11 Best Wedding Ring Engraving Ideas

With the opportunity to design a ring from scratch or customise one of our signature wedding rings, there’s no shortage of ways to make your wedding rings as personal as possible. But what should you engrave? You want it to be unique and personal, but short enough to fit on the inside of a wedding ring. It can be difficult when there are so many ring engraving ideas to choose from and you need to find the perfect one. So, if you’re a little short of ideas on how to customise your wedding rings, take a look at the engravings we’ve created in the past for some inspiration: from the sweet and sentimental to the weird and wonderful.

Even with inspiration, it can be hard thinking what to engrave on a wedding band. That’s why, out of all the personal wedding rings we’ve engraved, we have picked out 11 of our favourites to share with you and help you choose the perfect engraving. Here are the 11 best engraving ideas for wedding rings that we’ve seen.

1. Romantic or symbolic emojis
2. Your partner's initials
3. A Latin phrase, or something romantic in another language
4. A date special to you, like your wedding date
5. Secret engravings to show your partner at the altar
6. A meaningful symbol, like a love heart or rose
7. Inside jokes or nicknames
8. Lyrics from a meaningful song
9. A meaningful motto
10. Split a phrase across the two rings
11. A sentimental geographical location

A cute and contemporary way to mark your relationship and symbolise your love. It was in 2015 that the Oxford Dictionary named an emoji the word of the year, and with good reason. Perhaps the lexicographers knew what was coming – an influx of requests to customise wedding rings with emoji engravings. We’ve created a number of emoji-adorned wedding ring commissions – mostly sweet love hearts and romantic gestures (think: 😘, 💕, 💋), but some a little more cheeky... We’ll let you use your imagination. Keep it cute and playful - it’s the perfect way to put a smile on your face every time you think about your wedding rings.

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best: it may seem obvious, but why not have your initials engraved on your wedding rings? This will give the rings a real sense of belonging to you in a deeply personal way. This is the most popular wedding ring engraving choice amongst Queensmith clients, and it's easy to see why.

You may have the perfect love note to include on your partner’s wedding ring, that you want to keep a little private should anyone check out the ring. Love notes can make us all blush a little, so using a language that’s unfamiliar to most may put your mind at ease – plus wedding rings engraved in Latin have a timeless, romantic appeal to them. Alternatively, choose a more commonly known but still romantic language (French, Italian, Spanish), or script in yours or your partner’s native tongue to make your engraving really sentimental.

If you’re short of inspiration, we have a few suggestions:

• ‘Amor vincit omnia’ meaning ‘love conquers all’ in Latin.
• ‘Amore mio’ is ‘my love’ in Italian.
• ‘Je t’aime’, translates to ‘I love you’ in French.

A more obvious choice, engraving a date that's important to you both on your wedding rings is meaningful, romantic, and means you'll hopefully never forget it. Whether it’s to mark the anniversary of when you met, the date of your engagement or your wedding date, you’ll always be reminded of the fond memories that special time evokes.

Not a popular choice, but sweet nonetheless. We’ve seen some very trusting couples let each other decide their wedding ring engravings – kept secret until the wedding day. Whilst your partner may be the more trustworthy kind, this is the perfect opportunity to pull a fast one and make your partner giggle at the altar with a witty phrase or unexpected emoji. Whether it gets a giggle or sheds a tear of happiness, it’ll be a moment you won’t forget.

Is there something that will evoke memories of a first date or something unique to your relationship? Maybe you gave your love a rose on one of your first dates - so why not inscribe a rose? Did you buy your now-partner a drink when you first bumped into them at a bar? Try a martini glass. It can even be something you do as an inside joke or habit. Do you always find a pretty rock to give them when on holiday, or pick them daisies when they’re sick? You can inscribe that too. Simple, outlined shapes work well to keep the symbol clear and unambiguous. The most popular symbol to engrave on wedding rings is by far a simple heart outline – no explanation needed.

We’ve crafted wedding rings with engravings that, to this day, we still don’t understand - whether it’s one random word or an odd sentence - each couple has their quirks. Pet names are a popular choice for wedding ring engravings, and we’ve seen it all. Perhaps the most unusual being two vegetables the couple lovingly called each other. What’s your inside joke to make your partner giggle every time they think of it? Whatever it is, you don’t need to explain it – the more intimate the joke, the funnier it gets with time.

From the Cure’s Just Like Heaven to Etta James’ At Last, there’s a romantic song for each and every relationship, and you’ll know which song perfectly describes yours. Whether it’s the first song you danced to or a melody you both listen to time and time again, music is poetry, and there are a lot of beautiful lyrics you could engrave on your wedding rings. You may have already chosen your first wedding dance, so why not engrave the song title or your favourite lyrics on your wedding rings? Remember there is usually a limit of around 25 characters – so think short, sweet, simple.

Maybe you have something you routinely say to each other, either to motivate or make you laugh, or just as a reminder of how much you love them. A meaningful motto is a beautiful wedding ring engraving idea, no matter where it comes from.

It’s reported that over 15% of couples meet at university – so if your campus has a place in your heart, consider your uni motto. They might not seem like a fitting romantic gesture for some, but for others, this small detail can really hit the mark.

Universities that get it right? Birmingham’s motto is ‘Age Quod Agis’, which translates to ‘do what you’re doing’ – a sweet gesture that your partner is perfect, just as they are. Or Buckingham: ‘Alis Volans Propriis’, which means ‘flying on our own wings’ – a symbol of unity and individuality in your relationship. Otherwise, maybe you have a unique motto you both like to live by or something you regularly say to each other that captures your love story.

Engraving a singular phrase across two wedding rings is a romantically symbolic way to declare your love and commitment to each other. That way, the wedding rings are incomplete without each other – a really sweet sentiment. Aside from the romantic symbolism, it can also be a practical way around a problem. If you’ve thought of the perfect phrase for engraving your wedding ring but it’s a little too lengthy, then try splitting the words over your two wedding rings. Practical, and sentimental: this is a beautiful way to represent the unity between the rings, and the unity between you as a couple. One ring will always complete the other.

And for our grand finale, perhaps the most uniquely beautiful wedding ring engraving request we’ve had: a map. Specifically, a map of the little island where the couple met. The surface of a wedding ring being a little too small for the intricate detailing of coastlines, the couple decided instead to create gold pendants to wear around their neck. If a location is super meaningful for you, how about engraving the GPS coordinates as a subtle but constant reminder of the place your life changed forever?

• The surface area of your wedding ring for an engraving is small, so keep any messages short and symbols refined.

• There’s typically a 25 character limit for engravings.

• Your wedding ring will be designed to last a lifetime, so choose a message that does the same.

• We don’t need to remind you that flippant messages aren’t usually romantic, so put a fair amount of thought into it and make sure you and your partner are on the same page before committing.

• If you aren’t sure what to get, we can engrave your Queensmith wedding rings after your wedding or at a later date. No need to rush this decision.

• Rings sometimes need resizing, so the engraving may need re-doing. It’s best to make sure your wedding rings fit before going ahead with the engraving.