Tim Moses of Moses Jewelers shows a ring to Carlie Epolite. Moses said many couples did their research during the COVID-19 shutdown and were ready to spend their money with a trusted, local business.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have postponed or downsized weddings this year, but it hasn't diminished a demand for the rings.

Several Butler County jewelers report strong sales of all things nuptial.

In fact, one jeweler believes the retail shutdown earlier this year contributed to the current strong demand.

Tim Moses, the co-owner of Moses Jewelers at 524 Northpointe Circle, Seven Fields, and in the Clearview Mall, said since his stores reopened, the wedding ring business has been very good.

There's been a lot of pent-up demand.“Young customers were unable to shop in a physical store for two, three months. They were able to do a tremendous amount of research on line.“When the stores reopened, they were ready to make their purchases,” Moses said. “This is the type of product that is easy to shop for online, but you don't want to send $5,000 to $10,000 to someone you don't know and don't know what you are getting.”Shelly Mathew, a partner in Mathew Jewelers which has locations at 112 N. Main St., Zelienople, and at 20430 Route 19, Suite 170, in Cranberry Township, agreed wedding and engagement ring sales have been brisk.“Actually, since the pandemic, we have seen an increase in engagements,” she said. Prospective buyers can view Mathew's selections in the real world or over the internet.“They can view through our website or make an appointment or just walk in with a mask. We accept walk-ins with a mask,” Mathew said.Stephen Goslaw, owner of Robert Stephens Custom Jewelers at 141 N. Main St., said, “Pandemic or not, business has just been crazy. I can't put a finger on what is driving it.”

Remote meetings and video schooling might be the new normal but Goslaw said people still want to touch it, feel it and try it on when it comes to buying rings.“We're selling a lot of engagement rings and a lot of wedding bands,” he said.Perhaps, he said, with people not going on vacation and planning a smaller wedding, they are able to save more money to invest in rings.“We've noticed that a lot of weddings were canceled or postponed, but the couples are having a small ceremony on the date that they planned to get married on and they will try to figure out a way to celebrate later,” Mathew said.

What the prospective brides and grooms are buying has changed.“Fancy shapes have made a huge comeback,” Goslaw said of diamonds. “They are buying marquis, oval cuts, pear shaped.”Moses also said traditional stones in untraditional shapes are gaining in popularity.Also becoming more sought after are men's wedding bands made of metals such as tungsten and titanium instead of gold.“I think it is something different,” Moses said. “A lot of those contemporary metals we call them are black and gray in color, and men seem to like that. It's very masculine, I guess.”Mathew said men are also asking for tungsten/wood wedding bands where wood is inlaid in the tungsten.There could be another reason for the recent popularity of titanium and tungsten in wedding and engagement rings.“It's normally less expensive. A lot of the popularity is price point,” she said. “We also have rings made out of meteorite material. We say 'It's for your love that is out of this world.'”A ring made from meteorite material is a little more on the rare side.

People are also more likely to be designing their own wedding and engagement bands, and Mathew is only too happy to use her expertise to make their dream jewelry a reality.“Most of the time they have an idea. Men can go on a woman's Pinterest chart and figure out what they like,” she said. “We can do a design from a picture or a sketch.“The design process does take a little longer, but it adds to the value,” she said.Goslaw said his store's website has a feature that allows men to design their own rings, and they have certainly taken advantage of that feature.“It's really funny now,” he said. “They come in to pick up a wedding band, see they can customize and design it anyway they want. They have racing, fishing, hunting, skydiving.“The next thing you know they are at home designing their own ring and having us make it and it's pretty cool.”Men are designing rings with inlays of coral, dinosaur bones, carbon fiber, and meteorite material.They are using cobalt chrome and titanium and zirconium which is a black metal.

With all this mixing and matching and creating their own ring designs, the traditional wedding sets — engagement ring, woman's wedding ring and man's wedding ring — are becoming kind of outdated, the jewelers said. People are more into custom pieces.“If they get a custom engagement ring, they need a custom wedding ring to go with that,” Mathew said.Along with their own designs, people are bringing in family heirloom jewelry so the stones can be reset in a wedding ring.“A majority are customized one way or the other, whether it's new diamonds or using a family heirloom and updating it,” Moses said. “The relative's stone is used in the engagement ring. Sometimes the smaller stones are used in the wedding band.”Goslaw has also been a goldsmith for nearly 30 years and makes his own ring settings.“I design things and set things. People can feel good about having their family heirloom jewelry set into something more modern,” he said.Another trend right now for prospective brides and grooms is mixing and matching the colors of the gold. For example, some are pairing an engagement ring made of rose gold with a white gold wedding band.

Looking for a new design or a new setting for grandma's diamonds, prospective buyers shouldn't be following outmoded “unwritten rules.”For those in the market for a ring, Mathew said don't listen to the old rule of thumb that a groom-to-be should spend three months' salary on an engagement ring.“My advice to them would be to rely on their own opinion and judge what they like and what makes them happy,” Mathew said.“Trust your own instincts. Women love the fact that their boyfriend went out and picked out a special ring for her,” she said.For prospective ring buyers, Goslaw advised to set a budget and stick with it.“We can work within a customer's budget no matter how big or small,” he said. “They need to take their time, shop around and make sure they are comfortable in what they're getting.”

Tim Moses of Moses Jewelers shows a ring to Carlie Epolite. Moses said many couples did their research during the COVID-19 shutdown and were ready to spend their money with a trusted, local business.

Stephen Goslaw of Robert Stephens Custom Jewelers in Butler works on a piece of jewelry. He said when it comes to rings, people still want to touch it, feel it and try it on.

Gregg Eichhorn of Mathew Jewelers works on a ring.

Shelly Mathew of Mathew Jewelers looks over Gregg Eichhorn's shoulder as he works. Mathew said more customers are designing their wedding bands.

Shelly Mathew of Mathew Jewelers.