Unique Alternatives to Diamonds in Engagement Rings

Our wedding day is one of the most important days of our life. The engagement ring we get to celebrate our nuptials is something we will wear every day. It makes sense that you want to get a ring that you will love and that fits your style.  It will be a key part of your look and style for the duration of your marriage.

We wear our wedding rings daily and so we want to choose something that will look good day in and day out. A ring should showcase our style, our love, and our fashion sense. We want something that will look good for a day at the office or a night on the town. You do not want a wedding ring that will clash with many of your outfits or that will look out of place in a given situation. You need something versatile and timeless. 

Thinking of wedding rings, most of us imagine diamonds. Diamonds are, after all, a girl’s best friend. Diamonds are great. They are gorgeous, clear, sparkly stones that denote wealth and luxury. The downside of diamonds is, well, they are so common in engagement rings. Almost everyone’s engagement ring has diamonds in it and some of us want to stand apart from the crowd and have something a little different from everyone else. 

There are tons of rare and precious gemstones to choose from. While diamonds are lovely, there is a rainbow of other stone colors that create stunning pieces of jewelry that you will love wearing every day. If you want something a bit more traditional, but with a little bit of flair, perhaps you will consider pairing traditional diamonds with a more unique stone. 

Pairing Other Stones with Diamonds

For the more traditional bride-to-be, diamonds might be part of your engagement ring of choice. Even if you choose to have diamonds as the centerpiece or accent of your engagement ring, you can choose unique and colorful stones to pair with diamonds that will create a unique and truly beautiful ring that you will love forevermore.

One of the great things about clear diamonds is that they pair well with pretty much any other stone. You can choose any color and it will pair well with a clear, high-quality diamond. Many choose to use diamonds as accent stones set around another center gemstone. Others will go the opposite direction and have a central diamond as the focal point of the ring and surround it with some sort of different type of stone.

If you want a more daring look, you might pair colored diamonds with other stones. Diamonds come in a wide range of colors, from grey and black to pink or blue. Yellow diamonds are the rarest and coveted colored diamonds and they come with a hefty price tag but can provide a stunning centerpiece for an engagement ring.

Let’s take a look at some of the prettiest and most stunning alternatives to diamonds for engagement rings.

Rubies

Rubies are stunning gems that range in color from a pinkish hue to deep blood red. The stone is in the Corundum family and is a rare, but very durable stone. To the surprise of many, rubies are oftentimes more expensive than diamonds due to their rarity, especially if you want one of the deepest red, richly hued stones. 

Rubies can be treated and cut into pretty much any shape. They are not, of course, as hard as diamonds, but they are an exceptionally hard stone making them suitable for unique cutting and finishes. Since they are so hard, they can take pretty much any type of cutting style that diamonds can take. 

An interesting note about rubies is that they are actually sapphires, but we separate them due to their color. The category of sapphire includes all the other colors of gems in the Corundum family. Due to their incredibly unique color, rubies are placed in their own category of stone. 

Rubies are not only prized for their rich color and hard, durable properties, but they also have what are called fluorescent properties. What this means is that in the sunshine, these stones give off a glow that is stunning and unique, making them highly prized.

Sapphires

As we say in the section above, sapphires are actually a larger family of gemstones in the Corundum family. These stones come in a variety of colors, but we typically think of a rich, royal blue-colored stone. However, sapphires can be white, black, yellow, orange, pink, purple, or even brown.

These stones are prized for their wide range of colors and also their durability. Diamonds are the hardest stones we know of, with a Mohs hardness of 10 – which is the highest. Sapphires rate 9 on the Mohs scale, which makes them well suited to a wide range of cuts and finishes. 

Sapphire is a tough and durable stone that has fluorescent properties so it glows and glints in the sunlight. 

Opals

If you want a truly unique-looking ring, opals are a great choice. These are highly unique stones that come in a range of iridescent colors that glint and shine like no other type of stone. Opal is classified as a mineraloid because it has highly amorphous properties.

There are two main classes of opals: precious and common. Precious opals have iridescence, whereas common opals do not. For wedding rings, most people choose precious opals because of the way the color plays and glints in different lighting conditions.

The opal’s internal characteristics cause the stone to diffract light, which results in what is called play-of-color and gives opal its unique luster. Opals can be translucent or opaque and have background colors of pretty much any hue.

These stones have a very unique and sophisticated array of colors that play in the light in incredibly beautiful ways. Black opal is the rarest type of opal and this stunning stone will make a statement piece out of any engagement ring.

