Tips to Help You Pick What Bridal Jewelry to Wear

Picking out your bridal jewelry is an exciting part of the wedding planning process. Bridal jewelry adds the finishing touches to your wedding look, pulling everything together. But when you pick out your bridal jewelry, you should do so with care. You want to choose jewelry that will elevate your bridal look, rather than overshadow it. 

To help you find the perfect jewelry for your wedding look, we’ve put together these top tips to help you pick what bridal jewelry to wear! Read on to learn what you need to think about when selecting your jewelry and how to pick the ideal accessories for your big day. 

1. Consider the Neckline of Your Dress 

When picking out your bridal jewelry, it’s important to consider how it will complement your wedding dress. You want your jewelry to look harmonious with your dress, rather than clash with it or overshadow it. One easy way to make sure your jewelry will complement your dress is to consider how your choices will work with your dress’s neckline. You want to pick jewelry that “fills in the gaps” of skin shown by your wedding dress, never overlapping with your dress, but just adding the perfect amount of shimmer to accent it. 

To get an idea of the types of jewelry that work best with different dress necklines, check out our tips for each neckline below. 

Strapless Necklines: Strapless dresses leave quite a bit of bare skin exposed around the collarbone, so necklaces look beautiful with strapless dresses. For strapless necklines, we recommend going with a choker or shorter length necklace, rather than a medium or long length necklace. Longer necklaces can look unbalanced with strapless dresses— the key here is to select a necklace that sits beautifully in the middle of all that exposed skin. 

Sweetheart Necklines: Medium length pendants or medium length drop necklaces perfectly accent the dip in a sweetheart neckline. Simple necklaces, earrings, and bracelets tend to work best with sweetheart necklines, since this dress style has a delicate, romantic look. 

Halter Necklines or High Necklines: Halter-style wedding dresses and wedding dresses with high necklines don’t leave much room for a necklace, so we generally recommend skipping necklaces if your dress is in one of these styles. Instead, consider balancing a halter or high neckline out with shimmering earrings and a pretty, eye-catching bracelet. 

V-Necklines: Simple pendant necklaces beautifully accent a v-neck gown by echoing the shape of the neckline. If you’re gown has a plunging v-neck, consider selecting a drop necklace to accent your dress’s dramatic shape. Or, consider skipping a necklace entirely (you could go with only statement earrings instead) and letting your dramatic neckline speak for itself. 

2. Don’t Overdo It, Less is More 

It’s tempting to go big with your bridal jewelry. There’s so much beautiful bridal jewelry to choose from— who wouldn’t want to wear it all? But, generally, we would caution you to remember that, for a wedding look, less is usually more. At the end of the day, the focus should be on you, not your wedding accessories. 

To avoid looking overdone, be sure to have all your bridal jewelry in hand by the time you’re getting your final dress fittings. That way, you can try everything on with your gown (and, ideally, your hairstyle) to see how everything works together. If you find that one or two of your accessories stand out too much, consider skipping them or switching them out for more subtle pieces. 

It’s also a good idea to remember that you don’t need to wear every type of jewelry on your wedding day. Sometimes, just one or two accessories is all you need to complete your look. 

3. Hairstyle

Your choice of wedding hairstyle will have a big impact on the types of jewelry that will look best with your wedding look. This is especially true for your earrings. 

Up-dos offer a lot of flexibility when it comes to earrings. Up-dos pair well with bold statement earrings as well as with more delicate earrings, like drop earrings or studs. Up-dos are also great at accommodating hair jewelry, which can add glamour and romance to your wedding look. However, if you do decide to wear hair jewelry, remember to consider how it pairs with your earrings and necklace. If you go with a bold hairpiece, you may want to keep your earrings and necklace choices more subdued, in order to avoid looking overdone. 

A down-do is a beautiful, romantic option for your wedding. But it does require that you pick your wedding jewelry with a bit more care, especially your earrings. Delicate diamond studs earrings tend to work best with down-dos, which can hide larger earrings. However, if you want to wear your hair down and still wear larger earrings, you certainly can. You just need to pick your earrings with visibility in mind. If you’d like to wear larger earrings with a down-do, look for longer earrings that will sparkle through your hair. 

4. Consider Your Dress Color

Most wedding dresses are white. But there are many different shades of white, which is something you want to consider when you pick out your bridal jewelry. Your bridal dress might be bright white, champagne white, ivory, candlelight, or ecru. For the most harmonious look, find bridal jewelry that complements the shade of your wedding dress. White gold or platinum jewelry tends to look best with more “true white” dresses, while yellow gold or rose gold jewelry tends to work best with warmer white dresses. 

5. Think About Something Blue 

It’s traditional to wear four good luck charms (“something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue”) on your wedding day. If you’re still looking for your lucky “something blue,” consider adding blue jewelry into your wedding look. Blue sapphire jewelry is the most popular blue jewelry for bridal looks, as it has a chic, classic style. Another dazzling blue gem that can add something blue to you wedding look is blue topaz, which has a lighter, brighter blue hue. 

6. Match Your Metals 

Our last tip for picking your bridal jewelry is to match your metals. Mixed metals can add a fun touch to casual or going-out looks. But on your wedding day, we would recommend sticking with a single precious metal for all your wedding jewelry. Matching metals simply look much more harmonious and chic when compared to mixed metals. So, in general, we would suggest picking one precious metal (whether that’s rose gold, yellow gold, white gold, or platinum) for all your wedding jewelry.