How Tight Should You Size Your Wedding Ring?

5 min readFeb 13, 2017

Fitting your wedding band is not always easy. Sometimes it will feel too tight, while other times it will feel too loose. That’s because there is no such thing as the perfect fit when it comes to any jewelry, especially rings. In reality, a good fit basically just means it feels comfortable most of the time.

The Perfect Fit

First of all, it’s important to know and to fully understand (soak this in!) that there is never going to be a perfect fit. And if your ring does fit perfectly, it’s probably just for a moment, an afternoon, or, at most, the day, because our fingers change size with the weather, from what we eat, or from working with our hands a lot.

Knowing this though, you can still find the a good fit; you just have to be open to the idea that it won’t always fit the same.

Ring Sizing

To help you find that almost perfect fit, you should work with an experienced jeweler to get your finger professionally sized. And I’m not talking about going to a jewelry store that has some plastic sizer and an inexperienced sales associate. When you’re going to be wearing something as meaningful and expensive as a wedding band, you want to make sure you do it right.

When you go in to get your finger sized, they should have various tools and methods to help you find the ring size that is going to feel the most comfortable. This is an entirely personal opinion, so if it doesn’t feel right, speak up and let them know.

What you shouldn’t do is just look up ring sizing methods online and then do-it-yourself. This might help you find an alright size, but having a professional size it for you is going to get you the best results.

Second Opinion

After you get your finger sized by one professional, make sure to go out and get a second opinion. This might seem like a lot of work for something like this, but as I mentioned, when it comes to something valuable both in money and sentiment, and since you’ll be wearing it for years, it’s worth the effort. The more opinions, the better, depending on how happy you are with the results.

Time of Day

The best time to get your finger sized is between lunch and dinner. This is when most people’s fingers are at their largest size. So, try to book your fitting in the mid- to late-afternoon if possible.

Metal Over Plastic

A professional jeweler should have a metal ring sizer over a plastic one. The metal ones are much more reliable. Also, the width of the ring does matter because the wider the ring, the tighter the fit will be, so have the professional jeweler compensate for that.

Too Tight

Now that you know the importance of going a trained, professional jeweler who has the right tools, you should understand what a good fit feels like.

You should be able to take your ring on and off when needed, without too much of a struggle. If you’re reaching for soap or baby oil to wiggle it off, it’s probably too tight. As a general rule, your ring should be able to slide over your knuckles easily, but take a bit more to come off. Turning and tugging for two to three seconds to remove your ring is actually normal. In fact, your ring should barely fit over your knuckles. This is important because it helps ensure it won’t easily fall off.

Your ring should fit snug around the base of your finger without any bulging or leaving indent marks. To see if it fits right, push your ring up from the underneath and see if there is a small space between your ring and your finger. This means there is enough room.

Finger Shape

It really helps to know if you have enlarged knuckles or small knuckles. If you have smaller knuckles, or “tipi fingers,” your ring will have to be more snug. If you have larger knuckles, you run into the problem of your ring being too loose at the base of your finger. You want your ring to fit snug at the base, where it is supposed to sit.

Still, you don’t want to wear a ring that is too tight. If it’s too tight, it will be even tighter if your hands swell from humidity or something else. And if you’re pregnant, you might want to wear your wedding band on a necklace around your neck for a while, as my aunt actually had to get hers cut off when her hands swelled too much.

Too Loose

Of course, you also don’t want is a ring that comes off too easily. The last thing anyone wants to experience is that moment of panic when they realize their wedding ring has fallen off, and they don’t know when or where. As mentioned above, your ring should be a lot easier to slide on than off. So, if you can take your ring off without any effort, it’s probably too loose.

In the end, it’s important to remember that sizing is really a personal preference and not an exact science.