From checking nearby jewelry stores in your town to browsing the various online stores, searching for your preferred wedding ring styles can be one of the more memorable moments of your life.
But if you’ve been on the hunt for a while, you may feel like the various engagement ring styles are beginning to swirl together. This can become immensely frustrating and prevent you from ultimately finding and purchasing your perfect ring.
Whether you prefer an engagement ring with pink diamonds, blue sapphires, white diamonds, or other unique settings and stones, you’re sure to draw inspiration from our ten unique twists on the most popular engagement ring styles. Even if these rings don’t fit the bill, you’ll get more than enough ideas to jump back into engagement ring shopping confidently.
Solitaire Engagement Rings
What kind of guide would this be if we didn’t start with the ultimate classic engagement ring? The solitaire ring
is an oldie but a goodie. A traditional solitaire ring set consists of a plain metal band that leads up to one central stone. The possibilities to customize your band and stone are endless with a solitaire ring.
Edgy Solitaire Engagement Rings
Solitaire band settings can indeed vary. A solitaire band can be flat, rounded, or knife-edge style. The Classic Knife Edge engagement ring is an excellent example of the unique stunning simplicity of a solitaire stone setting. The Knife Edge’s smooth edges are polished to perfection, contributing to a relaxed sophistication in an otherwise simple setting.
The ring head prongs can have tiny stones around the prongs, but the classic style is always plain high-polished white, yellow, or rose gold, and platinum metals.
Vintage Solitaire Engagement Rings
Tried and true vintage styles, like scroll details, leaves, or etched rings, will be your friend. These artsy details will dress up the classic solitaire and ensure your diamond is front and center. Plus, because etched engagement rings have a thicker band, there’s enough room for thoughtful details. Why not consider a delicate hidden halo or personalized loving message? The possibilities are truly endless.
The Vintage Solitaire Ring conjures the cool with its white gold band of intricate and delicate branches that twist effortlessly to frame your center stone. Thanks to its four-prong setting, the ring can showcase a variety of diamond cuts from emerald to Asscher to heart, providing even more of an opportunity for your unique style to shine through.
If you prefer a thin band, you can choose a solitaire setting with details up towards the prongs. If you’re lucky, you might find a solitaire engagement ring style with a thin, detailed band like the Petal Solitaire ring below.
Halo Engagement Rings
While a solitaire engagement ring is known for its sleek and minimalist style, a halo engagement ring is the opposite and is loved for its stunning brilliance and maximalist appeal. If you’re looking for more than just a little sparkle in your life, you might find a halo engagement ring to be your perfect match.
While this style may already stand out on its own, there are a couple of ways to push its ‘WOW’ factor over the edge.
Double or Triple Halo Rings
Traditionally, a halo engagement ring has one halo surrounding its larger stone.
But why stop at just one?
In fact, why not opt for a double halo or a triple halo? This Petite French Double Halo has rows and rows of excellently graded diamonds. Each row works together to create the illusion of one large diamond for a breathtakingly beautiful effect.
Sapphire Halos
One way to capitalize on the halo ring trend while putting your unique spin on it is to utilize different colored stones around the center diamond. The contrast in color draws the eye while demonstrating all of the best traits of both stones.
We particularly love a sapphire halo, as seen above in our Petals Sapphire Halo. The vibrant sapphire lends a rich contrast and deepness to the colorless diamond. Additionally, the added pop of color brings excitement. Certainly, sapphire halos are an eye-grabbing and joyful detail that is here to stay.
Geometric Halo Rings
You can also choose a halo style whose halo is affixed creatively through different diamond styles. Although the metal is visible, this style offers more variation than an otherwise traditional style.
The Kent Halo Engagement Ring features a halo made of baguette diamonds arranged geometrically. The result is a unique Art Deco flair that creates a creative spin on a popular style.
Bezel Engagement Ring
While a bezel setting used to be classified as a unique engagement ring, it has since increased in popularity. A bezel setting will feature your center stone set flush with the metal. This creates a metal wrap that will cover everything but your stone’s face.
