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Engagement ring etiquette – How do you wear your rings?

As with many things at a wedding, there are details people don’t think about until a decision is suddenly due. In this case, it’s engagement ring etiquette. When should you take it off? Which hand should you wear it on for the ceremony? Do you switch hands once you’re married? Whether your ring features a lab created or natural diamond, there are a few simple etiquette guidelines worth knowing.

There are long-standing traditions about where to place your engagement ring and wedding band before the wedding, on the day itself, and after you’ve said “I do.” As a wedding photographer I’m asked about this all the time, so here’s a clear, modern guide you can follow—or tweak to fit your style.

A couples hands lovingly intertwined, showcasing her sparkling engagement ring against a romantic beach sunset.

Engagement ring etiquette

During your wedding ceremony

On your wedding day, tradition says to wear your engagement ring on the third finger of your right hand (your right-hand ring finger). This keeps your left-hand ring finger free so your partner can place your wedding band there during the vows. By the end of the ceremony, you’ll usually have a ring on each hand—your engagement ring on the right and your brand-new wedding band on the left. Many people then slide the engagement ring back so both rings sit neatly together on the left hand.

The practice of using the left-hand ring finger is often attributed to ancient beliefs about a vein that ran from that finger straight to the heart—a romantic idea that helped cement the symbolism of the wedding band. If you like adding meaning to your day, you might enjoy a special moment like a ring-warming before the vows—here are some ring warming ceremony ideas—so your bands carry blessings the second they’re exchanged. At the end of your ceremony you should have a ring on both hands, ready to stack.

Womans hand adorned with engagement ring resting on mans shoulder, symbolizing their joyful bond.

After your wedding ceremony

Once you’re married, the classic order is simple: wear both rings on the left-hand ring finger, with the wedding band closest to your heart (at the base of the finger) and the engagement ring stacked above it. This arrangement is comfortable, secure and instantly signals your status at a glance.

If you prefer a particular style or setting—say a low-profile band for everyday wear—you can still mix things up. Many couples choose practical options for daily life and keep heirloom or statement pieces for special occasions. If you’re currently shopping, browsing engagement ring designs can help you imagine how the two rings will stack.

An elegant engagement ring nestled between beige block-heeled sandals on a wooden surface.

You could also ignore tradition

Etiquette is a guide, not a rule book. Plenty of people keep wearing their engagement ring on the right hand permanently, skip it day-to-day for comfort, or fuse the engagement ring and wedding band into one piece by soldering. Do what feels authentic and practical for you.

Trends change, too. For instance, the “traditional” white wedding gown only became popular in the 1800s—before that, the common hue was actually blue. So if you prefer a different stacking order, a minimalist single band, or an evolving stack with anniversary rings, you’re in great company.

A diamond ring nestled in a blooming pink rose, surrounded by a lush bouquet of vibrant flowers.

Quick tips to make it easy

  • Before the ceremony: Move your engagement ring to your right-hand ring finger.
  • During the ceremony: Wedding band goes on the left-hand ring finger.
  • After the ceremony: Stack both on the left, band first, engagement ring above.
  • Personal preference wins: Comfort and meaning matter more than strict rules.

Final thoughts

Following engagement ring etiquette can add a touch of tradition to your day, but your love story is yours to style. Whether you keep it classic, modernise the stack, or design something entirely unique, the best choice is the one you’ll enjoy wearing every day.

 

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Why are wedding gowns white? A History

Elegant bride in white lace wedding dress holding a bouquet in a softly lit room.

Why are wedding gowns white?

It is perhaps the most iconic scene from any wedding day, the white wedding dress adorning the beaming bride. But why are wedding gowns white? And why do brides wear white? There is a huge number reasons, not in the least the fact that white is the brightest of colours, further enhancing the bride’s visibility on her big day, but it’s a tradition that has evolved over hundreds of years for a variety of reasons.

Alru Farm wedding bride

Why are wedding gowns white? A bit of history.

To be perfectly pedantic, the traditional colour of a modern white dress isn’t actually white, it’s more “Candlelight,” “Ivory,” “Ecru” or “Frost” when putting my graphic designer hat on.. But to the common layman, they all look like a white wedding dress, right? Anyway, the answer to the question of why are wedding dresses white all has to do with the popularity of some people who happened to wear white on their wedding day, and as a species who like to copy our idols, the fashion caught on and became tradition.

