Looking for a wedding band outside the norm?
Well...
You've come to the right place.
Many people choose to step outside the traditional diamond ring and venture into the world of gemstones.
One of the most popular gemstones people like in their wedding bands is sapphire.
With my guide, you’ll be able to find out:
- What are sapphire wedding bands, exactly?
- What makes a good sapphire wedding band?
- Where can you buy sapphire wedding band?
- Most importantly, which should you pick?
| Product | Details | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. James Allen 18K Sapphire Ring | 
Best Overall
|
Comfort Fit
|
Check Current Price |
| 2. La4ve 14K Diamond & Sapphire Ring | 
Best Value
|
Dark Blue Sapphire
|
Check Current Price |
| 3. 14K Rose Gold & Blue Sapphire Ring |  |
Milgrain Style
|
Check Current Price |
| 4. Blue Nile Sapphire & Diamond Halo Ring |  |
Great Durability
|
Check Current Price |
| 5. 14K White Gold Pave Blue Sapphire Ring |  |
Versatile
|
Check Current Price |
Our Overall #1 Rated Pick
(updated as of 1/8/2020)
18K White Gold Sapphire and Baguette Diamond Anniversary Ring
- VS1/VS2 Clarity
- Works with many engagement rings
- High quality jewelry from James Allen
My overall top pick for the best sapphire wedding band is the 18K White Gold Sapphire and Baguette Diamond Anniversary Ring from James Allen.
Why?
Because the ring is so versatile and matches with any engagement ring or anniversary ring. It can stack with other bands as well.
I love that out of all of these bands on this list, this sapphire wedding band has the best clarity. VS1/VS2 clarity in diamonds is great, especially with baguette diamonds.
And while the price might look high, you can be assured that your money will be well spent if you purchase this sapphire wedding band.
5 Best Sapphire Wedding Bands
After pages, tabs, and blurs of blue sapphires, I've made my decision. These are the best sapphire wedding bands on the market today.
Reviews Of The Best Sapphire Wedding Bands
1. 18K White Gold Sapphire and Baguette Diamond Anniversary Ring - Best of the Best
I’ve scoured the pages of reputable and reasonably priced sapphire wedding bands, and have come to a decision.
The best sapphire wedding band currently on the market comes from our good friends, James Allen. James Allen has high quality fine jewelry.
I love that this ring has baguettes and round stones it. Baguettes have always been a favorite of mine.
Being step-cut, they won’t have as much reflection as round-cut stones, but that’s good because it won’t detract from the engagement ring.
The width is 2mm, which is a great width to accommodate any engagement ring, even if it has a thicker shank. Did I mention it was comfort-fit? And of course, with it being channel-set, there’s no worries about stones getting pulled up by catching on stuff.
Now, for a couple things I’m not entirely thrilled about. From what I can tell on the website, this ring only is available a range of 6-8 ring sizes.
If you order one, you’ll have to get the ring sized, unless you contact James Allen and see if they can make one in your size or when it’ll be available.
I’m also not a fan of 18k gold either, but many people are. I think when having a ring, the higher the carat is in the gold, the more likely the ring is going to be scratched or dented because of gold’s softness.
Pros
- Comfort fit
- Perfect width to stack
- Great as a pair or by itself
- VS1, VS2 Clarity
Cons
2. La4ve Diamonds 14K White Gold Princess-Cut Diamond and Blue Sapphire Wedding Band Ring - Best Value
I love this blue sapphire ring from Amazon because of its channel-set appearance.
Channel-set rings with princess-cut stones are less likely to fall out than round stones.
Because channel-set rings don’t have prongs, there’s nothing for the ring to catch on.
The thickness of the 14kt white gold allows for better durability as well.
The sapphires are also dark, which is better for clarity and appearance purposes. And of course, the price is a bargain as well.
A drawback to this blue sapphire wedding band is that it can’t be resized. They do offer a ring size chart and offer it in a variety of sizes, but you will have to contact the seller to see you can exchange for a new one.
The minimum clarity and color for this ring is I1-I2 and H-I, so you may find some pretty noticeable inclusions within those diamonds. Lastly, looking at the description and specifications, there are no details about the sapphires, only the diamonds
Pros
Cons
3. 14K Rose Gold Blue Sapphire and Diamond Arrow Shape Wedding Ring
Here’s a different type of ring on list. Wedding bands with a vintage ring style feature a pattern called milgrain.
Now...
Milgrain is the bead of metal dripped onto the edges of the metal giving it that old-school vibe.
I’m seeing more and more blue sapphires get paired with rose gold and it looks good. I love how unique this sapphire wedding band is.
Not only is the metal and the setting unique, but we have some marquise shaped sapphires within it to boot. I love this ring because it can accompany an engagement ring, standalone on its own, or be stackable.