Because of the full wrapping, your diamond is more secure than if it was set within a channel or prong setting. For this reason, a bezel setting has become popular for those with active lifestyles or who can’t wear high-profile ring settings.
Half-Bezel Setting
Most bezel settings are full bezels, but half bezel engagement rings put a unique spin to it. A half-bezel will only wrap halfway around your center stone. Your diamond will have more opportunities to showcase its sparkle while still staying secure.
And although half-bezels are harder to find, you are sure to stand out from the crowd when you do find one. Just look at the Lumiere Bridal Set, which manages to be both modern and timeless.
Combined Half-Bezel and Hidden Halo
Take your half-bezel engagement ring a step further by incorporating a hidden halo. Hidden Halos are halo rings with ‘surprise’ halos that have been expertly concealed underneath the raised center gemstone.
The cunning result creates a delightful effect, as witnessed in our Lumiere Ring. The hidden halo appears almost as a belt, cinching the bottom of the half-bezel for a smooth and elegant ring destined to become a family heirloom.
Three Stone Engagement Ring Styles
Three -Stone settings are classic engagement rings with a romantic background. Instead of one center stone, there are three. The middle stone might be a more significant carat weight than the other two, but all three stones will be prominent.
The stones in a three-stone engagement ring are said to represent each phase of your love: the past, present, and future.
While this engagement ring setting has always been an option, not many couples choose them. Often, the style is chosen as an anniversary ring or band.
However, a three-stone engagement ring can be incredibly versatile in style while offering a romantic way to express your love. A three-stone ring can both be present as more modern and edgy or vintage and timeless.
Consider the Madrid 3 Stone Ring above and the Lisbon 3 Stone below. Although each engagement ring is a variation of the three-stone style, they could not be more different.
Each ring offers a luminous vibrancy with two flanking diamonds available in various shapes for further customization. So whether you prefer modern or vintage engagement rings, you can find a three-stone diamond engagement ring that’s as special as your love.
Side Stone Engagement Ring Styles
Some might confuse a three-stone engagement ring style with a side stone engagement ring because both types incorporate three larger stones.
What makes them different? The arrangement of the stones!
In a side stone engagement ring, there is one center gem and a diamond on either side. Additionally, the two stones are set more into the ring band instead of lifted, as commonly seen in 3-stone rings.
Finally, some settings might only have the three stones with a clean, polished band, while others might be adorned with melee diamonds. However, despite this slight difference, most side stone rings can happily coexist with three stone rings.
If you like the look of multiple stones in the center of your ring, you might also consider a two stone engagement ring. This has a different look from a three stone or side stone engagement ring, but it’s another beautiful option.
Colored Side Stones
There are a few fun things you can look for when choosing side stone engagement rings. One such idea is to opt for an engagement ring with colored side stones.
The Chevron Sapphire Halo incorporates delicate and attention-grabbing lab created sapphire on either side of a sparkling center gemstone. The deep blue complements the stunning clarity and excellent color, while a yellow gold band pulls the entire look together to create an elevated casual-cool feel.
Unique Side Stone Shapes
Often, you’ll see fun shapes like trilliants, trapezoids, or tapered baguette side stones. Look for side stone engagement rings that aren’t too close to the same size as your center. The Vivienne Diamond Ring has two marquise side stones that provide an exciting architectural detail in luxurious white gold.
The Non-Specific Engagement Ring Styles
The following five ring styles have more to do with the diamond accents and ring shank of your engagement ring or wedding band. You can incorporate these ring setting styles into any of the engagement ring styles we’ve already mentioned.
Pavé Setting
Pavé diamonds have become a staple to many when selecting an engagement ring setting with smaller diamonds.
“Pave” is a French word meaning “paved.” In a pavé setting, the band is adorned with tiny diamonds with very little metal showing between the stones. It’s said to look like a road paved with accent diamonds.
Broken Rule Pave
To add a unique spin to a popular style like a pavé setting, you should choose an engagement ring style that isn’t seen as popular. Pave diamonds can be found in almost any ring setting, whether it’s a cathedral, halo setting, or most vintage engagement rings.
This Oceana engagement ring setting below breaks the rules of pave engagement rings. The ring metal shows but instead of between the diamonds, which swirl around the main diamond like ocean waves.
