How to choose the right wedding band

How to Choose the Right Wedding Band
by: Afshin Yaghtin

You’ve heard the “4 Cs” of smart diamond buying -- cut, color, clarity, and carats. But what about the wedding band? Wedding bands are not the most expensive wedding purchase you will make and you may not spend a lot of time researching your wedding band purchase. But many people end up wearing their wedding band more often and on a day to day basis compared to their engagement ring.

Make an informed decision when purchasing your wedding band.

Do you prefer a traditional, plain wedding band or a design wedding band?

Do you want to budget in for a designer name brand or do you prefer to forgo the brand name and opt out for essentially the same ring without the “name”, thereby significantly reducing costs?

Pricing Your Wedding Band.

Plain Wedding Bands

You may want to consider a plain band if you prefer a simple design or are not a big “jewelry person”. As a jeweler, I often get women shopping for their husbands wedding bands who are considering a plain band because their husband “does not like jewelry”. I usually recommend a narrower plain wedding band, such as a white gold or yellow gold 4mm wide band. Although a wider 6mm, 7mm, or 8mm band is standard for most men, someone who does not wear a lot of jewelry may feel more comfortable in a narrow band. (Wedding bands are usually measured in millimeters. A 4mm band is approx. ¼” wide).

If someone is looking for something with a little more of a design, but still wants a simpler band, I may even steer them towards a more subtle design, such as a hammered wedding band. Hammered bands are still understated, but a little more exciting than a traditional plain band.

Design Band

There are many types of design wedding bands to choose from, such as braided wedding bands, hammered design bands, paisley bands, and other unique designs, such as a Celtic wedding band.

The type of design band wedding you choose is a personal choice. There is nothing scientific or practical in selecting a design wedding band other than primarily deciding what type of design you simply like.

The only practical considerations that you may want to make in selecting a wedding band with designs is in understanding that trends come and go and you will be wearing and looking at the design hopefully forever. The other consideration is in deciding whether you will wear your ring on a daily basis and what kind of wear and tear your ring can safely sustain. This usually depends on the type of work or career or regular hobbies.

Do you work with your hands a lot? Do you do construction work or do you have an office job that is not taxing on your hands? In purchasing a design band, if you are planning to wear your ring to a job that is physically demanding you may want to consider a hammered design band or a similarly rugged design that can withstand wear and tear. You may want to stay away from a braided wedding band, for example, if you are a police officer and want to wear your ring on the job! If you are “outdoorsy” and rugged, you may want a more wedding band with less design that could get damaged.

Keep in mind these are extreme cases. Most braided wedding bands are tougher than they appear and will be fine under most conditions. And if not, they can easily be repaired (we offer a one year warranty and inexpensive repair service after the warranty period). Out of the thousands of braided wedding bands we have sold, not even 1% have been returned for repair and often only by people who are tough on their jewelry.

Design Band or Designer Name Brand

Most wedding bands that are on the market today are actually not designer name brand rings, yet they are, in my opinion, the same quality as most designer name brand rings. The difference with a designer name brand and a generic version is mainly the price. Most design bands range between $300-$350, for example, at http://wedding-band-ring.com vs. $600-$800 for the exact ring made by a known designer name.

However, if paying 2-3 times more is not a significant difference to you, you may want to consider a name brand simply for the security or status that the name you purchase may give you. In shopping for a wedding band, whether it is a designer name or not, make sure you understand your wedding or jewelry store’s policies, warranties, and guarantees. Often, the generic brand will offer you the same security, quality, and warranties. So why spend the extra?

Yellow Gold, White Gold, or Two-Tone

This too is mostly a personal choice, but there are a few things to consider in selecting your wedding bands’ color or metal type.

White gold is often more suitable for those who are not normally big jewelry wearers. White gold is also somewhat more contemporary, although trends suggest that yellow gold may be coming back strong into fashion. Ultimately, whether you choose yellow or white gold should depend on your personal preference, rather than following any trend, since trends come and go and you plan to wear your ring forever!

You may also want to consider two-tone gold. Two-tone wedding rings are an excellent compromise between subtle and rich tones and they serve one additional purpose that people tend to overlook.

Two-tone wedding bands give you the flexibility of both yellow and white gold colors so that you can match a variety of other jewelry with your wedding jewelry. If you buy a white gold wedding band, all of your future jewelry purchases will tend to be white gold. Wearing yellow gold or two-tone with your white gold ring may clash. The same can be said of pure yellow gold. But with a two-tone wedding band, you can wear an all yellow gold bracelet or watch, for example, and interchange jewelry and colors. This adds great versatility to your jewelry line-up.

Price Benchmarks

Use the below benchmarks to assess if your selected jeweler is charging you too much or if their prices are reasonable.