James Allen offers engraving on this reasoning, but the band is so thin that most people can’t read the engraving without a magnifying glass, so that’s a little disappointing. But, that’s just because of the thinness.
Another issue you may come across with this band is how thin it is. Thin is a great for stackable rings.
But, if you have larger fingers, this band is going to look very awkward on you. If you need it sized, it may cost a lot more, because they’ll have to add more gold to the shank or it could break from stretching.
Pros
- Vintage milgrain ring style
- Perfect for stackable rings
- Unique marquise sapphires
Cons
- Engravings are not readable
- Does not look good with large fingers
- Will have to pay high out of pocket sizing costs if you need to change size
4. Sapphire and Diamond Halo Eternity Ring
This pick is a gorgeous halo diamond and round sapphire eternity ring from Blue Nile. Eternity rings are the name of a style where the stones go all the way around it.
You have to be careful with eternity rings because the stones on the bottom of the ring may get knocked around a bit.
This is why most stones in wedding rings don’t go all the way around. This ring isn’t made to fit with an engagement rings due to its width and style.
Eternity bands aren't made to accompany, but they make excellent anniversary gifts. Wedding rings that are made to standalone rather than accompany are normally used for anniversary rings.
Still, people in certain jobs where they can’t have an engagement ring stick up (like nurses), so they’ll opt for a wedding band like this. It is perfect for someone searching for anniversary gift ideas.
Remember, eternity rings are not sizable, so if you order your size and it doesn’t fit, you’ll have to contact Blue Nile.
Pros
- Strong width means increased durability
- Great option for those working with gloves
- Commands attention as a standalone ring
Cons
5. 14K White Gold Pave' Set Blue Sapphire Ring
It’s a pretty simple band, I must admit. But in jewelry world, simplicity allows for better creativity.
This sapphire wedding band from James Allen features an all sapphire thin band with round-cut prong-set stones. I like this band because of its simplicity and versatility.
You can wear this wedding band with any straight-band engagement ring, or you can wear it as part of a stackable ring set.
I also like that it is low prong-set. You can tell in the pictures that the prongs really secure each and every sapphire. I think my favorite part of it is that it has so many stones that will make it easy to match up to another ring’s uniformity.
Now, here's what I don’t like. I don’t like that it comes in a range of two sizes. That’s unfortunate for someone who doesn’t wear a 4-6. I also don’t care for the specifications of this piece.
They have no real grading for the sapphires. Lastly, it’s kind of a bummer that this ring doesn’t look as good as a standalone ring or an anniversary ring. For the best use, these kinds of bands need to be a part of a bigger design.
Pros
Cons
What Are Sapphires?
If you've heard anything about jewelry, you've probably heard of sapphire. Sapphires are most commonly associated with the color blue, but they actually come in a variety of colors.
However, the term of sapphire is generally used to refer to the blue sapphire by both jewelers and customers alike.
How Are Sapphires Formed?
Sapphires are made of the mineral called corundum, which is also known as aluminum oxide. All corundum is sapphire, with the exception of red corundum. Red corundum is the ruby gemstone.
Pure corundum is white, but when it is forming next to other minerals, the colors will seep into the corundum to eventually create the rainbow of sapphires out on the market today.
Read Also: White sapphire vs natural diamonds: which is better?
Rough sapphire is usually found in limestone that has been recrystallized and within metamorphic and igneous rock that have a fair amount of aluminum in them. Depending on which mineral seeps in to the lattice-like top of corundum, the sapphire will take on different colors.
When titanium is mixed with corundum, it creates the infamous blue sapphire. If the corundum has iron present in it, it will become a yellow sapphire.
A purple sapphire contains vanadium. If it contains chromium, the result will be a pink sapphire. There are other colors of sapphire such as green, black, and orange.
The crystals begin to grow in their conditions and when the magma in the earth begins to slowly cool, sapphires begin to grow. The slower the magma cools, the bigger the sapphire ends up being.
Where Are Sapphires Found?
Sapphires are a very common found stone and has many locations where it is mined. Some of the large sapphire deposits are located in Australia, Cambodia, Nigeria, Thailand, and China. There are many additional locations as well.
What Are Sapphire Wedding Bands?
Sapphire wedding bands will generally be seen in blue sapphire and is one of the most popular gemstone engagement rings and wedding bands.
While most of what is found on the market in sapphire wedding bands is for women, men can still enjoy a blue sapphire band.
Something about wearing blue sapphire rings is striking to a lot of people. Some wedding bands are all sapphires, but it more popular to wear a wedding band of a combination between blue sapphires and white diamonds.
