Shopping for Our Wedding Bands!

**Paid partnership with Diamonds Direct**

 

Writing the title of this blog post feels kind of surreal! Christian and I are still over the moon about our engagement (which you can read all about here in this post) but things are definitely starting to feel more “real” as we begin wedding planning and doing things like picking out our bands!

 

Where We Shopped For Our Wedding Bands

Christian and I decided to shop for our bands at Diamonds Direct in New Orleans! (Linking their website here if you want more info!)

The NOLA location (or Metairie, to be more specific) opened last year, and I actually attended an influencer event they hosted back in October. While I was at that event, a girlfriend and I were trying on basically every engagement ring in the store! Both she and I had boyfriends, but neither of us were even close to getting engaged at that point… so we were just “playing around” while trying on all these rings. But to be honest, I was totalllyyyyy thinking about what ring Christian should get when he proposed to me, ha! I think that night was when I realized he was the one I wanted to marry… because it was the first time I pictured someone proposing to me and I actually *wanted* that to play out in real life! So when Christian asked me one day, “Hey, when did you know you wanted to marry me?” I told him October because I remembered that event!

I also remembered from that event that Diamonds Direct had a HUGE selection of rings (because we tried on so many, lol) and the staff was so helpful and fun to talk with. I’m not the most knowledgeable gal when it comes to things like rings and bands, so I wanted to go somewhere with a large variety of options to choose from and helpful staff to guide us through the whole process. So Diamonds Direct was the first place that came to mind because I already had a good experience with them!

 

A Little Background on Diamonds Direct

If you don’t know about Diamonds Direct, they are a national jewelry company that cuts out the middleman and brings the diamonds straight to consumers. This basically means they can guarantee lower prices, which duh we love that! They have thousands of wedding band options to choose from, from dainty metal styles for a few hundred dollars to 5+ carat diamond eternity bands–something for every budget.

They also offers lifetime warranties and guarantees, in addition to complimentary services after the purchase. Those complimentary services include complimentary jewelry maintenance, complimentary cleaning, complimentary sizing and a complimentary appraisal for insurance purposes. In addition they offer a lifetime upgrade which allows you to receive 110% of your original purchase toward your new purchase.

There’s 19 locations nationwide, including the NOLA location where Christian and I tried on wedding bands! And if there isn’t a location near you, they have a new online experience that lets you chat AND video chat with a diamond expert, bringing the amazing Diamonds Direct experience to you wherever you might be!

 

What We Knew Before Shopping For Wedding Bands

Well, not much 😂

I have a split shank engagement ring, which can be pretty tricky to pair with a wedding band. Since I’ve been engaged, I’ve had multiple girls DM me on Instagram saying they also have a split shank engagement ring and they’re at a loss on what to do about a band. So I knew going into this that it wasn’t going to be a quick and easy decision for me.

Christian went in thinking maybe he would want one of those dark gray/black rings made of titanium. We knew no matter what that his ring would need to be a *strong and sturdy* material because he isn’t the most graceful/delicate guy 😂 And his job requires him on the football field with his players, so that’s just more opportunity for it to get scratched up!

 

Let’s Start With Christian’s Band…

We decided to look at options for Christian’s band first because he’s actually so excited to have a wedding band! Which I find funny (and cute, of course) because I didn’t realize this was something that some guys got excited about.

 

 

So we were lucky enough to have the store manager, Kyle, helping us with our search. And oh my gosh, he was the best! (No joke, we ended up spending hours at Diamonds Direct because we didn’t even notice how quick time was flying by. We barely made it to our dinner reservation on time!) Kyle gave us so much helpful insight when we were picking out the bands. Like for example, he helped us realize which bands were going to make the most sense against Christian’s skin tone. C has a lot of pink undertones, which looks better with yellow gold than it does white gold.

After trying on a ton of different options, Christian kept going back to the same ring: a two-tone band from the designer Frederick Goldman. (See pic below… but obviously we’ll have to get him a bigger size, haha)

 

 

I totally would not have expected him to choose a two-tone band, but after seeing all the different bands on, I really do love this one the most, too! It looks great on his hand and I love that it’s a little unique, instead of the traditional silver band. If you want the specific style number, feel free to email me or DM me on Instagram 🙂

 

My Top 3 Options

I am one of the most indecisive people on the planet when it comes to big decisions! A wedding band is obviously so exciting but I still got nervous trying to decide which one was “the one.” Thank goodness Kyle had so much patience and helped me try out every option possible. And thankfully I was able to narrow it down to my top three! I wanted to share them because I think they are gorgeous options and could possibly help other girls who want some wedding band inspo.

 

 

So I’ve narrowed it down to:

• Option A: the twisted band
• Option B: a thin straight-across band. I could do just one band under my engagement ring OR one on either side of my engagement ring (like shown in the photo)
• Option C: A band with some “movement,” as Kyle put it. Basically it’s as thin as the straight one, but is a little “wavy”

I left Diamonds Direct liking Option C the best. But now writing this blog post and looking back at the photos, I’m also kind of liking Option A a lot?? Of course I’m being indecisive again, ha!

Ok final answer: I like Option C the most right now. What do you guys think? I would love some feedback from y’all! 🙂

 

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Thank you so much for reading about our wedding band shopping experience at Diamonds Direct & of course, I’ll be sure to keep sharing our wedding planning journey here on the blog!

If you have any questions about the specific bands we looked at, our experience with Diamonds Direct or anything wedding related, you can always email me at Hello@KarliWillis.com or DM me on Instagram! Always here to help!

xo,

Karli