Expect to spend between $100-$150 for a plain, traditional wedding band.

Expect to spend approx. $300 for a standard, but high quality design wedding band.

Expect to spend between $600-$800 for a designer name brand.

Remember, you may not want to dish out the additional cost for a designer name brand when you can find virtually the same ring without the “name”. Above all, this should be a choice that you make yourself or with your spouse. Forget about trends and think long-term. $300 over 50 years of your life is less than a penny a day! Don’t get caught up too much in the price. Opt for the ring that you really want. You plan to wear your ring forever.

About The Author

Afshin Yaghtin graduated as an English major at UCLA and furthered his education at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth with a M.A. in postmodern American literature before starting his own business at Wedding band ring. He lives in California with his wife and 3 adorable, rambunctious kids.

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100 Ways To Be A Better Time Manager

Here are 100 ways to be a better time manager. Practise them all and you'll discover that you'll get more done, improve the quality of your time with others, and have a better balance between all the demands on your work and life.

1. Value your time.
2. Treat time as a resource to be managed.
3. Measure your time.
4. Assess how much time you have to manage.
5. Negotiate more control over your working time.
6. Decide the best work pattern for yourself.
7. Get control of your tasks.
8. Have the freedom to balance your tasks.
9. Work at an even pace.
10. Plan ahead.
11. Balance the demands on your time.
12. Don't work more than you need.
13. Be a pearl diver: look for the gifts that time brings.
14. Use time to get results not just fulfil duties.
15. Do something productive and enjoyable each day.
16. Ask "what is the best use of my time now?" questions.
17. Identify your time robbers.
18. Have a purpose to your life.
19. Be effective...
20. ...and then efficient.
21. Don't rush or overwork.
22. Inject variety into your daily tasks.
23. Spend up to a quarter of your day on routine tasks.
24. Do routine tasks in the shortest time possible.
25. Develop good time habits.
26. Experiment with different methods for doing routine tasks.
27. Use the Shoe-shine principle of doubling-up routine tasks.
28. Make the most of shortcuts.
29. Prepare your materials in advance.
30. Tidy up as you go.
31. Question every bit of paper you use.
32. Automate.
33. Identify bottle-necks and eliminate them.
34. Create easy work flows.
35. Use just-in-time systems to minimize clutter.
36. Bunch similar tasks together.
37. Identify the quickest work methods and then train everyone.
38. Know which jobs can be speeded up and which can't.
39. Have a regular time slot for chores.
40. Put aside time for maintenance tasks.
41. Don't encourage unnecessary paperwork.
42. Organise your filing systems.
43. Back up your computer records at fixed times.
44. Clear your files out regularly.
45. Keep your desk clear.
46. Handle every piece of paper just once.
47. Eliminate junk mail and spam.
48. Phone rather than write.
49. Don't photocopy anything unless it is essential.
50. Send replies on the same piece of paper.
51. Keep your communications sweet and short.
52. Manage your projects with time, cost and quality estimates.
53. Run projects with detailed time plans.
54. Add on 20% to your initial project plans.
55. Have detailed lists of your project tasks.
56. Create a series of deadlines for your projects.
57. Look for weak links in your project and have back-up plans.
58. Streamline low-priority project tasks.
59. Keep on top of what's going on in your project.
60. Track and monitor your project progress.
61. Spend up to a quarter of your day on progress work.
62. Have a clear vision of your goals.
63. Align your goals with your values.
64. Be certain of achieving all your goals.
65. Write down your goals.
66. Plan your key result areas.
67. Set SMART goals for short-term tasks.
68. Identify jobs you hate and delegate them.
69. Break down big jobs into smaller chunks.
70. Prioritise your tasks according to their importance.
71. When you're overwhelmed, write out to-do lists and prioritise.
72. Leave loose ends so you can come back easily.
73. Use little scraps of unused time for itsy-bitsy jobs.
74. Plan 60% of your day; leave the rest for what comes up.
75. Put big jobs in your diary first, then the little ones.
76. Celebrate reaching your goals.
77. Spend up to a quarter of your day on non-doing tasks.
78. Take time out to sit and think.
79. Look after your health.
80. Get a sense of the times.
81. Take time to enjoy and appreciate.
82. Use the energy of the moment.
83. Occasionally just do what you want to do.
84. Take breaks at least every 90 minutes.
85. Review your day or week.
86. Spend up to a quarter of your day with others.
87. Always turn up to meetings on time.
88. Be courteous and brisk with others.
89. Only hold meetings that have a clear purpose.
90. Let people know when you're not free.
91. Minimise unnecessary interruptions.
92. Learn to say No to jobs that aren't yours.
93. Avoid time-wasters.
94. Control your phone.
95. Screen all incoming calls.
96. Devise a team time policy.
97. Keep a clock on the wall.
98. Know your time manager personality.
99. Check whether you have a tendency to overwork or underwork and adjust.
100. Enjoy your time.

