Blog: wedding ring
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Unique eco wedding rings that tell your story from Eco Wood Rings

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Unique eco wedding rings with wood, flat steel 5mm with oak diamond dust, purple agate, amethyst, turquoise and sand

Unique wedding rings from Eco Wood Rings

Having partnered with Eco Wood Rings since they started out in 2011, we’ve always loved the way that their custom wedding rings offer a connection to the land and how couples can choose materials and design features that make their rings unique and personal to them.

Adding materials from special places or even treasured possessions is a hugely original way to encapsulate your love story. Eco Wood Rings have worked with a wide range of materials with personal meaning, ranging from a childhood swing to a trophy skateboard, as well as shells, sand, rocks and other materials from significant beaches, mountains and rivers around the world. You can be as wild and wonderful as you like with your ideas.

9ct white gold and oak wedding ring

Here we look at some of the many meaningful features that can be included in an eco wood ring, along with real life customer stories showcasing beautiful (and often highly sentimental) examples. We hope that you will feel inspired to create your own unique and beautiful custom wedding rings which perfectly tell your story.

Eco Wood Rings is a Recommended Supplier of The Natural Wedding Company directory. Find out more about them here.

The Wood – choices for your unique eco wedding rings

Log pile

Whilst Eco Wood Rings have their own extensive stock of woods, sustainably sourced from across the UK and world, many of their custom wedding ring designs are made using customer-supplied woods with meaning.

One wonderful example of this is Ben’s bentwood wedding ring. He decided on a Welsh ash ring (where he’s from) with inlays of willow (their surname is now Willows) and the pièce de résistance – oak, hand sourced by the Eco Wood Rings team, from a tree growing beside the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, where he and Jess first met!

Oak by Pyramid stage at Glastonbury

Find out more and see the finished ring here: A Little More Than Music

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Fairtrade gold mining and the difference you can make by choosing fairtrade gold wedding rings

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Freshly mined fairtrade gold for fairtrade gold wedding rings // April Doubleday // The Natural Wedding Company

We share a lot of pretty things here on our blog, like most working in the wedding industry. The wedding industry is big business and with that there can come a price, a price that we may not always consider. When we are investing so much money into certain aspects of our wedding day it can be worth taking a minute to open our eyes (and hearts) to the reality behind the items we purchase. Most of us are aware of issues that have arisen from diamond trade but have we ever considered the cost of gold?

In 2013 our friend and jewellery designer April Doubleday visited one of the few fairtrade/eco gold mines in Colombia. She took her son Jon and filmed their adventure, producing this 9 minute long film.

Fairtrade gold wedding rings // April Doubleday // The Natural Wedding Company

Where do your wedding rings come from?

Everyone should watch this short film before before buying your wedding rings. Let’s be open and honest about where these precious and symbolic love tokens come from. That means considering who mined the gold, how it was removed from the land, and the state the environment is left in.

In your next tea break we’d love you to watch April’s film and gaining an insight into the lives of those who mine the gold for our jewellery.

“Fairtrade and its standards offer miners a better choice and a way out of poverty” – April Doubleday.

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Our guide to some of the best eco-chic and ethical engagement and wedding rings

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Ethical white enamel and Cubic Zirconia wedding ring from April Doubleday // The Natural Wedding Company

Best eco-chic and ethical engagement and wedding rings

For many the Christmas and New Year’s period will have been a particularly exciting one, having got engaged, and so whilst many of you may already have an engagement ring, we thought it a good moment to introduce the jewellery businesses we work with, all who have a strong ethical and eco-friendly commitment.

The above ring, from April Doubleday, has particular caught my eye, with its chic white enamel band, set with glittering Cubic Zironias. It is elegant and modern, but still retains that ‘hewn from the earth’ natural feel – I could almost believe it came from an oyster shell in a mermaid kingdom…

My main conclusion is that I don’t quite know how you’ll ever choose just one! You can find all our wedding ring suppliers in the Rings section of our directory.

Mahailia Jewellery Design

Bespoke wedding and engagement rings from the romantic, windswept Scottish coast (find out more).

Ethical diamond and sapphire wedding ring from Mahailia Jewellery Design // The Natural Wedding Company

Ethical topas engagement ring from Mahailia Jewellery Design // The Natural Wedding Company

Ethical personalised wedding band from Mahailia Jewellery Design // The Natural Wedding Company

Slade Fine Jewellery

Handmade engagement & wedding rings from 100% eco gold and silver (find out more).

Ethical ruby engagement ring from Slade Fine Jewellery // The Natural Wedding Company

Ethical engagement ring from Slade Fine Jewellery // The Natural Wedding Company

Ethical grey rosecut diamond engagement ring from Slade Fine Jewellery // The Natural Wedding Company

Vintage Bijoux

Beautiful diamond & gemstone set antique and estate rings (find out more).

