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- We recommend shopping at these six online jewelry brands before you check out a traditional retailer: Vrai & Oro, Couple, Holden, Mejuri, Ritani, and Catbird.
- They often offer more customization opportunities, more responsible manufacturing processes, better curated ring styles, and better prices.
Choosing someone to spend your life with is a big decision. No one has ever doubted that. Buying your engagement and wedding rings is, too, but it can be a little ridiculous when the stress and financial burden of that process overtakes why you’re even looking for a nice ring in the first place.
Your rings are but a tiny blip in the grand scheme of your marriage, and they should be just as easy to shop for. New online jewelry companies are starting to take on the confusing and expensive shopping experiences of traditional fine jewelry retailers, so you can find a beautiful and affordable ring to last a lifetime — then move on with the rest of your lives.
In addition to offering more unique ring styles, these online jewelers are giving shoppers more control and power than ever to make the exact rings they’re imagining, and at non-exorbitant prices.
To match the visual and tactile strengths of brick-and-mortar stores, they send the rings to you through home try-on programs or to a convenient location near you. Reflecting the preferences of the progressive and socially aware clientele they’d like to attract, they’re taking the extra step to be ethically and environmentally responsible with their materials and manufacturing processes.
Below, you can learn more about the specific expertises of each new jewelry brand, then browse their sites to see if the styles and prices are a fit for you and your partner. If you want to skip right to browsing, here’s the basic what-to-know about the six brands:
- To preview your perfect ring: Shop at Vrai & Oro
- For lab-grown diamond engagement rings: Shop at Couple
- For customizable wedding bands starting at just $179: Shop at Holden
- To attract double-takes on your ring: Shop at Mejuri
- For the best "clicks-and-bricks" ring shopping: Shop at Ritani
- For the curated boutique experience, online: Shop at Catbird
Find beautiful engagement and wedding rings at one of these 6 non-traditional jewelry retailers.
For the curated boutique experience, online: Catbird
Catbird
Shop engagement and wedding bands at Catbird here
Read more about Catbird here
There’s no shortage of beautiful, out-of-the-ordinary rings at Catbird, whose name has far outgrown its Brooklyn boutique roots. In addition to its own exclusive collection of rings, which starts at $230 for a simple gold wedding band and goes up to $12,500 for a brilliant, three-diamond ring, you can find unique, eye-catching silhouettes from beloved independent designers like WWAKE, Satomi Kawakita, Kataoka, and a few dozen others.
To preview your perfect ring: Vrai & Oro
Vrai and Oro
Shop engagement and wedding rings at Vrai & Oro here
Read more about Vrai & Oro here
If you want to design your own ring (there are over 3,500 style combinations possible), Vrai & Oro is the perfect place to do so. If you prefer to hand over the reins to the experts, Vrai & Oro is still the perfect place to do so. It knows buying a ring is a big commitment, so it offers a Home Try-On program where you receive three sample designs for a $50 refundable deposit. You have seven days to find your dream ring.
For lab-grown diamond engagement rings: Couple
Couple
Shop engagement and wedding rings at Couple here
Read more about Couple here
In addition to price and design, couples today care about where their rings are sourced and how they’re made. Couple’s diamonds are made above ground in a lab, but you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between theirs and mined ones. Best for shoppers who are overwhelmed by the choice of traditional retailers, Couple sells just four beautiful and classic styles, but you can still choose the setting, karat, and metal type.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Connie Chen)