Jewelry Set For Wedding: How to Choose Wedding Jewelry Sets

As your wedding day gets closer, your bridal look is nearly set. You’ve chosen your wedding gown and veil. All you need now are your accessories: shoes and jewelry! As long as the shoes are comfortable, they’re good. Finding the perfect jewelry set for wedding can be a little more complicated.

Your wedding jewelry is going to be a lot more obvious, in person and in pictures. How can you find the perfect wedding jewelry set? Especially if you’re on a budget!

What Jewelry Should You Wear On Your Wedding Day?

Most brides choose to wear a necklace, earrings and a bracelet. But you can mix and match to suit your personal style. Your wedding day jewelry will probably be a bit more elaborate than your everyday jewelry, but you should stick to pieces you’re comfortable with. For example, if you like to wear earrings every day, choose something in your style, just kick it up a notch for your wedding.

Please note: this article contains affiliate links. That means that I may earn a commission if you decide to buy something.

How Much Does Wedding Jewelry Cost?

You can find wedding jewelry sets in every price range. How much you spend depends on the size of your wedding budget.

If you’ve chosen an inexpensive dress, you can choose fashion jewelry in a style that matches. If you’re wearing a custom or designer dress, you might want to spend more and invest in some fine jewelry.

What’s the Difference Between Fashion Jewelry and Fine Jewelry?

The difference between fashion jewelry and fine jewelry is the type of metal and stone used to make it. For example, some jewelry is made of brass, then plated with gold. These pieces are called fashion jewelry. If the piece is 100% gold, it’ll be called fine jewelry.

Fashion Jewelry

If you’re looking for a pretty jewelry set that you’ll only wear on your wedding day, you can find tons of gorgeous fashion pieces that’ll suit every wedding budget.

Fashion jewelry is sometimes called costume jewelry. It’s made from inexpensive metals, like stainless steel, brass, copper or aluminum. The stones are usually crystals or cubic zirconia.

Fine Jewelry

If you want to wear your wedding jewelry set again, you might want to spend a bit more, in order to buy fine jewelry.

Fine jewelry is made from precious metals, including sterling silver, gold and platinum. The stones will be genuine diamond, sapphire, rubies or other gemstones. As a result, fine jewelry will be a lot more expensive than fashion jewelry.

Semi-Fine Jewelry

Some shops will offer pieces called semi-fine, or premium fashion jewelry. They are higher quality than fashion jewelry, but more affordable than fine jewelry.

The pieces are usually gold filled or gold plated. They’ll often use stones that are genuine, but inexpensive, like morganite or lab created stones.

This kind of jewelry won’t be investment pieces, but they’re more durable than fashion jewelry and you’ll be able to re-wear your wedding jewelry set for a long time.

How to Pick the Right Wedding Jewelry

The right wedding jewelry depends on your style and the look you’re going for. You could choose a formal, elegant look. Or you could choose a fun, casual look:

Jewelry For a Classic or Formal Bride

If you’re wearing a ballgown or a classic look, your wedding is the perfect opportunity for a tiara. If you’re not into the tiara, a sparkling collar necklace with statement earrings will look fantastic with a formal wedding dress.

Jewelry For a Romantic or Semi Formal Bride

A jeweled headpiece or headband is perfect for a romantic or semi formal look. If you decide to wear a headpiece, choose smaller earrings and necklaces, to keep your look balanced. Remember to stick with one focal piece.

If you’re wearing a veil, you could wear drop earrings and a necklace. You could choose diamonds, or for a unique look, you could wear jewelry with blush pink or dusty blue stones.

Jewelry For a Rustic, Boho or Casual Bride

A rustic, boho or casual wedding dress will look great with nature inspired headpieces, necklaces or earrings. You can choose a jewelry set to make sure they match. or you can choose separate pieces to show off your personal style.

Diamonds or clear stones match every style and will look great with a casual wedding dress. If you’d like more unique jewelry, you could choose a necklace or earrings made of enamel, ceramic or colored gemstones.

Bridal Jewelry to Suit Your Size

When you’re looking at jewelry, consider your size. If you want to look balanced, choose pieces that are proportional to your size.

For example, if you’re petite, you might want to avoid oversized earrings, or necklaces with huge pendants. If you are large or tall, small, thin pieces might disappear against your overall look.

Wedding Jewelry For Plus Size Brides

If you’re a curvy bride, try to find jewelry that’s proportional to your size and your features. Big, chunky pieces suit plus size women with strong features. But don’t assume you need chunky jewelry just because you’re plus size.

Some people can be plus size, but still have small bones. If you have small bones or delicate features, look for jewelry that has delicate lines. The jewelry should still be proportional, but with light lines or a delicate style.

If you’re not sure which type looks best on you, go to a fashion store that has racks of earrings and a mirror. Hold the different types next to your face and you’ll be able to tell if strong styles or delicate styles suit you best.

Big Earrings with Strong Style

Big Earrings with Delicate Style

What Kind of Jewelry Matches a Wedding Dress?

If you’ve tried on veils with your wedding dress, you might have already realized that white doesn’t actually mean white. There’s bright white, diamond white and off white. Not to mention ivory, cream and champagne. Different metals will look better with each shade of white.

