Gay Men's Wedding Bands - A True Story of Family Love

There are traditions that seem to come and go within our culture. It seems like we shy away from things that are important to our parent’s generation and then our children or their children go back to them. I think a major part of this is that we want to be more advanced and with it than our parents are so we rebel against what they do. Some of this leads to progress and some just to change for the sake of change. Also, we find in these days and times that we Gay Men must create our own NEW traditions that fit us, and fit our own families (both our biological families and our created families.)

One of the things that my hippie parents rebelled against was some of the traditions of marriage. My parents were married, however it was an outdoor wedding in which they wrote their own vows and dressed in non-traditional clothing. My father was against the traditional mens wedding bands so he never wore one. My mother had a wedding ring that was made for her by a friend of theirs that was into making jewelry. I found it interesting that as my parent’s were getting ready to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary my mother decided to go shopping to look at mens wedding bands. She told me that she had noticed that my father was commenting on the wedding rings that other men wore and she thought he regretted not having one. So the traditions of my family fell to me at last: that happy mix of the non-traditional wedding (one with no bride!) plus wanting to add in the family making traditions such as two men exchanging a beautifully matched pair of men's wedding bands.

Mom asked me to come with her on the shopping trip. I had recently been married my partner, Rob, so I new what was in style for men’s wedding bands in many of the larger jewelry stores. I asked my mom if she wanted to have something that was similar to her ring, or if she was going to look for something traditional. She had not thought about this. We decided that we would contact their old friend to see if he was still making jewelry. After a few telephone calls to old contacts, and looking on the internet telephone directories we were finally able to locate him. He now ran a small shop in Boston, and had even done custom gay mens wedding rings for gay weddings in the state.

We decided to visit his store. He had become quite successful in his jewelry making and had a very nice display. He was thrilled to see my mom and to find out that she was still wearing the wedding ring that he had made. It was one of his first creations, so did not have any rings for men that were similar, but he agreed to make one for my dad. My mother wanted a simple band that would have similar detailing as hers. He agreed to make it and to come to the anniversary party and deliver it himself. My father was very pleased with the ring and laughed that after forty years others would know that he is spoken for.