Based from historical records, the creation of wedding and engagement rings can be credited to Pope Innocent III. He asserted that there must be a waiting period between engagement and marriage. Because both of the aforementioned events were considered as contracts, these rings were insignias that legally seal these deals. Prior to the 13th century, it was only the engagement ring that was given in Europe, though the history of wedding rings are far older than we are aware of.
Almost five thousand years ago, the Egyptians used reed or hemp rings as representations of eternity, a circle that has no beginning and no end. During those times, the stone cut types that we are familiar with such as the princess cut and emerald cut were not yet in use. In the biblical era, great dowry gifts were handed during the betrothal of couples. It has been assumed that rings, most especially those that are created from precious metals, were substituted as less expensive forms of dowries.
In the course of the Roman reign, rings were used to seal deals and denote ownership. High ranking officials wore gold rings, while ordinary citizens wore iron rings as a sign of their position in the community. The latter rings were relative to the large iron rings that serve as key holders inside the household. Hence, it has been speculated that if a Roman citizen gave his bride an iron marriage ring, he was actually giving her access to his household and all his material goods.
It was during 16th century England when the wedding ring was officially moved from the right ring hand to the left hand. Some historians speculated that this change was done in order to show the position of women in the society, since the right hand was contemplated as the hand of power. The placement of the ring on the third finger of the left hand was supposed to be the place where the vena amoris or love vein can be found; as such, since the ring is a sign of love it was appropriated that the finger where the ring would be placed should be directly connected to the heart. Today, wedding and engagement rings are both widely worn on the left hand; however, there are some countries that traditionally wear their engagement rings on the right hand such as Poland and Ukraine.
For Puritans, rings were symbols of heathen so they did not used it for their wedding ceremonies; instead they make use of marriage thimbles to seal their wedding vows. The Victorians were the ones who welcomingly embraced the custom of wedding rings and accentuated them with flowers and hearts. The Edwardians on the other hand, added leaf and other ornate patterns, which all started art deco rings. Since then, the use of gem stone rings were widely acknowledged along with the use of stone cut types like the princess cut, emerald cut, step cut and more.
Men in general never wore wedding and engagement rings until World War II. It was the soldiers going off to war who first decided to wear these rings in order to remember their wives or partners back home. Currently, marriage ceremonies are also regarded as double ring ceremonies. This means that both the bride and the groom are given wedding rings to symbolize their commitment and love for each other, though wearing of engagement rings are still appropriated for women.
Wedding and engagement rings are symbols of love that were designed to last forever. However, history has it that before these rings were considered as such, they were first used as attestation of contract deals as well as insignias of societal position. The marriage ring we know today has a truly rich history, along with the gem stone cut types that we admire such as the princess cut or any form of cut for that matter.
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