Famous Wedding Rings Throughout History
While celebrity wedding rings and engagement rings are always topic of hot conversation, there are several famous wedding rings throughout history that have made their marks as well.
Size Doesn’t Always Matter
Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, King of England, was presented with one of the smallest wedding rings ever made when she married King Francis I in 1518.
The ring’s size is infamous because of the fact that Princess Mary was 2 years old when the marriage actually took place.
It is said that once she went on to become Queen Mary, she kept what officially became the smallest wedding ring in history on a chain around her neck to always remember being a child bride.
Improvise Wedding Rings When Necessary
Wedding rings have been standard fare for over a millennium. Pope Innocent III, back in the 1100s, passed a decree that stated any wedding ceremony that was to be considered valid by the church must also include the exchange of rings.
It is primarily because of this decree that Princess Mary’s tiny ring was required, despite her young age.
The only issue was the fact that he did not specify what material the rings should or must be made of. In one of the earliest examples of improvisation, the Duke of Hamilton, in the 1700s, was noted for using two rings from his bed curtains since that was all he had available at the moment.
Some Royal Wedding Rings Still Have Class
Flash forward to the year 2005 and you have on record the sophisticated and highly detailed pair of custom made 22kt gold wedding rings exchanged between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The civil ceremony held in April was much less televised than his previous marriage to Princess Diana, but the rings were said to have been some of the most ornate pieces even made. Even the fact that they were created from 22kt gold as opposed to the standard 18kt or 24kt gold made them even more unique and worth noting in the pages of history.
And Now On To The Celebrity Wedding Rings
The notoriety of wedding rings throughout history would never be complete without some famous celebrity acknowledgements.
One of the most extravagant wedding rings was that worn by Priscilla Presley, given to her by the King himself, rock n’ roll royalty Elvis Presley.
It was a 3.5-carat blue diamond surrounded by an additional 21 smaller stones, a logical choice of wedding rings considering it came from one of the famous personalities, but still considered a jaw-dropper in the 1960s.
Britney Spears’ marriage to Kevin Federline may not have lasted, but her choice of a dual banded combination wedding ring and engagement ring set a serious trend where wedding rings were concerned.
In another marriage that will go down in history, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey’s wedding rings were a dazzling sight to behold.
Totalling nearly 4 carats, they were easily recognizable by the fact that Jessica’s white gold ring was designed using a variation on the popular three stone ring, often to symbolize the past, present, and future.
Unfortunately for the couple, the rings were the only thing between them that had a future.
Dennis Quaid, following the coloured diamond trend closely, choose one of the more colourful wedding rings on the market when he presented his bride, Kimbery Buffington, with a stunning canary yellow diamond weighing in at 3 carats and circled by white diamonds.
As you can see, while there are several infamous wedding rings noted throughout history, it still tends to be the celebrity wedding rings of the present day that people remember the most.