Emeralds

Emeralds are stunningly hued, richly green stones that get their color from small amounts of chromium or vanadium. The main composition of the stone is beryl.  This material is hard enough to be cut but is far less hard than diamonds and other harder stones. Emeralds rate between 7.5-8 on the Mohs hardness scale.

These stones are actually rather rare. Some estimates say they are 20 times rarer than diamonds. For this reason, they tend to be a lot more expensive than diamonds to many people’s surprise. 

The more saturated and green the stone, the rarer and higher quality the emerald is. Emeralds will range from a blue-green to a saturated, deep, and rich green. The more green the stone, the more coveted the stone is and the higher price it will command. 

There is an incredibly rare type of stone called a red emerald or bixbite. It is the rarest type of emerald and comes in a red hue. It is so rare and expensive that it is prohibitive for many people to use in engagement rings. 

Topaz

Topaz is a rather unusual stone that is lesser-known than many of the other stones we have looked at here. These stones range in color from deep, rich orange, to green, pink, and purple. The stone is a silicate mineral that is comprised of aluminum and fluorine. 

In its natural state, topaz is generally a brownish or golden color. Other impurities in the stone will give it other hues. There is a range of treatments used on topaz, which will change the hue of the stone. These give it a red, pink, opaque, or even green color. 

These are highly unique stones that aren’t often used in engagement rings because of their unusual color. For the right person, however, these stones are eye-catching, stunning, and make a great option for a truly unique engagement ring that will be the talk of the town. 

Topaz can be less expensive than many of the other stones we discuss here.  Rarer or treated stones are popular when used in higher-end jewelry. White and blue topaz tend to be pretty cheap and their color isn’t the best for engagement rings. The rarer, more richly hued stones like deep orange, are highly sought after.

Citrine

Citrine is another lesser-known gemstone that can make an eye-catching and unique stone choice for an engagement ring. These stones range in color from yellow to red-orange and may be more or less saturated, which will dull or amplify the color. 

The paler or duller the stone, the less rare and expensive it will be, so it is the richly hued and highly saturated citrine that is most often used in high-end jewelry. These stones can be a really deep and saturated red-orange color, some approaching a deep brown.

The stone is a variety of quartz and as a result, is easily cut and polished into a luxurious and sparkly stone. It is a 7 on the Mohs hardness scale, so it is hard enough to be cut into a wide range of shapes. It is also durable and highly wearable, making it a great option for an engagement ring that will be worn every day. 

While this stone is more common than some of the others we have looked at here, as earth tone jewelry grows in popularity, so too does the value of the stone. A deeply hued stone will be less expensive than many of the other stones we reviewed (except for, perhaps, topaz), putting it in the reach of those with more modest budgets but that want something truly unique that isn’t like what most people wear. 

In Closing

Don’t fear being creative when it comes to choosing an engagement ring. It is a piece of jewelry you will wear for the rest of your life, so it should be something that reflects your personality, relationship, and style. Most people choose diamonds for their engagement ring. Clear, highly-rated diamonds are stunning stones. They will set off well against pretty much any type of metal to create a stunning piece of jewelry. However, some people want to stand apart from the crowd, so the traditional diamond isn’t the best choice.

If you want something that spans traditional and unique, you can use diamonds as an accent to set against other, more unique stones. Or, perhaps, you go the opposite way and have a central diamond that is flanked by other types of stones.

Be Creative!

Your imagination is the limit when it comes to the type of stones you can use for your engagement rings. Precious stones come in every color of the rainbow. They can be used to create a truly stunning and one-of-a-kind engagement ring that is eye-catching and perfectly fits your style. In this article, we touched on some of the prettiest and most unique stone alternatives to diamonds for engagement rings, but of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list. 

Whether you go for stunning, richly hued rubies or diffracting opals, you get an engagement ring that is incredibly unique and that perfectly matches your unique style. 

Given that you wear your engagement ring every day, you want to choose something that will fit your style and goes with a range of different looks. The ring will need to move seamlessly from the office to social events. It should be something that is reflective of your personality and that amplifies your style.

Choosing an alternative stone to diamonds for your engagement ring is not necessarily going to be cheaper. Many of the stones we look at here are very rare. Far rarer than diamonds. They come with higher price tags but with a unique look and feel that is unmatched by any other type of stone. Creativity when choosing your engagement ring will help ensure that you choose the best ring that will suit your look, style, budget, and personality. You don’t have to go with a diamond simply because it is traditional. You can be creative and find an alternative type of stone that will set off against the precious metal of the ring to create a truly stunning piece that you will be happy to wear every single day.