How to Choose What Wedding Jewellery to Wear

Picking out your bridal jewellery is exciting and a chance to bring your own personal touch to your special day. Now that you’ve fallen in love with the perfect partner and the perfect dress, it’s time to continue the journey to finding the wedding jewellery that you’ll love forever too.

Selecting your wedding accessories may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve put together some of our top tips, tricks and advice on how to select your wedding jewellery which we’ve learnt from working with hundreds of brides.

Remember less is more

The most essential tip is you really don’t want to over do it. Though it is tempting when there is so much gorgeous wedding jewellery out there, you want to choose jewelry that will elevate your bridal look, rather than overshadow it. Stick with a few key pieces and build your look around those. If you have a lot of glitz and glamour on the fingers, you don’t want a heavy jewelled bracelet. Balance your look with a combination of eyecatching and elegant pieces that accessorise your dress without taking away from it.

Take a look at your dress neckline

To make sure your jewellery will complement your dress, it is important to consider how your choices will work with your dress neckline. You want to pick jewelry that “fills in the gaps” of skin shown by your wedding dress but never overlaps with your dress - that is what achieves that effortless bridal look. Here’s our top jewellery tips to complement your dress neckline:

Strapless Necklines: As these necklines leave quite a bit of bare skin exposed around the collarbone, necklaces are a great choice for strapless dresses. For strapless necklines, we recommend going with a choker or shorter length necklace, rather than a medium or long length necklace so it sits perfectly in the middle of that empty space.

Sweetheart Necklines: Medium length pendants or medium length drop necklaces perfectly complement the dip in a sweetheart neckline. Since this dress style has a delicate, romantic feel, go for simple and elegant matching sets to accent the look.

Halter Necklines or High Necklines: Halter-style wedding dresses and wedding dresses with high necklines don’t leave much room for a necklace, so we generally recommend skipping necklaces if your dress is in one of these styles so the focus remains on the dress itself. Instead, consider balancing the high neck with a pair of shimmering earrings and a more eye-catching statement bracelet. 

V-Neck: A pendant necklace that reaches the length of the V-cut is a flattering choice. Complemented with a sparkly pair of drop or dangle earrings brings balance to the attention on your decolletage area and light to the face.

Hairstyles are important! 

Your choice of wedding hairstyle will have a big impact on the types of jewelry that will look best with your wedding look, but particularly for your earrings. Up-dos like bridal buns and braids pair really well with bold statement earrings as well as with more delicate earrings, like drop earrings or studs as all of these will photograph well. Your hair is up so you’re more likely to see your earrings which means you have the opportunity to go for more of a showstopper piece then you do with your hair down. 

If you’re wearing your hair romantically down, you might lean towards delicate diamond stud earrings as usually hair down is already a statement and statement earrings get lost or may clash depending on your hairstyle. Another gorgeous option is  a pair of elongated drop earrings or thread-throughs that can peak through long hair - simply stunning!

Match your metals

At Jason Ree, we’re big on pushing boundaries and mixing metals, but on your wedding day you want a cohesive look that will photograph timelessly and suit the hue of your dress. Sticking with a single precious metal for all your wedding jewelry looks much more harmonious and chic.

If you can’t decide on what metal you like more, consider what works best with your dress. For true white dresses something bright like silver, white gold or palladium will amplify sparkle. For ivory dresses, gold jewellery tends to bring out the best in this creamy shade. For blush dresses, rose gold completes the soft and feminine look. At the end of the day pick what metal you the love most and what works best with your engagement ring and wedding band.

Personal taste over Pinterest trends!

Bridal jewellery trends will come and go but your wedding photos and memories will last forever. You want to make sure your wedding jewellery really means something to you and reflects your true personality, rather than what’s hot at the moment. Rather than going with large statement earrings that you don’t normally wear, you might feel more confident with a classic pair of these diamond drop earrings or some simple gold hoops with a hint of sparkle like these.  Timeless and classic is always a winner.

In saying that, there’s nothing wrong with embracing wedding trends if it feels like the right fit for you and your style. Just trust follow your instincts on the pieces you naturally gravitate towards rather than those others tell you to.

Consider your sentimental items!

If you’re a bride -to-be, it’s likely you’ve heard about the tradition to wear four good luck charms (“something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue”) on your wedding day.  If you’re looking to add one or all of these sentimental good luck charms to your wedding jewellery look, here’s a few ways to incorporate them.

Something Old: This could be an heirloom piece of jewellery from your family like a bridal hair comb or something your grandmother wore on her wedding day. But you can also interpret it to include stones that are old - like natural sapphires which began forming thousands of years ago under the Earth’s surface. A pair of sapphire earrings or a gorgeous drop necklace would make a beautiful inclusion.

Something New: This is the chance to treat yourself to that new piece you’ve been eyeing all in the name of tradition! Whether it is this stunning diamond tennis bracelet or a elegant stacking ring to balance out the fingers, this is perhaps the most flexible of the good luck charm categories. You could even look into getting a new blue sapphire piece and tick two good luck charms off in one.

Something Borrowed: While traditionally interpreted as a piece you borrow from a friend or family member for the special occasion, if you want something truly unique, consider these mokume gane earrings. Mokume gane is an ancient metal welding technique ‘borrowed’ from Japanese samurai sword makers and is forged in fire - beautifully symbolic of the couple that has had their fair share of challenges.

Something Blue: Blue jewellery may not immediately appeal to your all-white look but there are a number of blue gemstones are just breathtaking and a gift for life. You can go for something bold and beautiful like this Australian Blue Sapphire stone ring or maybe a more subtle touch of blue with these Aquamarine stud earrings.

But the most important thing to remember is it is your wedding at the end of the day, no one elses! Trust your instincts and stay true to your personal taste. If you do that, your wedding jewellery will always look immaculate on you!