Sapphire wedding bands are a perfect choice for wedding jewelry. Being the most popular gemstone and September’s birthstone, everybody wants to own a piece of sapphire jewelry. Sapphires make an excellent choice in both wedding bands and engagement rings.
The durability of the sapphire gemstone is what makes it the best gemstone choice to put into a wedding band. The gemstone reaches a 9 on the Moh scale, the scale in which all minerals are determined by hardness and durability. The hardest mineral is a diamond, which reaches a 10 on the Moh scale.
Styles Of Sapphire Wedding Bands
Blue sapphire wedding bands can come in all sorts of different styles.
Sometimes they’re set in 14K white gold, yellow gold, rose gold, or even platinum. The contrast of the blue actually looks best in a white metal, but rose gold sapphire wedding bands are being introduced more.
Sapphires come in many different cuts, or (diamond shapes). In a blue sapphire engagement ring, the sapphire center stone is most often found as a round, oval, cushion, or princess cut gemstone.
But for a sapphire wedding band, the shapes are generally round, princess, or baguette. Sometimes you’ll be able to spot a unique band with cuts like marquise or pear.
Read also: Wedding Band Settings Guide
Are Sapphire Wedding Bands Expensive Or Cheap?
The price of a sapphire wedding band depends on a number of factors. They are affected by the 4Cs, but deviate a little because they are not diamonds.
Color
With gemstones, they have a different color scale than diamonds do. Think of the sapphire color scale as an intensity.
The more titanium that is in the corundum, the higher the intensity of color is within the sapphire. The darker the sapphire is, the more expensive it will be.
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of dark blue sapphire. While many others find the dark blue beautiful, I prefer a lighter version of the stone.
I prefer transparency in my gemstones rather than a darkness or opaqueness. These kinds of sapphires are less expensive.
Clarity
Even though the best sapphires are dark, they still have inclusions. A variety of inclusions are found throughout sapphire stones, either on the surface, edge, or beneath the surface.
If you are working with a sapphire like the ones I like, clarity is especially important because of the lightness of the blue within the gemstone.
Read also>> Where to buy sapphire jewelry online?
Carat Weight And Size
As with any precious stone, the size of it is going to have an impact on price. And even though carat is a weight rather than a size, most people associate it as a size. Sapphires can run between $30 per carat up to $100 per carat.
Natural vs Lab-Created
Most gemstones are color-treated by applying heat to the stone for a richer and deeper color. These gemstones are generally affordable. Lab-created sapphire is very common and used in most sapphire wedding bands today.
Lab-created sapphires do not have many inclusions, as they have been treated to enhance both clarity and color
Natural sapphire is rare and more expensive. The reason being for this is that they are difficult gemstones to mine, require extensive labor to do so, and rare to make a good quality gemstone.
Natural sapphires with high clarity are very expensive. The going rate for natural sapphire can be $50 per carat up to around $10,000 per carat.
Did you know: The Blue Bell of Asia was the most expensive blue sapphire to exist. The stone was a total of 392.52 carats and 100% genuine. It was a Ceylon sapphire that sold for over $17 million in 2014.
The following video will show you tips in buying a sapphire:
What Should You Look for When Buying a Sapphire Wedding Band
When you purchase a sapphire wedding band, you’ll want to take all of the points that factor into price, into your decision.
My advice is to have a general idea of what you’re looking for before going on the hunt for sapphire wedding bands.
Metal
Gold
What metal do you want?
White gold is the most popular for sapphire wedding and engagement rings.
Some people do prefer the sunny presence of yellow gold bands.
Rose gold has become popular within the last ten years and can be paired with sapphires as well, though these types of rings aren’t too common.
Platinum
Or, you could skip gold metal altogether and go for platinum. Platinum jewelry is more expensive due the durability of the metal.
Platinum rings are much stronger than gold wedding rings, which is a soft metal. Platinum wedding bands will be heavier than gold rings, so you’ll have to keep that in mind.
Alternative Metals
Now, if you’re feeling adventurous or if you have more industrial tastes, you can try sapphires in alternative metals of wedding bands. Many men’s wedding bands include sapphires within metals such as stainless steel, titanium, cobalt, or tungsten.
These metals are great for wearing because they carry a "comfort fit" , which basically hugs your finger comfortably. Most sapphires in these types of bands are channel-set.
Sterling Silver
Sterling silver is a great budget option for a sapphire ring. In retail stores, you're more likely to find a blue sapphire set in sterling silver. This is true for many sapphires, including both the popular white sapphire and pink sapphire.
Stones
You already know that you should consider both the intensity and clarity of sapphires in a wedding or an engagement ring. With wedding bands, the sapphire is generally a ½ carat or smaller and the band usually contains a few of them.