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(c) Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com. If you enjoyed this article, why not take our FREE 10-day Time Management email course? It'll give you tons of tips, tricks, and techniques to make you an outstanding time manager. Just send a blank email to tm@freeautobot.com. For tons of other great FREE learning resources, visitManageTrainLearn and get the MTL learning experience!

Bridal shower invitation part 2

What should you include on the bridal shower invitation?

Make sure the invitations are sent out early and allow the guests to have plenty of time to reply.

Important details that needs to be included are:-

1) The Bride's full name
2) The Bridal Shower date(s)
3) The Bridal Shower time
4) The Bridal Shower location
5) The RSVP name and number
6) The date to RSVP by
7) The name and contact number of the host
8) The Bridal Shower theme (optional)

You can create a stylish invitation by adding a picture that represents the bridal theme. This will allow people to know what the theme of the shower. Another way is to add a picture of the bride and groom on the invitation.


If you have a small budget, you can add a personal touch by creating your own invitation. Handmade invitation. Meaning you select your own design, paper, color and fond. Your guest will appreciate your effort and time to create the invitations. Inclide the bride-to-be if you are doing your own invitation, it will make her bridal shower memorable.

The bridal shower invitations should inlcude all the necessary information and yet till be attractive.

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Bridal shower invitation

Drawing up a list of who to invite and who not to is difficult task to decide especially if the circle of immediate families and friends are large. You have a certain budget allocated and then you ask yourself, where do I begin and who should I include. I have come out with some pointers and hope it will help you to make a good planning.

As a general rule, only people who are on the wedding list itself should be invited to the bridal shower. However, not everyone on the wedding list are expected to invite to the bridal shower. A typical list to be included includes the bride's mother, the bride's future mother-in-law, both the bride and groom's immediate female members of the family, the bride's close friends, mentors of the bride and groom, the female family member of the ring bearer and the flower girl.

Make sure you have the wedding list in your hands as this will make your process of shortlisting easier and avoid making the mistake of inviting any individual who is not on the wedding list. It is also a good move to work closely with the bride-to-be. First, remove the names on the list whom the bride does not know directly, such as the wives of male friends. Next, eliminate the names on the list which who were invited to the wedding simply because it is “proper,” but who are not close to the bride. This can include distant relatives or female friends of the bride-to-be’s parents.

If there will be more than one bridal shower, mothers, stepmothers, and female siblings on both sides, as well as the maid of honor (if there is one), should be invited to every shower. The female families members of the groom can have the option of choosing to attend only one of the showers. Any other guests should be only nvited to one of the showers. If you do someone is invited to more than one shower, make sure the someone is clear that the person is not expected to bring a gift for each shower. However, you need to check that you are not over stressing anyone especially the bride-to-be.

One way to allow the bride to get to know the grooms friends well is to include the wives or girlfriends of the groom's good friends. The bride-to-be will definitely spend an amount of time with them in the future. This is good to break any barriers among them. If the bride or the bride's mother belong to a specific groups (female), it is advisable to invite everyone in that group and not leaving anyone out.

Bridal Shower Basic

I know you will enjoy and have a great time preparing the bridal shower. However to be successful in organizing a bridal shower, you need to know the basic stuff.

Having a bridal shower is not a mandotory event but it will add a perfect experience to every girl's dream of having a memorable wedding event. The Ideal time to host a bridal shower is about five to six weeks before the actual wedding day. This will gives time :-

1) to prepare a guest list with the bride or couple (if you are planning a co-ed
bridal shower)
2) to send out invitation with RSVP
3) to prepare for food and beverages
4) to decide on the theme
5) to decide on the decoration
6) to decide on the favors.
7) to decide on games/activities
8) to prepare shower toast


The bridal shower is traditionally hosted by the bridemaid or the Maid-of-honor but the ocassion can also be organize by close friends, relatives or co-worker, The bridemaid should work with the bride to plan the event. This will to allow the bride to celebrate the occasion with the company of her close friends and family. Taking this into consideration will make the task of making the guest feeling comfortable easier. To allow the bride to feel relax without overhelming her, an ideal size of 15 to 20 people is the best. Showers are supposed to help the bride and groom equip their new home,so they're often planned around a specific theme

However, co-ed showers, where the groom and his friends are present, are fast becoming popular. Activities planned should be suitable for the age and interest of the guest. This will allow the guest to partipate,relate and enjoy the occasion.

Secrets to planning a perfect bridal shower

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