Typically, gold jewelry looks best with warm colors, like cream or champagne.
Silver is usually worn with cool colors, like bright white or diamond white.
Rose gold can go with any color at all, depending on the tones of the jewelry and the dress.

You could also choose your jewelry based on the tones of the metal and your dress:

If you want to wear yellow gold with a bright white dress, look for pieces with the same brightness. Light, golden yellow jewelry will look great with a bright, or diamond white dress.
By the same token, if you want to wear silver with a cream colored dress, look for silver with darker tones.

The most important thing to remember is that there’s no hard and fast rules. If you like the way the jewelry looks with your dress, then it’s perfect.

Pearl Bridal Jewelry

If you’re looking for pearl bridal jewelry for your wedding day, first decide if you want cultured pearls, freshwater pearls or simulated pearls.

Pearls come in all different shades, so consider the shade of your wedding dress as well. If your wedding dress is bright white, look for bright pearls to match. If your dress is champagne or off white, look for pearls with a creamy color instead.

Cultured Pearls

Cultured pearls are usually used in fine jewelry. To get cultured pearls, single oysters are hand seeded, then put back into the water. The pearl is allowed to grow for one and a half to two years. As a result, these pearls are perfectly round, lustrous - and a bit expensive!

These kinds of pearls are called Akoya, Tahitian or South Sea pearls. If you’re looking for this type of fine jewelry, you should go to a reputable shop and choose your pearls in person.

Freshwater Pearls

Freshwater pearls are also considered cultured pearls, but they’re seeded and farmed differently. Akoya, Tahitian and South Sea pearls are seeded with a round bead. Freshwater pearls are grown without the bead, so they have irregular shapes. They’re also a lot less expensive.

Freshwater pearls can be found in round, nearly round or button shapes. They also come in a variety of natural shades, including white, pink and lavender. If you’re looking for freshwater pearls, there’s loads of affordable shops online.

Swarovski Pearls or Simulated Pearls

Simulated pearls are man made pearls. Most are made of glass or plastic with a coating that resembles the color and luster of a natural pearl.

Swarovski pearls are simulated pearls that are created with their own process. A Swarovski pearl has a crystal core and a special coating to help it resemble a cultured pearl. If you’re on a tight budget, simulated pearls can be a beautiful option for your wedding day jewelry.

Where to Shop For Wedding Jewelry

Etsy is a great place to look for bridal necklaces, earrings or sets. You can find pieces in every style and every price range. The best part is all the reviews - you can be sure that other brides were happy with their jewelry before you buy.

Gold Jewelry Sets For Weddings

If you’re looking for gold on a budget, you can choose a gold filled or gold plated jewelry set. Gold filled jewelry is made with an inexpensive metal, then coated with 10, 12 or 14 carat gold. Gold plated jewelry is the same process, but with a thinner coating of gold.

Silver Bridal Jewelry

A silver jewelry set is a great choice for a bridal look. Depending on your budget, you can choose pure silver or silver plated jewelry sets.

If you like the look of silver, but don’t want it to tarnish, another inexpensive option is white gold plated jewelry sets. If you’re on a tight budget, you can even find jewelry sets made of stainless steel that looks like bright silver.

Rose Gold Jewelry Sets For the Bride

Rose gold is gold mixed with silver and copper to give it a pretty pink color. The extra metals also make it more durable and long lasting. A wedding jewelry set made from rose gold will match every skin tone.

The pink color looks great with wedding dresses in every shade - from pure white to cream to blush. Like regular gold, you can find jewelry made from pure rose gold, or jewelry that’s rose gold filled or plated.

Cubic Zirconia Wedding Jewelry

Cubic zirconia is a great choice for a wedding jewelry set if you’re on a tight budget. Yes - it’s cheap, but it’s pretty! Cubic zirconia are actual gemstones that are made in a lab.

The stones are bright and sparkly and they’ll look great with a wedding dress. If you’ve only got a small amount to spend for your jewelry, consider pieces made with these synthetic stones.

Wedding Jewelry With Swarovski Crystals

Swarovski crystals are not actually crystals. They’re cut from glass, then polished and coated to make them look like diamonds.

Swarovski crystals are more expensive than other synthetic crystals because they’re higher quality. The ingredients, and the process they use, creates crystals that have clarity and brilliance close to a real diamond.

If you’re looking for a lot of sparkle on a small budget, Swarovski crystals are the perfect choice for a wedding jewelry set.

Sapphire: Old, New, Borrowed or Blue

If you’re looking for a something blue to complete your bridal look, consider a jewelry set with sapphire gemstones. High quality, natural sapphires can be very expensive.

But you can find lab created sapphires with beautiful, blue coloring that are very affordable. They’ll often be set in 14K gold or gold plated pieces, so sapphires can fit into any size wedding budget.

Making the Perfect Choice

If you can’t remember all these rules, don’t worry. It’s ok to trust your eyes - if the jewelry looks pretty to you, it’ll look pretty to everyone else, too. Choose the pieces that you like, and feel good in. As long as you like it, it’s the perfect choice.