Part of the beauty of an engagement is choosing a wedding band. With todays choices, a couple has far more options than ever before. Yellow gold will always be a timeless classic, but wedding bands, just like the times, are changing. Todays most popular options are white gold or platinum. There is an assumption that because of the same, shiny, whitish color, both metals are equivalent. However, that could not be further from the truth.

A white gold ring is an alloy of regular gold combined with other metals such as silver and palladium or nickel. Part of what makes white gold look almost identical to platinum is a finishing process that occurs when the ring is being made. The white gold ring is finished with a coating of Rhodium, a metal that shares many of Platinums properties. While white gold is naturally a light shade of gray or has a slight yellow tint because of the natural color of gold, the Rhodium coating gives the completed ring a sparkly white color. The main downfall to a white gold ring is that without proper care, the Rhodium will eventually wear off and change the color of the ring. With proper replatement every 1-3 years, the rhodium will stay lustrous and the ring beautiful.

Platinum differs from gold because it is used almost entirely in its pure form when making a platinum wedding band, as opposed to being combined with different metals. Platinum rings do not need to be treated with Rhodium because the natural color of platinum is the desired shining white. Platinum is a good material to choose if you are harder on things, or constantly on the go, because it wears longer. It is a heavier, denser metal, which allows it to be more scratch-resistant than white gold. The downside is that platinum, because it is not mixed to make up the composition of the wedding band, tends to be far more expensive. The normal guideline when shopping for rings is to expect a platinum wedding band to be up to two to four times more expensive than its white gold counterpart, depending on the complexity of the design and the weight (gold or platinum content) of the wedding ring.

To see a sample of a white gold or platinum wedding band, online wedding band stores are an excellent resource. They offer an excellent way of researching or shopping for your perfect wedding ring! Regardless of your choice of metal, both white gold and platinum make for a beautiful wedding band.