Advice needed - did you use/remake family rings?

Maybe try another jeweler? Get another price? I don't have experience with this, but that would be my suggestion!

FMIL gave me her old wedding band and a few other rings for me to create a custom band. Hers were also yellow gold. The jeweler - who is a friend of their family- told me basically the same thing. He said the only reason to do it would be for sentiment. It will end up costing more to rework her existing ring than it would cost to purchase a brand new one.

I'll have to ask my husband the details, but my engagement ring is repurposed. The gold was originally yellow and was part of a bracelet. The jeweler had to have the gold melted, formed into the new band, coating, etc.

While I don't know the cost, I DO know that the ring was pretty expensive - more than I wanted him to spend. The diamond and gold - the two most traditionally expensive pieces - were free (repurposed), and he bought the rubies and emeralds wholesale. The main bulk of the cost, therefore, was the reworking of the gold and then custom designing the new ring.

That's what I'm afraid of. My fiance custom-designed my e-ring using repurposed materials from family rings, and it added a LOT to the overall cost. I had thought most of that was the cost of the custom setting, which shouldn't be a problem for plain bands with no stones....but not so according to our jeweler. Sigh.

My e-ring was my mom's, but I didn't change it at all due to both sentimental value and cost. It would've been $1,500 to do the changes.

I think repurposing rings can be very special if either 1) you're not changing it or 2) you're not concerned with cost. The issue is if you want to change it, many times the repurposing can cost nearly as much as a new ring would.

It cost a little over $1,000, to re-work my mother's and grandmother's rings. My Mother ordered a wide, platinum band, to match the anniversary ring my father surprised her with, for their 25th. She had no idea how heavy it was going to be, so didn't end up wearing it much.

My grandmother had a white-gold cocktail ring, with 3 rows of diamonds (1 row small, 2 rows smaller), that she could no longer wear, because it made her finger sore. The jeweler sold the white gold, from my grandmother's ring, and used the 2 sizes of diamonds to make 2 diamond wedding bands for me, using the platinum, from my mother's ring.

I took one of my moms wedding bands and used just the diamonds to put into my wedding band. There were about 13 round diamonds all around and the band is white gold. It cost my fiancé about $800 to assemble and for the gold band itself but is well worth over 2000 finished! I think it's a great idea! Only because I will always have my moms diamonds. Very sentimental. I wish I could show you a pic but I don't have it yet!

Can you use the stones in a different ring? That's what I did for the engagement ring for my first wedding.

Currently, I wear a ring that NotFroofy inherited from her grandmother. But because I wanted one that was yellow gold, and that's what hers was, I didn't try to modify it (other than making it a half size smaller).

I have my FH's moms diamond and its the best decision I've ever made. He lost his dad as a kid and will be taking his dads wedding band. My wedding band is under $1000, if you want to save money I bet you could just find cheaper ones.

When we were having our e-ring made, the jeweler said he would do work (resizing, rhodium plating) on FH's heirloom band for $90!!! I am guessing that is because we were already doing buisness with them, but that does tell me that there are better prices out there. Maybe shop around?

I would definitely shop around, but I might also just learn to love the yellow gold. White gold is super trendy, but it's also a lot more upkeep, and yellow gold is always going to be classic.

FH is using his late father's ring and only getting it resized. It's thicker than he'd wanted, but we couldn't argue with $30 for resizing plus sentimental value.

Try a few other jewelers. Or use different stones. That sucks. That is quite a bit of money to spend.

At that price it would be cheaper to buy new rings. I would just keep those as a keepsake, maybe occasionally wear them.

These rings are plain wedding bands, they don't have stones - so just putting stones in a new setting isn't really an option. I might learn to love yellow gold....except fiance put a TON of work, thought and money into a gorgeous white gold engagement ring for me.

You can rhodium plate the yellow gold, but you'll have to do it every few months to keep it shiny white. It might take a couple tries to get the yellow covered, but it does work. We charged $15 for this at the jewelry store I used to manage, but I know most jewelers do run higher.

A jeweler melted down some old yellow gold jewelry and made a custom ring for DH.

I have FH's grandmother's engagement ring. One of the prongs was broken and the diamond was lost decades ago (it was originally for an emerald cut diamond). FH had it sized, repaired, and set to fit a cushion cut diamond (the baguette diamonds on the sides were still in place). I don't know exactly how much it cost (most of the cost was for the diamond), but he spent less than he would have had he purchased the same thing ready-made. I do know it can be really costly to have custom pieces made. We lucked out because there wasn't a ton to do with my the engagement ring. In your case, I think it might be cheaper to buy a ring that your FH is comfortable with. It might be worth getting a couple more quotes from other reputable, recommended jewelers, but I have a feeling (from our experience and a friend's experience who had his FW's engagement ring and wedding bands (yes, plural) custom made) it gets costly pretty quickly. I love the sentimentality of heirloom jewelry, but it doesn't always save money in the end (unfortunately...).

For $1000, my fiance has more than a carat of diamonds in his white gold band. We bought used. To supply the jeweler with the metal and have no stones and still pay $1k or more is highway robbery by the jeweler.

I'm selling my late parents' yellow gold bands for melt down value, which took the price off our new wedding bands. It'll only shave about $250 off a $2000 price tag, but at least that's something.

If you aren't sentimentally attached to those bands, would you consider selling them? In a way it's "reusing".

Thanks to everybody for their contributions! Good to get some perspective on things. I talked to my parents and explained the situation. We will probably not be using the family rings. Maybe someday our kids will use them instead.

bappy - I thought about that, since I found a few jewelers who say they will 'recycle' your gold as in "we'll take your old gold and give you credit for it". For my father's ring it may be a good option, since he never wore it (allergic to gold)....but not my grandmother's rings. She just passed away last year, the sting is still too fresh.