signet Rings in Traditional Highland Attire.

[Jock Scot]

Jock,
I remember seeing a signet ring but not a wedding ring. Hurrumph indeed.

Quite right!

I don't know many British married men who do wear a wedding ring---its just not done. Interestingly, I have noticed at the last few weddings that we have attended the "happy couple" each had a wedding ring. Perhaps its becoming a modern trend?

[Cygnus]

Quite right!

I don't know many British married men who do wear a wedding ring---its just not done. Interestingly, I have noticed at the last few weddings that we have attended the "happy couple" each had a wedding ring. Perhaps its becoming a modern trend?

That used to be the way of things here in the states as well.

I still have a living great grandmother (who will be 95 this year), and she says that my great grandfather didn't wear a wedding band. Apparently women wore (and still wear) wedding rings to show men that any advances or attempts at courtship would be inappropriate. In my great grandmother's day it wasn't socially acceptable for women to make such advances, so men didn't wear wedding bands. As times and accepted social behavior changed, men started wearing wedding bands for the same reason - to show interested women that the men were already spoken for.

It's interesting to see how (and where!) things change over time.

[Bugbear]

Thank you, cajunscot, for the information. I know very little about the masons; and I regularly disregard what my family and step family has to say about these things... As far as I know, he was the only person in the family or step family who was a mason.

JerseyLawyer points out that the class ring could take the place of the signet ring. I suppose that is more what I intended with my question about the other group related rings. It wouldn't make sense to call a ring identifying one's membership in a group a signet ring, or form of personal identification.

I do not regularly wear necklaces. However, I was given a simple pendent like necklace, a quartz crystal on a satin-like string, in a ceremony, and I do wear that ever so often, mostly as a remembrance of sorts.

[Mike_Oettle]

It does seem as if men’s wedding rings are a modern trend – although I would hardly call it 21st-century.
Men of my father’s generation rarely if ever wore a wedding ring, but when I was married in 1976 it seemed right and proper for me to have one.
My wife (then fiancée) even paid out of her own pocket for my ring to be made, while she wears an heirloom that didn’t cost me a penny (I am eternally grateful for her generosity).
I still often see men who do not wear a wedding ring, but it seems that a great many do.
Regards,
Mike