This direct-to-consumer jewelry company makes customizable, minimalist wedding rings starting at $250 — taking the stress out of the shopping process

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• Simple, inexpensive, high-quality, and personal. Few jewelry stores offer these qualities in their wedding ring offerings and shopping experiences, but they're what many couples want, and what ultimately makes online company Holden stand out.
• You can customize every aspect of your wedding ring on its site, and spend less than $250 for the final product to be produced and shipped to you.

It's all too easy to question how much you even want a wedding ring anymore after you've wearily walked into your sixth jewelry store of the day and confirmed that once again, it contains hovering salespeople, an overwhelming number of options, and price tags that make you think, "really?"

You shouldn't give up just yet because a new online startup called Holden, which sells high-quality customizable wedding rings starting at just $249, could be putting an end to this unnecessarily stressful search.

Holden is not the first company, nor the first foray into jewelry for co-founders Simon Zhang and Andrew Lim. After graduating from Dartmouth, they founded MUJO, an online fashion jewelry brand, and met countless couples who couldn't find wedding bands they liked. Once they felt the frustration themselves while helping Lim's brother shop for a ring, it became clear that something needed to change.

By offering affordable, one-of-a-kind rings on a convenient online platform, Holden is a response to the expensive and overwhelming ordeal that wedding ring shopping has unfortunately become.

Couples who are interested in its rings can start with the Ring Size Kit, which the company will send free of charge. Then, you can choose from 17 different ring profiles and start designing your rings in the Holden Design Studio. The following features are all customizable:

• Metal: Silver Palladium, Yellow Gold, Rose Gold, White Gold, or Platinum
• Karat: 14-karat or 18-karat
• Width: 1.5mm, 3mm, 4.5mm, or 6mm
• Finish: Matte or Mirror
• Optional Engraving: Up to 20 characters

Read more: Online startup Vrai & Oro is challenging the traditional jewelry industry with conflict-free diamonds and custom engagement rings

The Domed, Square, and Triangle profiles are the most popular shapes, while the 14-karat Yellow and White Gold are the most popular metals, but don't feel pressured to follow the crowd — if you have alternative designs in mind, you can contact Holden directly to make your dream wedding ring a reality.

It takes up to two weeks to produce the ring, which is crafted to order in New York City. The design is 3D printed, cast into conflict-free and recycled precious metals, and hand-polished before making its way to your doorstep.

Traditional custom rings are usually pricey because of how time-intensive the design and production processes are, but Holden bypasses these hurdles by making the customer the designer and using efficient 3D printing technology. Free shipping and 14-day returns, complimentary resizing for life, and a limited lifetime warranty policy are other features that differentiate Holden from the typical jewelry shop.

Lim says revenue has doubled month over month since the company launched in April 2018, and it's on track to generate annualized revenue in the millions by the end of 2018. As direct-to-consumer jewelry startups make their way into the mainstream, we don't see this growth slowing down any time soon.

Design a wedding ring ($249+) at Holden here.