Pave diamonds encase the entire ring. This is called an eternity ring style. Eternity rings are pretty easy to find among wedding bands, but eternity engagement ring settings are less common, which amps up their inherent appeal.
Cathedral Setting
An engagement ring in a cathedral setting can be any style, but they’re most often found as a solitaire engagement ring style. The biggest giveaway of a cathedral setting is a metal bar underneath your center stone, connecting both sides of your engagement ring like a bridge. You can only find cathedral settings in engagement ring styles, not wedding rings.
You’ll find that most cathedral settings are high-profile diamond engagement rings. The ring style is excellent for making your center stone the star of the show by elevating it from the rest of your engagement ring as if it’s on a pedestal.
However, finding a unique cathedral setting can prove to be difficult because this classic engagement ring style is combined with many other engagement ring settings.
The Tesora Cathedral engagement ring has a 14K rose gold cathedral ring that incorporates a low-set diamond halo and features a beautifully designed cathedral bar with hidden diamonds below it for a unique take on a classic ring style.
Channel Setting
A channel-setting engagement ring directly speaks to the way your melee stones are aligned in your wedding band. The diamonds are set side by side in a channel with a metal border on the top and bottom of the diamonds. Sometimes the channel the diamonds are sitting in is solid metal, and sometimes it’s open.
Channel set diamonds are either round stones or princess-cut stones. Princess cut channel setting engagement rings look like tiled diamonds. Channel setting engagement rings are often bulkier, not dainty like a prong setting with pave diamonds.
To dress up a channel setting, you should choose an engagement ring that features the channels creatively. So many channel set engagement rings have clean lines and large diamonds. Select a channel set engagement ring featuring accent diamonds and a whimsical style like this white gold oval shape like the Waverly Engagement Ring. We like the way the diamond channels swirl around on the engagement ring, plus you also have hidden diamonds along with the cathedral.
Prong Setting
A prong setting refers to how your diamonds are placed in the setting. Quite simply, the diamonds will be held up by prongs.
In an engagement ring, it might refer to the way your center stone is held up or the way your melee diamonds are held up. It’s more about the prongs than the diamonds. A prong-setting engagement ring is the direct opposite of a channel setting.
Instead of being set down into the band, the tiny diamonds are held up by prongs. The style of the prong setting may differ, such as single prong settings or shared prong settings. All pave diamond engagement rings are prong settings because they’re all held up by tiny prongs.
Freeform Prong Settings
We recommend choosing a freeform ring style for prong-set diamonds. A split shank or tension setting would give it an exotic look. Split shanks look like two bands connecting to your center stone, but there’s space in between them. At the bottom of the ring shank, the two bands come together as if they were always one band.
You can usually find tension ring settings under the Unique categories on most jewelry store websites. Tension settings make your center stone appear as if it’s floating. If you prefer a round brilliant diamond engagement ring, a tension setting is unique enough to still make the most popular diamond shape stand out and make those prong-set stones stand out as a freeform shape.
Cluster Setting
A cluster setting most often describes the type of center stone style you’ve chosen. If your engagement ring has a center, it’ll be a solid stone or multiple small stones. From far away, it can seem like one solid stone.
The cost of a cluster ring is what draws buyers in. They’re more affordable than engagement rings with single carat weight. That’s because it’s much harder to cut a high-quality piece of a rough diamond to fit a 1-carat diamond than eight small diamonds that make up the same width. The total carat weight of your small diamonds could be more than a 1-carat engagement ring and still cost less.
Clusters can have many different styles since the type only focuses on the arrangement of the center stone. Opt for a more traditional approach to the style. When the diamonds are set this close together, your engagement ring will sparkle in every direction. Choose a yellow gold or rose gold ring setting that will make all those stones pop.
Don’t Worry; There’s a Ring Style Out There For You
The truth is, people have been getting engaged for years and years. It’s hard to find a ring no one else has or has seen. But there are so many ways to put your own unique mark on your ring.
Hopefully, you’ve got a general idea of the most popular engagement ring styles and how to choose one that stands out. Happy hunting!
