Many of us are feeling the pinch of costs in our daily lives, and planning a wedding is no different. So how you begin to save money without compromising your ethics and quality?

TNWC Recommended Supplier Jaqueline & Edward create ethical wedding rings using natural river gold from the wilderness of Scotland – so romantic! (Adventurous couples can even pan for it themselves). They’ve put together some tips for how you can reduce the cost of their wedding and engagement rings.

Jacqueline & Edward is a TNWC Recommended Supplier of The Natural Wedding Company directory. Find out more about them here.

The best ways to reduce the cost of your Jacqueline & Edward wedding and engagement rings

It’s a common misconception that buying an engagement or wedding ring on a budget means you can’t buy sustainably and ethically.

So, how do you reduce the cost of your engagement ring without compromising on quality and your ethical standards, and how can you save money on your wedding rings and still get a ring you love?

If you are hoping to buy an engagement ring whilst faced with the increasing pressures of the cost of living crisis, and you would prefer not to spend significant sums on ethical jewellery, we have some ideas which might help make these choices easier:

Reducing the cost of your Engagement Ring

1. You can use a stand-in gemstone (e.g. cubic zirconia or Moissanite) with the option to replace it with a diamond of the same size when you are ready.
2. Try our Proposal Ring option – this is a stand-in ring you can use to propose with and costs just £200. We have three package options to choose from and the great thing about the Proposal Ring is, you can then trade it in and get £200 off either one of our made to order engagement rings or a bespoke engagement ring. We’ll always give you plenty of time to wait and choose your engagement ring before we welcome you back.
3. Consider lab grown diamonds or moissanite as an alternative to natural diamonds – they have a lower price point, are visually almost identical and provide an interesting ethical alternative.
4. When it comes to metals, they aren’t all equal! Yellow Gold is the least expensive option. The carat of the gold also makes a difference to price but all our rings are made from 18ct gold.
5. Having gemstones in the shoulders of the ring adds expense but these can be added at a later date – maybe as an alternative to an eternity ring to mark your one-year anniversary.  Just let us know if this is something you’d like to do and we will make your engagement ring with this in mind.
6. Uncertified diamonds* and salt and pepper diamonds are a more affordable way to incorporate natural diamonds into your ring.
7. If you don’t want diamonds in your engagement ring but prefer rubies or emeralds, consider lab grown rubies or emeralds instead. They tend to be more vivid, and typically have higher clarity than natural rubies. For more affordable coloured gemstones, lab grown is the way to go and from an ethical perspective, they are conflict free, having not been mined.
8. You can contribute family gold to either create the engagement ring itself, or just to offset the cost and recycle (we will recycle the gold). This keeps your metal costs lower and you’ll get to treasure some truly recycled, ethical, and sentimental jewellery.
9. You can spread the cost of your ring with us either using Klarna (three equal payments) or we can split the cost of your engagement ring into two equal instalments, free of charge, and with no interest applied – just email us.
10. Buying an ethical engagement ring doesn’t have to cost thousands, we have a beautiful range of classic, elegant rings for less than £1,000, such as the Keltie (bottom row below).

Shop the full range of Jacqueline & Edward engagement rings here

Choosing affordable Wedding Rings

So you’re engaged! Now comes the excitement of organising a wedding. To help you find the perfect, ethical wedding ring at an affordable price, consider these helpful tips:

1. Go traditional! Intricate inlays and skilful Mokume Gane** rings are unique and eye-catching, but traditionally designed rings hold an ancient and timeless appeal as well as being less expensive. A perfect example is The Devon, one of our traditional court rings. If you’re considering something intricate like an inlay in the future, let us know and we can incorporate your preferences and future-proof your rings.
2. Try a narrower width for your ring. This could reduce materials and the cost of your ring by up to £200. Widths start at 1.5mm.
3. Consider having your wedding rings in 9ct gold or 14ct gold. Remember, 9ct gold has 50% less gold than 18ct gold and can significantly reduce costs. All the rings we make use 18ct gold but you can email us to get a quote for rings of your choice in 9ct or 14ct gold – all our rings are made to order so we are able to offer this unique service.  Furthermore, we even create a lot of our gold alloys ourselves in-house.
4. Choose a ‘classic’ instead of ‘heavy’ depth for your ring design. We already make our standard ‘classic depth’ to the same thickness as some jewellers make their ‘heavy’ rings. Our classic depth is suitable and durable enough for all lifestyles.
5. If you want your wedding rings engraving but don’t want the added cost we can do this at any point in the future for you, so there’s no rush.
6. Plan your wedding rings as far in advance as you can, this means you can avoid expedited creation costs by ordering your ring earlier.
7. Contact us when making your order and, just as with engagement rings, we can divide the cost of the wedding rings into two instalments, free of charge and with no interest applied.
8. You can contribute family gold to create your wedding rings too – either to to offset costs or to directly recycle and reuse the metal. Jacqueline & Edward will keep your jewellery material costs lower and you’ll get to treasure some truly recycled, ethical, and sentimental wedding rings.

Shop the full range of Jacqueline & Edward wedding rings

A Unique Touch

All our rings are made with a small piece of river gold melted into the recycled metals. You get to choose the provenance of this gold, whether that be from the Scottish Highlands, Wales, Devon – anywhere has meaning for you. This small piece of gold is gifted to you from us and helps to make your ring truly special and unique.

So there you have it. You can have an ethical, artisan engagement or wedding ring on a budget!

*Uncertified diamonds are diamonds that haven’t been certified by an independent body such as GIA (Gemological Institute of America) or IGI (International Gemological Institute). They are graded by the supplier of the diamond and therefore save the cost of being sent off to be officially graded. We also double check this grading ourselves.

**Mokume gane is a 17th century Japanese metalwork technique whereby different metals are fused together and worked to create unique designs (example below).

The Natural Wedding Company champions many UK based ethical wedding jewellers who create a wide range of stunning wedding and engagement rings. You can find them all in the Wedding Rings category of our eco wedding directory.