The wedding ring I bought for my wife is an emerald, (with teensy inexpensive diamond chips on each side just to fulfil the requisite diamond symbolism). And my wife got the gold wedding bands done by a family friend in her home country for a fraction of the cost in the US. More sentimental value for less money.
Also wedding planning protip: any item such as cake or flowers automatically and significantly go up in price if the word “wedding” is in the description. Whatever a wedding cake costs, you can get the exact same cake for less if it’s not called “wedding cake”
Her dress was from a consignment store, we used our backyard, total cost was something like $2400 25 years ago.
