Wedding Rings - As Personal As Your Love

Wedding Rings can be as personal as the couple they belong to. One way that wedding rings are set apart is by their settings.
The setting technique of a wedding ring determines how the diamond is featured. Here's a rundown on the various types of settings for wedding rings.
• Prong settings - Prong settings are most often used to hold solitaires. The prongs fasten the jewel to the ring with a minimum of distraction. Round diamond rings are held in place by six prongs making them very secure. Other cuts, such as the Princess, are held in place by only four prongs. This means that if a prong is bent or damaged, the diamond can be lost.
• Bezel settings - A second type of setting is a Bezel setting. In this setting, a collar of the metal that the ring is made of is attached to the top of the ring and encases the diamond. This gives wedding rings height and dimension. A variation is the Half Bezel where there are two spaces in the setting so that the entire length of the diamond can be seen.
• Channel settings - Channel settings are used to set small round diamonds around the outside of a ring. Sometimes these are used as accent stones and other times, there is no central stone at all.
• Pave setting - Pave literally means "pavement" and in this setting, the jeweler "paves" the ring with small diamonds. The diamonds cover as much of the surface area of the ring as possible. Each diamond has a full 58 facets despite weighing only a few points. The diamonds in the pave setting are not what makes them expensive. Rather, it is the patient and expert work of the jeweler.
• Bead setting - Similar to a Pave setting, the Bead setting is a coverage of small diamonds across a ring's surface. But these stones can be further apart from one another and are not as expertly laid. This can be a great choice for inexpensive wedding rings as both the diamonds and the workmanship is less costly than other rings.
• Cluster setting - In the cluster setting, there are a number of diamonds artistically laid out. Sometimes, clusters feature one prominent diamond in addition to several supporting ones. Other times, the artistry of the display marks the ring's worth.
• Flush setting - The Flush setting embeds the diamonds into the ring so that they are at, or just above, the surface of the metal. This is a popular setting for men's wedding rings.