Victoria Albert Wedding

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria of England who reigned from 1837-1901 was the first to make white wedding dresses fashionable by wearing a pale gown trimmed in orange blossoms for her 1840 wedding to her first cousin, Prince Albert. Naturally, because she was the queen and the center of all things high society at the time, whatever she wore, everyone tried to copy.

Kind of like how it is now with everything Kate Middleton, or any red carpet celebrity wears being reported on. As a bit of a side note here, Anne of Brittany also made white wedding dresses popular all the way back in 1499, believing that white was a symbol of virginity – despite being married once before. Royal brides also chose white as it was the most difficult solour to achieve using the washing methods of the day.

Before modern wedding gowns were made to be white by Queen Victoria’s wedding, it was quite common for wedding gowns to be any colour. In biblical times, blue (not white) represented purity, and the bride and groom would wear a blue band around the bottom of their wedding attire, contributing to the poem of ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something BLUE’.

Blue wedding dress

The Traditional Colour used to be Blue!

Generally though, before Queen Victoria made it a tradition to wear a white wedding gown as a bride, the most common item of clothing a bride would wear was simply what her favourite, or best garment she had available to her and could be any color, even black. To convince her groom that she came from a wealthy family, brides would also pile on layers of fur, silk and velvet.

This was partly due to the fact that the more layers of clothing one wore meant the less body odor people were able to smell, being that bathing was not something people did often in those days.

Newlyweds share a tender moment under a veil, bathed in soft sunlight, during an outdoor wedding.

In Modern times

Today though, the answer to the question of ‘why are wedding gowns white?’ seems to be primarily because in modern society the colour symbolises innocence, purity and certainly makes the bride stand out in a crowd, like the princess she’s made out to be on her wedding day. It may also be just ‘because’, as that’s what everyone else does right? It’s tradition! 🙂

Everything on a wedding day has some sort of roots in tradition, some going back thousands of years – others being quite a modern occurance. The fact is that the answer to the question ‘why are wedding gowns white?’ is simply because people today associate this with brides and this hasn’t changed since 1840. Perhaps in another 200 years, wedding dresses may be purple? Who knows?

Wedding Gown Trends Worldwide

Across the globe, wedding gown styles vary beautifully, reflecting cultural traditions and personal expression.

Globally, colours and styles differ. In India and China, red is favoured for its symbolism of luck and prosperity. In parts of Africa, brides wear vibrant patterned fabrics that honour heritage.

While many still wonder why wedding gowns are white, modern brides are increasingly embracing individuality. From champagne tones to floral embroidery, today’s trends reflect personal stories and values.

At SvenStudios, we celebrate this diversity through photography, capturing the unique details that make each bride’s look memorable and meaningful.

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Modern wedding etiquette

As someone who really enjoys attending weddings, and have attended close to 100 weddings over my career as a wedding photographer, I’m a bit of a sucker for some of the more traditional aspects of weddings. I’ve blogged in the past about the historic origins of some of the more well known wedding traditions, such as the origin of the best man and bridal party, even saying like ‘tying the knot’. But what I’ve noticed over the past few years are a few changes to modern wedding etiquette. Such things like smartphones, hash-tags and things like photo booths just are not steeped in tradition, and yet are fast becoming an integral part of the modern wedding.

Modern wedding etiquette

Unplugged weddings?

Your wedding photographs are going to be your lasting window enabling you to revisit the memories of emotion and joy that was your wedding day, which is kind of why having a professional wedding photographer there on the day is one of the most important additions to your day. Having a professional wedding photographer and videographer there on your day shows that you care about your images, and lasting memories, so chances are you’d like them to look your best right? A common form of modern wedding etiquette I’ve noticed is the rise of the ‘unplugged wedding’ whereby, the bride and groom instructs each of their guests not to use their own phones or cameras in order for their paid photographer to best do their job. This allows for better scenes from your wedding photographer not having to contend with ipads in their face all day, and also your guests can enjoy your wedding, without having to worry about getting their phone out to grab their own shots.

Mobile phone photos of Bride

All hail the #hashtag!

If there is nothing else on this list, it has to be the hashtag, a lot of people reading thins may still not realise what a hashtag is, or even does. Basically, having a unique hashtag developed for your wedding allows your guests to share any photos, video or comments on-line, via any form of social media by adding your hashtag to the description section. This is of course if you’re not having an ‘unplugged’ wedding :). Then via the magic of the internet, all that content gets amalgamated for your viewing. It’s actually quite incredible, and insanely convenient as it saves you chasing up after every single guests for their photos. To make one, simply take say your names (ie Bob and Belinda) and stick a hashtag (#) in front of them so perhaps #Bobbelinda, or #Bobandbelinda. Anywhere you type that on social media, it will turn into a link, which you can press and see what other people have also used that hashtag for.

