Wove Jewelry Review

The Wove Story

I don’t usually include this in reviews, but before we dig into the bones of this review, it’s worth taking a moment to talk about the back story of Wove, because I imagine it’s pretty unique for a jewelry company. It’s a really interesting story that has informed their current approach and provides one of Wove’s strongest differentiators.

The two founders of Wove are both ex-Rangers in the US Army, one of whom had grown up with parents who ran a jewelry store.

Returning home from deployment is a hugely emotional moment, it’s not uncommon for soldiers to a meet their partner after their tour, drop to a knee and propose. 

To make this magical moment happen though, they needed to have an engagement ring. And, as you might imagine, finding a beautiful diamond ring in Afghanistan while you’re in the middle of a combat tour is pretty tricky!

Wove founder Andrew Wolgemuth started arranging video calls with jewelers from his family company to design rings for other soldiers.

The jewelers would make a convincing duplicate of the design out of with brass and glass to mail over, so that when the soliders landed, they would have a sparkly ring in-hand for the proposal. The real ring would then be picked up later.

After leaving the Army, Andrew joined forces with another ex-Ranger to establish Wove, and the ‘try before you buy’ part of the ring buying process is now firmly baked into the Wove experience and it’s something that definitely sets them apart.

It’s the first thing you see on the Wove website and it’s something they encourage every ring buyer to do, whether buying an off-the-shelf ring or someting completely custom.

A pretty cool background story, and a great way to ‘battle test’ a new approach to buying an engagement ring.

Now that we’ve learned a bit about Wove’s history and how it has shaped the company it is today, we’ll dig into its offerings, both in terms of rings and then the service and experience around the purchase.

Wove Ring Selection

One of the ways Wove positions itself is to try and change the way that rings are bought – moving away from the idea of a guy buying a ring in secret and ‘popping the question’ and more towards a partnership, where both sides of the relationship are involved in the decision.

This is definitely a less risky approach to buying a ring – and less stressful! – and one that is definitely increasingly popular.

To maximise the choice available, there are two ways to buy a ring

1. Pre-designed rings
2. Custom design, created in collaboration with a ring designer

Pre-designed rings

While it is a relatively new company, Wove has a decent number of designs to choose from – more than 20 for round diamonds and around 10-12 for each of the other ‘fancy’ diamond shapes.

While this might not be as many as some other established online ring retailers, these off-the-shelf designs cover ‘the classics’ – designs that will never go out of fashion because they are simple and stylish.

For many ring buyers, these rings are what they are looking for – they are the perfect way to show off your diamond while still being well-priced.

Custom Designs

If you can’t find an off-the-shelf design that works, you can work with a designer to create a completely a custom design, just for you.

A caveat here is that the price of the custom rings is higher than a standard ring.

When you’re going through the sign-up process, you’re asked a few questions to help the designer understand what you’re looking for. One of these is for budget, with options starting at $8k:

This is significantly higher than the average engagement ring price in the US, which currently sits at around $5,600.

So, while the price for the custom process is higher, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is poor value. As we’ll see in the value for money section below, Wove’s prices for diamonds is lower than even the online retailers that position themselves as the least expensive on the internet.

But what you get is the opportunity to work one-on-one with a designer. One way people choose to do this is to create a replica of a famous ring, or a ring inspired by a celebrity’s ring. e.g. Wove recently made a Toi et Moi ring inspired by Megan Fox’s ring:

Other ways you can work with their designs are by sending through inspiration pictures that you’ve collected, or if you have no idea what you are looking for, Wove’s designers can guide you through the process, creating a vision board and working with you to find a design that is personal to you.

A huge part of buying an engagement ring is selecting the center stone, and Wove’s design team will present you three option to help guide your choice:

1. Value Diamond – the best value available when considering your diamond preferences and budget.
2. The ‘Wove Choice’ Diamond – their best possible match for all your preferences that fits within your budget.
3. And finally the Dream Diamond – one that may push the budget, but which could make your ring even more special.

Ultimately whether you choose to go custom or off-the-shelf is a personal decision based on your taste, and of course your budget. Wove’s custom designs start at $8,000 which is fair for the amount of work and care that they put into every custom ring, but which is higher than the average cost of a ring in most US states.