Vintage Art Deco inspired engagement ring from Vintage Bijoux // The Natural Wedding Company

Vintage opal and diamond engagement ring from Vintage Bijoux // The Natural Wedding Company

Vintage old cut diamond cluster engagement ring from Vintage Bijoux // The Natural Wedding Company

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Izzy Izzy

Unique, handmade and guilt-free ethical wedding jewellery with colourful gemstones by Lilia Nash

Izzy

Ethical diamond ring by Lilia Nash Jewellery

Today’s guest blog post addresses the issue that many of us go out and pick jewellery we like without much thought to where it has come from or what efforts have gone into sourcing the gemstones and metal. Lilia Nash, who is one of our recommended jewellery businesses, not only creates beautiful wedding and engagement rings, but she ensures she knows just where her raw materials are sourced from.

Over to Lilia to tell us a bit more about her gorgeous ethical wedding jewellery…

Ethical gold diamond engagement ring by Lilia Nash Jewellery

I fell in love with gemstones when I was young, and when I decided to start designing engagement rings and wedding jewellery, I wanted to do so without damage to our planet’s resources.

You may not know when you buy a piece of jewellery from a store as to whether or not it has been made from recycled gold or fair trade gemstones. Very often you just fall in love with something you see. I would like us to pay more attention to what we are buying, so that the jewellery we buy is responsibly sourced.

Ethically sourced sapphires from Lilia Nash Jewellery

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The story of why one couple chose fairtrade wedding rings to celebrate their marriage

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Ethical gold wedding rings

Sometimes it’s nice to take a step back from wedding planning, from all the lovely details and fun plans for this incredible celebration, and look at the deeper part of marriage.  I think an important part of that is choosing where you buy your engagement and wedding rings from – of all the many items you purchase for your wedding, your rings will have one of the biggest environmental costs.

No one likes to be bombarded or overwhelmed with terrible statistics or facts about the environmental costs of something like a wedding ring, often it just makes you feel even more powerless to make a difference, but we can’t ignore that there are some pretty bad facts when it comes to conventional mining.

Ethical engagement ring from CRED Jewellery

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The new heritage 1930s inspired jewellery collection from CRED Jewellery

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1930s inspired Penelope Collection

It seems I’m having a bit of a 1920s and 1930s inspired day on the blog today, following on from this morning’s glamorous wedding cake I get to introduce you to the stunning new collection from CRED Jewellery.  The Penelope Collection from designer Annabel Panes was inspired by the cocktail drinking ladies of the 1920s and ’30s, in particular her own grandmother.

1930s inspired fair trade engagement ring

This fabulous 13-piece collection includes engagement rings, necklaces and earrings, all created from Fairtrade and Fairmined certified gold and each item set with ethically sourced gems.  I particularly love the deep and rich colours of the gems used, especially the Amethyst.

Niki from CRED Jewellery told me “Annabel has taken the elegance and glamour of the 1930’s and applied a modern twist.  The deep blues and reds of the precious stones are placed in delicate white gold settings that maximize their splendour and reflect the romantic elegance of the time.”

CRED Jewellery amethyst engagement ring

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Buy one wedding ring and get another half price from the exquisite collection by Eco Wood Rings

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Eco Wood Rings wedding and engagement rings

Eco Wood Rings are offering an exclusive discount on their stunning and unique wedding and engagement rings made from wood – if you buy one ring you get the second ring half price!  There is a fantastic selection of rings available and you must read the story on how Eco Wood Rings came to be – so sweet.

Eco Wood Rings unique wedding rings

The rings are each handcrafted from a single piece of wood, including oak, walnut, hickory and ash.  Some of the rings are set with beautiful bands of mother of pearl, turquoise, crushed stones and even crushed walnut shells – each bearing a different meaning which you can read about in the ring descriptions.

Eco Wood Rings engagement and wedding rings

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Fairtrade wedding and engagement rings with 10% off from Foundation Jewellery

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Foundation Jewellery fairtrade wedding rings

Foundation Jewellery are licensed makers of fairtrade gold wedding and engagement rings, with full traceable diamonds and recycled gold and platinum available as well.  To celebrate our birthday, they are offering readers 10% off their collections for a limited time period.

Foundation Jewellery ethical wedding bands

They stock a range of high quality and classic wedding and engagement ring designs, all bearing the Foundation Jewellery hummingbird mark.  As one of the first jewellers in the world to be registered to craft using fairtrade and fairmined gold you can be sure that you are not only investing in a beautiful piece to celebrate your love, but also an ethical one.

Foundation Jewellery ethical engagement rings

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Get a champagne afternoon tea for two at The Wolseley and 10% off commissions from ethical jewellery maker Jane Runchman

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Jane Runchman ethical wedding rings

This morning I have the most wonderful offer to share with you – I am so envious of all of you brides- and grooms-to-be out there planning your wedding now!  To celebrate The Natural Wedding Company’s 5th Birthday, ethically jewellery maker Jane Runchman is offering our readers an incredible champagne afternoon tea for two at The Wolseley in London as well as a 10% discount on commissions during March 2012.

Jane Runchman ethical engagement ring

Not only can you commission Jane Runchman to create you a stunning, bespoke engagement or wedding ring, but you also get to go and enjoy a champagne afternoon tea at The Wolseley – a beautiful cafe-restaurant situated on one of London’s most famous boulevards.  The afternoon tea menu is mouthwatering.

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