fiancés finger separately. Then you mail that back to me. Once I receive it here in my studio in beautiful coastal Maine, I make a wax form from the impression material. Then utilizing the ancient lost wax casting process, I turn that impression into a metal ring utilizing gold or silver.
- Brent Williams Designs

(And for you privacy hounds, YES: they destroy the original impression kit after the rings are made. NO: they aren't interested in stealing your identity for clandestine international espionage.)

Clearly, the fingerprint rings are a really cool alternative to plain bands, but even cooler… they can fit into any budget — ranging from $45 to $550. So head over to their Etsy shop and start customizing your own rings!

You can thank OBT member "Curly Fries" for the following ring shopping tip. We pulled this from the "British Offbeat Brides" group on the OBT.

The German and I bought our wedding rings last week and followed the most awesome tip from a friend of a friend. Forgive me if this is totally obvious but we had no idea that we could do it so I thought I would share…

Continue reading "A tip for ring shopping from a UK bride" →

We're wrapping up our "best of" the new Turtle Love Committee jewelry collections with two of my personal favorite collections…

TLC has an awesome new designer, Chaya Caron – Chaya's blossom series is made from recycled silver, and there are a variety of sizes of pendants, two styles of earrings, and a ring. Would these not be great to wear as your "something new recycled" on your wedding day — hell — to wear on any day really!

Also, have you seen their dinosaurs? Yes, dinosaurs! These bad boys would make really unique gifts for your bridal party AND for your favorite Offbeat Bride Managing Editor as well. (My fav is the brontosaurus, just FYI.)

So there ya go, it's been fun giving you the run down of our favorite of TLC's new jewelry. So now it's your turn to go check out their site and find your favorite pieces.