Exchanging rings is a recent fad that certainly isn’t overwhelmingly common in the U.K…
Personally I am against any sort of permamently worn jewellrey on Health and Safetey grounds.
By all means wear the stuff when you’re dressing up, but getting hooked up in machinery by your ring, bracelet, whatever can result in horrific mutilation.
Seems rather unlikely that the Prince (or future King) is going to be horrifically mutilated by getting his ring caught in any machinery.
Except perhaps when he’s at his day job as a search and recue helicopter pilot.
Having been around helicopters alot, I think that it is a very real posibility.
I mentioned in the thread about The King’s Speech that I noticed the King did not wear a wedding ring. In that thread, many Dopers from the UK said this was usual for Kings not to wear a wedding ring.
And as mentioned above - it is not like William could walk in a bar and try to con some woman by saying he wasn’t married - my guess is the “secret” would be out.
My mother mentioned this story this afternoon. She said that when she got married (in 1960) it wasn’t usual for any men to wear a wedding ring. The custom at the time, apparently, was when a couple got engaged, he would give her an engagement ring, and she would give him a signet ring.
This might be regional. I know plenty of older couples where the man has a ring, including my parents. Working construction, he never wore it for safety reasons, but he has one. They were married in the 50s.
Very likely– where’s da UP, eh?
Dad doesn’t wear any accessories save a watch. I’ve never seen him with a ring and was quite unaware that men would wear such a thing until a few years ago.
What’s Lord Fauntleroy’s policy on pants and underwear? He’s a friggin Prince for gosh sakes.
She probally won’t, but I kinda wish Kate would decide not to wear a white wedding dress just to see the effects it’d have on wedding fashion. I know blue (associated with the Virgin Mary) was a popular colour for royal brides pre-Victoria. Even after white became the default blue dresses were common (along with much lower key ceremonies) for women marrying a second time. Also a red dress would look realy cool.
This isn’t true. He can marry a non-Protestant and keep his place in the line of succession. We would only loose it if he married a Catholic (or become one himself). Orthodox Christians are fine (in fact one of the Tsar’s daughters was being considered as a bride for the future Edward VIII before WWI). As are (at least in theory) non-Christians. Technically the children don’t even need to be raised as Protestants (or even be baptised) to remain in the line of succesion as long as they don’t become Catholics. If one of them inheirited the throne s/he would need to agree to take communion in the Church of England.
Eh, we don’t wear our rings, and neither of us see it as an issue. We both act married, what the hell does it matter if we look married?
Don’t give a crap what William does or doesn’t want to wear.
I also leave it up to Mr. S whether he wants to wear his wedding ring, though I’m glad he does – not because I’m worried that he’ll cheat without it (an unbelievably ridiculous thought), but just because I like the symbolism of a man proudly wearing his ring if he so chooses.
There’s a catch, though; Mr. S has started wearing his wedding ring on his right hand, because he has developed a bony lump of some sort (which has been pronounced “not a problem” by the doctor, I believe) on his left middle finger, which causes discomfort when he wears the ring on the adjacent ring finger. We just say he’s wearing it in the European style. 
Occasionally he does take it off because he’s working on something grubby, or his hands are bothering him, or whatever, and he might not put it back on for several days. No big whoop.
I wear my rings pretty much all the time, again except when doing something grubby.
Until I went to the US, I hadn’t seen any rings on men except for marriage bands (they are customary in Spain).
As Lust4Life mentions, William is a helicopter pilot, the kind of job where jewelry is basically not allowed. I’ve had factory jobs where rings were not allowed and I’m reasonably sure none of my coworker’s spouses made a fuss about it.
The article quoted says he WILL wear a ring UNDER his signet ring…or is my reading comprehension just really bad?
Rings are just bits of gold, loved by some, not needed by some and unaffordable by some. Surely each marriage is just as valid when genuinely entered into no matter if there is a bit of gold on show or not.
It says his father Charles does, not that Wills will.
Maybe William and Kate plan to have an “open” marriage?
Sorta like his old man.
I really wouldn’t have expected him to wear one except maybe when he’s all decked out in finery. Day to day life…meh. I would rather have a husband with ten fingers than one who got his wedding ring caught in the helicopter machinery.
Of course you are right, I had Catholic in my mind but not on my keyboard! I wonder if they will ever change that law.
I seem to recall reading the men’s wedding rings are remnants of World War I when men would wear them as a reminder of their wife back home.
Wedding rings for men were given to us by the same people who gave us diamonds-as-the-‘official’-engagement-stone and the-two-months-salary-‘rule.’
Yes – the jewelry industry, around WWI. They didn’t take off quickly at all. It wasn’t until the '60s that double ring ceremonies started to overtake single rings.
Personally, whenever I talk to a woman who thinks a wife ought to be able to veto her husband’s choice not to wear a wedding ring, I wonder whether she also feels that a husband ought to be able to veto his wife’s choice to keep her birth name after marriage?
Personally I think that both these decisions should rest in the end with the person who wears the ring or bears the name; even if their partner would prefer the opposite choice.