Yellow or White?

My fiance' and I have chosen white gold for our wedding bands (and - obviously - my engagement ring).  I've always prefered white metal, whether it be sterling silver, white gold, or platinum.  Jamie purchased my engagement ring last December in the States and gave it to me then at Christmas time. He got the rings here back in February and had them engraved inside with a saying that we say to each other that means a lot to us.....so, they've been ready for quite sometime.....and, finally, on Sept. 18th, we will get to present them to each other.  YAY.....anyway.....

I was curious about what others' personal choices were/are.  White or Yellow?

Our rings are platinum, as is my engagement ring.  I personally have always preferred white metals, too, and don't wear gold at all as a rule (I have a few pieces, to go with certain outfits, but that's it.)  I think they look "cleaner", if you know what I mean, and better with black.

I've always preferred white metals, too - but as my engagement ring belonged to my paternal great aunt and my wedding band belonged to Phil's maternal grandmother, I'm not complaining that they're gold!   

We are also going with white gold. My 'temporary' engagement ring is sterling silver with an amethyst from Glasgow in the Charles Rennie Macintosh style.

My real engagement ring and our wedding bands are being designed by friends of ours who used to work for Gerrards (the Crown jewelers). My engagement ring is a large garnet in a rub-over setting with 2 very small white diamonds on either side. Our wedding bands are flat and wide and will have an Arts & Crafts wave pattern engraved on them. We went with white gold because I don't where yellow and our engraver really dislikes platinum (not to mention we can't afford it!). I'll post some pics when we get the engagement ring as it's due to be finished soon!

I wanted a white metal because I'd always wanted an antique-style ring and I just think they look "right" in white gold or platinum. 

When I was looking for my ring (one of the benefits of a trans-Atlantic relationship--I was allowed to pick my own ring!), I stumbled across THE PERFECT ring...it was an estate piece--a lovely blue diamond set in platinum with an etched setting studded in little diamonds.  The only problem was that it cost more than my car....or my entire college education, for that matter!   Still, I visited it until it was sold.    Then I mourned.   :\\\'(

Then one day a few months later, I saw the "perfect" ring's twin (or close enough!)  and I had to have it immediately!  I called DH and begged him for it and he sent me a cheque--sight unseen! 



The best part was the price--I got exactly what I wanted, but for about a tenth of the "perfect" ring's cost.

Anyway, I now realize I've gone off on a tanget.

I was going to say that you should make sure that you get your wedding and engagement rings at the same time, from the same dealer.  My engagement ring was new, but my wedding band was an antique.  As a result, the wedding band is a slightly different colour of white gold.  It's not terribly noticeable, but I know about it.  I need to take it in to get in dipped in rhodium, but I never remember to do it!

we went for platnium!  here's mine:

http://images.snapfish.com/33%3B658%3B923232%7Ffp58%3Dot%3E232%3A%3D524%3D849%3DXROQDF%3E23234%3B5%3C6%3A287ot1lsi

Yeah, Jamie let me choose my own engagement ring, too.  We were looking in small jewellry shops in Mount Dora, Florida when we ran across one that had a selection of estate pieces.  I spotted one that reminded me of something that my grandmother would have worn, and it immediately endeared me to it.  It also happened to be a lot less expensive than what Jamie had planned on paying....so, an added bonus.  It also didn't have to be sized.  It seemed to be meant for me, fit perfectly.

We got white gold too. Yellow gold doesn't suit my skintone at all and I rarely wear it. We chose white gold over platinum because our jeweller recommended it - he said platinum is great if you  are having a lot of engraving or filigree but that it tarnishes a lot more than white gold and is hard/impossible to shine up again - don't know if that's true or not but we took his advice anyway. Apparently white gold does go a bit yellowy after a few years but you can have it "re-whited" (or whatever they call it...). I'm very happy with my white gold engagement and wedding rings, they are super shiney and my purple sapphire looks great  next to it. We also got flat bands as opposed to the rounded bands - they just seem more contemporary somehow and more "us."

We had silver rings to begin with, but both lost them and replaced them with white gold.  I've never been into yellow gold-just always seemed to flashy for me.     Probably my strong Puritan streak. 

Im a 'puritan' too!
My DH picked my ring... in yellow gold... and i hated it, but couldnt tell him.
So i wore it for 7 years, and finally this year i made an excuse that the setting was too high/ tall and was always jagging and getting caught on things, so i wanted to change the setting.
So i had the diamond re-set into a thick white gold band, in an almost flush setting.
I like it much better now!

We chose white gold over platinum because our jeweller recommended it - he said platinum is great if you are having a lot of engraving or filigree but that it tarnishes a lot more than white gold and is hard/impossible to shine up again - don't know if that's true or not but we took his advice anyway.

That's interesting Liz as our engraver HATES engraving platinum. He said it ruins his tools. But now that I think about it, there are so few people left who do manual engraving... maybe your jeweler was thinking of machine engraving. Not that it matters... I just found it curious.

Our friends also told us that the current rage for platinum is really the result of a very good marketing campaign. Some of you may recall that up until about, what, 10 years or so ago, platinum was considered pricey and desireable but it wasn't that common. Now you can't open a Brides magazine without seeing almost every jewlery ad being for platinum.

I personally find it too 'steely'. I prefer the warmth of white gold but my friend has a gorgeous platinum ring.

well gold is softer than platinum so if your jeweller was talking about doing hand engraving then I guess white gold would be easier to work with - when we talked to our jeweller I was only asking about how it would look - wasn't thinking of the poor blighter who would have to make it!!

We did platinum.  Really, any "white" metal would have done, but the diamond we both really liked happened to be set in Platinum (my fav metal of all).  It meant that our bands and all will be a little more spendy, but heck, it's not like its something we plan on buying again, so it's well worth the bucks.  Plus, as he says, I'm worth it ;-)

We both have white gold.
I am completely envious of your ring lolabola!!!
I wish that I could have found something like that but when you come from a small town and don't have too much time to look the choices are few.

Ta, Mindy, for adding the poll.  I thought of doing that....and, well, just didn't....LOL.

I happen to know something about jewellery because I am what they call "a jewellery person".  The benefits of white gold:  it's harder and more wear-resistant than yellow which is softer.  It's the nickel that is mixed with the gold to make it white that does this.  Platinum, which is beautiful but costly, is the purest metal that can be worn.  It is 99.9% pure, and needs no additives to make it strong enough to make jewellery out of it.  Pure gold is way too soft to wear, that's why they add other metals to it to make it substanstial enough to stand the jewellery making process and the subsequent wearing.  The less additives to it, the higher the karat....10 karat, 12 karat, 14 karat, 18 karat...so on.  Copper and brass are added to yellow gold and nickel to the white.

Thus endeth the not too detailed lesson, LOL.