The Modern Bride’s Approach to Wedding-Day Jewelry

As National Jeweler’s resident bride-to-be, I enthusiastically accepted when the idea came up for me to attend New York Bridal Fashion Week, held Oct. 8-10.

In the jewelry industry, we’re attuned to engagement ring trends, but the wider world of wedding style is a whole other universe. 

From runway shows to store openings, I spent that week immersed in all things bridal fashion, exploring trends in dresses and thinking about how jewelry fits into it all. 

Strapless gowns, along with other elegant open necklines, were popular. For jewelry, it’s an open invitation for shorter pendant necklaces, collars, or chokers.  

I also saw bold, structured silhouettes as well as several ball gowns, and a number of dresses featuring a basque waist, a style that extends past the waistline with angled seams that form a triangular or curved shape at the lower front of the bodice, as seen in the “Rhiannon” dress below. 

There is a sense of regal drama in this season’s wedding dress collections.

The vintage touch was undeniable, with several gowns featuring Renaissance and Victorian accents like frills, bows and corsets, which lines up with the uptick in Pinterest searches for a wedding aesthetic reminiscent of bygone eras. 
 

On one hand, one might choose to let these grand dresses be the star of the ensemble, opting for understated jewelry to keep the attention on the gown, like in the examples above.

However, vintage-style bridalwear also poses a fun, and rare, opportunity to go big with ornate jewelry. 

Beyond a dramatic fur coat or other statement piece, there are few opportunities for the elevated jewels of the past to be styled to their full potential.

Material-wise, the dresses I saw at New York Bridal Fashion Week featured an abundance of textures, including lace and floral appliques as well as tulle.

While some trends transcend collections, each brand’s designs retain its own collective identity. 

Some bridal designers have taken to offering a jewelry component of their own, specifically designed to complement their creations.

At the Pnina Tornai show, the designer’s newest collection with Jared, the jewelry retailer she’s partnered with on bridal jewelry collections in the past few years, was on display. 

At her presentation, wedding dress designer Claire Pettibone debuted a jewelry collection, set to launch next month. 

 
  
 
 
 
 



 

 
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A post shared by Claire Pettibone (@clairepettibone)

The “Secret Garden Jewels,” a collection of heirloom-style rings, is a collaboration with Michigan-based The North Way Studio, created to complement Pettibone’s vintage-style bridalwear.

The Dress Comes First
Between events, I talked with two bridal stylists—Gabrielle Hurwitz, who is based in New York City, and Houston-based Caroline Thorpe Goldberg.

Hurwitz is a self-described luxury bridal fashion stylist who curates all things wedding-day fashion, while Goldberg offers private bridal styling and curates shoppable looks on her platform Little White Looks.

Both say their client base is a mix of career-focused women from bigger cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, and the South.

In their work, the dress almost always comes first, they agreed.

“Certain dresses call for necklaces, certain dresses would look weird with a necklace and better with an earring of some sort, so I’m prompting that conversation, but I do have clients who come to me with an heirloom piece,” said Hurwitz.

“We can work to build to the look around a piece of jewelry.”

Goldberg said she’s noticed a trend in the South (Texas in particular) in which brides receive a tennis bracelet as a pre-wedding gift.

In some cases, the bridesmaids each contribute to buy the piece together, and in others, the bride’s fiancé makes the purchase.

Hurwitz cited an example of one bride who was marrying into an Indian family and received a diamond necklace from her mother-in-law to wear on her wedding day, as is customary. 

She wanted to incorporate it into both her Western ceremony and her Indian ceremony, so they shopped for her wedding attire with the necklace in mind.

Jewelry Rental Services Are Big 
While it’s not uncommon for today’s brides to incorporate pieces they were gifted or jewels that were passed down into their wedding day look, many seem to be thinking less about “heirloom potential” when considering their own jewelry for the big day.

They’re leaning instead toward borrowing or renting jewels to enjoy just for the celebrations.

Popular rental services like Verstolo were praised on repeat throughout New York Bridal Fashion Week for making this process easy.

With its concierge service for New York City clients, Verstolo will send a consultant to meet the bride at one of her dress fittings with pieces she selected at an earlier Verstolo showroom appointment.

Most brides who opt to rent are looking to borrow more dramatic or unique pieces—perhaps a piece in the vibrant shade of Verona Sunset, Brides x Minted’s Color of the Year for 2025—that they likely would not wear again.

Valuable, Wearable Classics
When it comes to the pieces of fine jewelry brides are willing to spend on, it’s usually the classics, like a pair of diamonds studs, a pearl piece, or a tennis necklace that is versatile enough for everyday wear.

“They don’t want it to just sit in a safe and never be enjoyed,” Hurwitz said. “They’d rather spend the money on a piece they’ll wear every single day and borrow or rent the more statement piece for the wedding.”

Some jewelry designers and brands create lines for brides but, as the category typically hinges on simple pieces, these dedicated collections often feature creative takes on the classics, blending everyday style and sentimental design.

Nancy Newberg released a bridal line last year inspired by jewelry she designed for her son’s fiancée to wear at their wedding. 

It has all the ingredients of a classic jewelry line, featuring tennis necklaces, tennis bracelets, and eternity rings, modernized by bezel-set mixed-shape diamonds. 

Personalization Still Reigns
In talking about new purchases, I'd be remiss not to mention the draw of new-to-you jewels.

For the bride who wants something of value that still matches her vintage-inspired aesthetic, there are countless opportunities for an investment in a one-of-a-kind antique or estate piece she can keep forever.

In 2023, Larkspur & Hawk released the vintage-inspired L&H Bride collection. While these pieces are made new, the brand offers a unique, sentimental customization option. 
 
The brand is known for its riviere necklaces, button earrings, and girandole earrings created using an antique technique wherein doublets composed of a quartz (or a similarly semi-translucent gemstone) are laid over colored foil and set in a metal backing.
 
For the L&H Bride collection, designer Emily Satloff replaced the foil with fabrics including an antique French ribbon, a tulle, and a silk satin.

Brides can customize these pieces by sending in a fabric that is meaningful to them, such as a piece of a family member’s wedding gown, for use in the piece. 

So, while rentals have their place and new purchases continue to hold their own (especially for the tried-and-true classic diamond pieces), a custom piece can bring a different kind of meaningfulness to wedding-day jewelry.

Custom work is widely available, including reworking an heirloom diamond into a new piece, adding initials or birthstones, or sitting down with a designer to create a symbolic piece from scratch.

Satloff will also work with brides to create a postnuptial piece, incorporating something from the bride’s own wedding day, like fabric from a gown, veil, or bouquet ribbon, perhaps inspiring the brides of today to reconsider the value in having jewelry worth passing down, starting with her own.