It can be difficult to determine clarity, but the smaller they are, the less significant the clarity is for smaller stones.
So, if you are looking at a sapphire wedding band that contains quite a few blue sapphires (say 10 or more), they’re most likely too small for clarity to really even matter. You couldn’t notice an inclusion within a blue stone that small. The color helps hide the inclusions as well.
When picking out sapphires as a loose stone or already set within a ring, you’ll want to make sure that all the sapphires within the wedding ring are uniform throughout.
They should all be of the same clarity grade and color grade. Make sure they are the same color throughout, because there can be irregularities in the tone of sapphires. If you have different tones of within gemstone rings, it can look conflicting and take away from the overall beauty of the piece.
But no matter how small the sapphires are, of course you'd want real, not fake, sapphires for your wedding band.
Matching To Other Pieces
Often times when searching for a sapphire wedding band, it is accompanying a sapphire engagement ring. Sapphire engagement rings can be solitaire, set with a halo around them, and be accompanied by many side stones.
Sapphire bridal sets are the most popular gemstone bridal sets available. It is not often you see sapphire bridal sets with every stone in it as a blue sapphire.
Sometimes, it will just be a diamond wedding band with just a few sapphires. Within an engagement ring, the sapphire can be seen as the center stone and the rest of it is a diamond ring.
If there are diamond or sapphire side stones in the engagement ring or band, you’ll want to make sure the number of diamonds in the band match up to the number in the engagement ring.
For example, say you have a sapphire and diamond pave wedding band that has five prong-set stones in it. Let’s also say it contains both round cut diamonds and sapphires within it.
Now, let’s say your sapphire and diamond engagement ring has an emerald cut sapphire center stone surrounded by a halo made of round diamonds.
It’s important that the number of side stones in the engagement ring are close to the numbers of visible stones in the wedding band. Most bands actually cut off stones midway down the ring shank.
This is because if you have stones all the way down, it makes it harder to change ring size and it compromises the integrity of the prongs holding in the stones.
When the band has more stones than the side stones on the engagement ring, your blue sapphire bridal set can look mismatched, as if they don’t go together. They don’t have to be the exact same number of stones, but should be fairly close in number and size.
So, how do you pick out the best sapphire wedding band?
- Make sure to look at every aspect of your sapphire wedding ring before purchasing it.
- Ask the jeweler or look in the specifications and look at both the color or clarity grades.
- Make sure each sapphire has uniformity in both color and shape.
- Do not go into your search blind. Knowing what kind of metal and ring style you want will help you weed out the wedding rings you don’t want and take up less of your time.
- Make sure your wedding band matches and lines up with your engagement ring, if it’s a wedding ring set.
- Always remember that your sapphire wedding rings should reflect your individuality and personality and choose from the heart!
How To Clean Sapphire Wedding Bands
Sapphire wedding bands are pretty easy to clean. If you’re looking for a free method, using water and a little bit of dish soap will do just fine.
Take a soft bristled brush and gently brush all around the ring and in-between every area you can. This method will work fine for all metals.
If you’re purchasing jewelry cleaner (which I highly recommend), it’s pretty inexpensive, like less than ten bucks. If your sapphire engagement or wedding band is made of silver, you can only use silver cleaner on it.
Jewelry should never sit in silver cleaner because of its high potency. It should be dipped, swished around in, and pulled back out to be dried with a paper towel. Silver cleaner has a tendency to dull when being cleaned, but a polishing cloth will get it all shiny again.
Likewise, sapphire jewelry set in yellow gold, rose gold, or white gold can be cleaned in gold cleaner. They can soak in it and don’t require any extra tips.
If you are using an ultrasonic cleaner, you may not want to put sapphires in it. Jewelry stores do it all the time, but it is not recommended for color treated gemstones to be in ultrasonic machines.
Where To Buy Sapphire Wedding Bands
While there are many different retailers and online stores that sell sapphire wedding bands, there are a few that stand out above the rest. Blue Nile and James Allen are my favorite places to shop.
I love that you can customize a ring online and see it come together before your very eyes. They have tons of loose sapphires stones to choose from, all with varying intensities. They are extremely high quality fine jewelry.
But, if neither James Allen nor Blue Nile is in your budget at the moment, you can find some great sapphire wedding bands on Amazon. They offer a bunch of different wedding rings at various prices in many of the metals we've talked about today.
Overall, I believe this baguette and round cut band is the best sapphire wedding band.
With both the diamonds and blue sapphires being different shapes, this band will look great with many different types of engagement rings or it will look fantastic by itself as a wedding or anniversary band.
With gorgeous alternating gemstones and diamonds, this ring is sure to put a little sparkle in your step no matter how you choose to wear it.
