Your wedding day is one of the most wonderful days of your life and your wedding journey is an unforgettable adventure, but weddings can be wasteful and bad for the planet.
There is good news! They don’t have to be this way. From the very start of your wedding journey, you can be ethical, sustainable and promote a better planet. What an awe-inspiring way to say ‘ I love you ‘ to each other and to the world.
To help you along the way, we have created a series of blog posts on eco-conscious wedding planning. In this post, we will focus on environmentally friendly, ethically sourced engagement rings.
When choosing your engagement ring & your wedding bands, look into the origins of your diamond or whichever gemstones you choose and consider all the options that you have! Remember, you have choices.
Are you going to choose a diamond?
You might think – of course! It’s tradition! But the use of diamonds for engagement rings is rather modern. For many years all different types of gemstones. Before World War II less than 10% of engagement rings had diamonds. Until the twentieth century, sapphires were more popular than diamonds as the featured gem in engagement rings.
The Marketing Campaign
But the diamond producer De Beers stockpiled diamonds at a lower cost and then created marketing campaigns in the 1930s to associate diamonds with engagements. They pushed this concept into the mainstream!
If you dare to be a little bit different, there are tons of beautiful, elegant gemstones out there that can serve as a reminder of your love for each other instead of the choice you’ve been led to believe is the traditional one!
Ethical Diamonds
If you are going down the diamond route and you want to buy a new diamond, think about conflict-free stones.
If ethics are important to you, then you don’t want to accidentally use a blood diamond or use any gemstone that caused harm to people along the supply chain or where the proceeds are used to fuel a war.
There are several great resources out there to track your diamond, so it’s important to ask your jeweller if they source conflict-free diamonds.
Lab-Created Diamonds
There is also the option to go with a lab-created diamond. These have less of an impact on the environment as there is no mining involved in the harvesting process. It is both sustainable and ethical.
You could also opt for stones that need fewer resources to mine. Salt and Pepper diamonds fall into this category. They are a good choice.
Go Vintage
Another brilliant option is to go vintage. This is a great way to reduce the environmental impact and avoid creating further cruelty or conflict. This is a great way to save money and be kinder to the planet while also giving a jewel a new lease of life!
There are also a growing number of brands that offer ethical, eco-friendly gemstones of all types and remember that your engagement ring gemstone doesn’t have to be a diamond!
Personally, I love Ruby rings as rubies have been associated with love and passion for many, many years and they are very beautiful too and I adore blue sapphire rings – sapphires are the strongest gemstones so these rings can deal with the wear and tear of everyday life!
I hope that these tips are helpful. Good luck planning your big day. Please read our other blogs or download our eco-friendly wedding app for free from the links on our home page.