Either gender in the bridal party

It is entirely not uncommon these days for members of either gender to play a role in either the groom, or the bride’s entourage. Traditionally members of the grooms men were restricted to men, and the bridal party to women, however in the age of equality, it is quite accepted to have members of either gender representing either the bride or groom. Some weddings I’ve been to actually don’t differentiate the grooms men and bridal party at all, but rather have one big group.

Bridal party

Who pays?

With the cost of an average wedding in Australia being a very hefty $36,200, it’s usually  part of modern wedding etiquette to share the costs involved with hosting a wedding. Traditionally it was the bride’s family that foot the bill, however, with the average age of couples that are getting married nearing 30, they are usually living by themselves and financially independent. This said however, due to the modern huge expense a wedding can represent, often the parents of both sides of the family will chip in a decent amount, and then it’s also not uncommon for guests to contribute through wedding gifts that simply amount to cash.

Wedding gifts

Leading on from who pays for a wedding, it’s considered pretty standard modern wedding etiquette to simply ask for cash in lieu of more traditional wedding gifts to help pay for the wedding. This is usually done by placing a ‘wishing well’ or something similar at the wedding reception where guests can add a card, lined with cash instead of a gift. It was traditional that guests were to buy gifts to help the newly wed couple set up their home together, but it’s not not done as much.

Wishing well

Update that facebook status!

If you’re keen on social media, like the majority of young newly weds, then you’d better update that relationship status on the day of your wedding! If you don’t be prepared for all of your guests continually pestering you to do so. Facebook has become a website that contains all the information you’d usually find out through polite conversation, and relationship status is one of those pieces of information that has become something that everyone can know by looking you up first. This can be a good and bad thing depending on how you feel about sharing your information on-line. But if you do, you’d better update your status!

Listen to the couple’s wishes

Along this same vein though, perhaps the newly wedded couple are planning on keeping their new relationship status a secret, for whatever reason. In which case it;s not unusual for them to request no images or anything relating to the wedding be put up on social media until they say it’s ok. It’s a part of modern wedding etiquette that can have huge ramifications regarding relationships between friends, family and even media. So be sure to listen to their desires and perhaps hold off from congratulating the newly weds for a little bit until they say it’s ok.

Mobile phone

There are plenty more aspects to modern wedding etiquette that I simply cant list in one article, including use of websites, clothing, bringing kids and dates. But I felt that what I’ve listed so far are perhaps the most modern of modern wedding etiquette trends that I’ve come across during my career. Feel free to discuss any of it in a comment below!

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‘Tying the Knot’ – History

‘Tying the Knot’ or to ‘tie the knot’ is a saying synonymous with getting married to day, but where does it come from? It’s funny thinking about these types of saying we use on a daily basis, not really knowing where they originate from, but gleefully use them without thinking about what they really mean. In the case of ‘Tying the Knot’ however it’s no where near as dark as the origin of the tradition of having a Best Man, it’s actually quite nice 🙂 I was thinking about the origin of the saying as I have just become engaged myself, and we announced it on Facebook using an image we produced together of a tied knot in between our hands.

Tying the knot

Origin of the saying ‘Tying the knot’

In the US, the saying ‘let’s get hitched’ refers to the practice of ‘hitching’ up your horse as you go to town, or tying a knot in a rope to keep your horse from trotting away. In the same vein the idea was that ‘getting hitched’ was tying a knot between the two newly weds, or in some people’s minds, tying a lady down like a horse so she wouldn’t get away. Because of this, the saying ‘Tying the knot’ is commonly, incorrectly attributed to this practice.

The term ‘Tie the Knot’ came from an earlier time, during the Renaissance in a ceremony called “Handfasting”. ‘Handfast’ and its variations are defined in the Oxford English dictionary as “to make a contract (of marriage) between parties by joining of hands.” Kind of like a handshake. This could also be interpreted today as a proposal of marriage for a specific period of time, traditionally a year and a day. the notion of marriage by the way has not always been an eternal one, with marriages in the past being made for  “a year and a day,” “a lifetime”, “for all of eternity” or “for as long as love shall last” depending on your vows.

