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"You know about the four Cs of diamonds and that you don&amp;amp;#8217;t have to spend a lot to get a gorgeous engagement ring, but did you know this? White gold settings can cost more than platinum settings in the long run. I have a white-gold engagement ring and wedding band. I told Paul I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t want platinum because it cost a lot more. What I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t realize back then is that white gold eventually loses its silvery-white color because it&amp;amp;#8217;s made from yellow gold mixed with white metals that wear away. And this means you have to get your ring replated in rhodium or palladium (two silver-colored metals) every year to four years. Replating costs $40 at chain jewelry stores, like Zales, or as much as $135 at specialty plating shops. And since nearly three-quarters of you have or will have white-gold engagement rings, I thought you&amp;amp;#8217;d like to know! You can be allergic to your engagement ring or wedding band. I had a gold ring (or at least it claimed to be real gold) that would turn my skin green (yes, green!) every time I wore it. Other ladies get full-on rashes from wearing gold rings. The likely culprit is nickel, which is often used in alloys to create gold rings. Platinum and palladium are hypoallergenic, so ask for those metals or replate your white-gold ring in one of them to prevent bad reactions. Sizing engagement rings can take as much as two weeks. It can also take as little as a few days, but it&amp;amp;#8217;s not something that can be done while you wait. There&amp;amp;#8217;s not much you can do about this except figure out your exact size and pass that info on to your boyfriend before he buys your engagement ring. Sizing also doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t come cheap. A chain jewelry store charged me $80 to take my engagement ring and wedding band down a size. Two white-gold rings may not match in color. My engagement ring and wedding band came from two different jewelers, and they&amp;amp;#8217;re a pretty good match, color-wise. But I was lucky. White gold can be made from alloys with nickel or with palladium, and they can come plated with rhodium (which will eventually wear away) or not. If having slightly different silver-colored rings would bother you, check that the metals are made from identical alloys and plated with not only the same metal but also the same thickness of metal. Your body chemistry causes white gold to discolor. And there&amp;amp;#8217;s no way of telling how quickly your white gold engagement ring or wedding band will discolor because everyone&amp;amp;#8217;s different. Thanks for the info, ArtisanPlating.com. Which of the above is the biggest surprise to you? What else would you add to this list? What metal do you want for your engagement ring? More About Engagement Rings Would You Rather Get Proposed to With an Inexpensive Engagement Ring Now or Wait a Year to Get a Pricier One? A More-Sparkly Diamond Alternative Could Be on the Horizon 7 Surprising Places Where Your Engagement Ring Is Extra-Sparkly More Ways to Get Glamour: Chat with celebs, VIP fashion stars, beauty pros and more on our Facebook page! Visit Facebook.com/glamour for this month&amp;#x27;s schedule Download Glamour Magazine for your iPad--print subscribers, it&amp;#x27;s now part of your subscription plan! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter Photo: Photodisc "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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