Handfasting

The old way in Great Britain for couples to pledge their betrothal was for them to join hands, his right to her right, his left to her left, so from above they looked like an infinity symbol. ‘Handfastings’, which is an ancient word for ‘wedding’ were traditional before weddings became a legal function of governments or formal religions in the early 1500’s. The very word ‘Handfasting’ derived its origin from the custom of tying the the bride and groom’s hands and wrists together. In this period of time, it’s actually quite interesting to note that during the traditional period of time for a wedding of ‘a year and a day’ or 13 moon cycles, the bride was referred to as a Virgin, or ‘a woman not owned by a man’. It was after this period of time that, if the marriage survived that long, longer vows could be taken.

So there you go! Another wedding history tidbit from my research of the history of the modern wedding!

Symbolism Behind the Knot in Wedding Ceremonies

The phrase “tying the knot” carries meaningful symbolism when included in a wedding ceremony. The act of tying a knot reflects unity, strength, and the commitment a couple makes when joining their lives together. It is a physical representation of a lasting connection, often seen in a tying the knot ceremony where hands are gently bound using ribbons, cords, or fabric.

Today, couples include it to honour tradition or simply to add a heartfelt moment to their ceremony.

For photographers, this is a wonderful moment to capture. The emotions, gestures, and symbolism involved add depth to your wedding story. At SvenStudios, we often find that these quiet, meaningful traditions help tell the most powerful parts of the day.

How to Include a Knot-Tying Ritual in Your Wedding Ceremony

Including a tying the knot ceremony is a meaningful way to personalise your wedding and symbolise your commitment. It can take place during your vows or just before the ring exchange. The couple’s hands are gently bound together with a ribbon, rope, or cord, creating a visible symbol of unity.

You can choose materials that reflect your story: fabrics from family garments, colours with personal significance, or textures that align with your wedding theme. A friend, celebrant, or family member can perform the ritual while reading a few heartfelt lines.

This tying the knot wedding moment offers a powerful addition to your ceremony and creates a natural pause for reflection and photography. At SvenStudios, we often capture this ritual as one of the most tender and memorable parts of the day.

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Wedding ring photography

The beginning of my day covering a wedding as a wedding photographer usually sees me at the location where the groom and his grooms men are being prepared and getting dressed in order to get the wedding ceremony. As a result I’m usually asking for the wedding ring to do a bit of wedding ring photography. Doing the wedding ring photography and other product shots affects such as the shoes, or any jewellery like cuff links, and wearables like ties and suit jackets I like to treat as a bit of a warm up for the day for both myself and for the boys, who may not be overly comfortable with a photographer constantly taking photos of them during the day.

It’s usually the case that this sort of photogrpahy requires specialised lenses and photographic equipment that may or may not be common place in a wedding photographer’s kit – but to do the best work, you need the best camera and lenses for product photography.

Wedding ring photography

The goal is really to show any details of the ring or rings while having some sort of a background that speaks to the type of person the groom is. It’s traditional at a wedding for the groom and his best man to look after the rings so I feel having something like his tie, or cuff links, even the flowers he’s wearing on the day as a background really helps portray this personal aspect of the wedding rings.

Wedding Rings
Wedding rings
Wedding rings
wedding rings
Wedding rings
Wedding rings
Wedding Rings

It is however coming more and more popular for the bride and her entourage to look after the rings, I’m thinking trust is the defining factor here? 🙂 When this is the case, the rings are often placed nearby flowers, or clothing such as the wedding dress. This is again to show a bit of personality behind the photograph. It’s also quite common to find them tied onto the page boy’s cushion, ready to be presented during the wedding ceremony.

Wedding rings
Wedding rings
Wedding rings
wedding rings
Wedding Rings
Wedding rings
Adelaide wedding photographer

This being said however, wedding rings are usually very personal items to begin with, so there is a certain charm to wedding ring photography where the background is as plain as possible. I usually try to find a nice clean hardwood surface to produce these types of photos, as the grain fades away in the natural bokeh of my lens in a very satisfying way.

Wedding rings
Wedding rings
Wedding rings
Wedding rings

Over the years of covering weddings as a wedding photographer, I’ve discovered a certain number of photo compositions I tend to take at pretty much every wedding I cover. one of my favourite shots to get during preparation is a top-down perspective of the bride’s engagement ring floating amongst the flowers of her bouquet. I’ve put together a collection of quite a few such photos in this post just for the fun of seeing the style and colours of each bride’s ring and flower arrangement to hopefully provide a bit of inspiration for your own ring (if you have a choice :P) and flower arrangement.

Wedding ring photography, I feel is one of the important photographs I must capture on a wedding day as they signify the never ending union of the wedded couple, and as I’m there to capture all the emotion and joy on this most special of days, I figure the wedding rings should also play a major role in those memories! 🙂