Soaring gold prices have couples using heirloom jewellery to create custom engagement rings | Canada Voices

When Alex Korabov began thinking about proposing to his partner, he knew he wanted a custom engagement ring.

But the 28-year-old Toronto probation officer wasn’t sure how he’d pay for it. “I was a bit stressed, like how am I gonna afford this?” he said.

The solution came from his family’s past. After talking with his mother, Mr. Korabov went through boxes of family jewellery collected over decades: necklaces, watches, rings and earrings that once belonged to his mother and grandmothers.

None of the pieces were engagement rings, but the gold itself had value. They decided to melt some of the heirloom gold into a new band and sell other pieces, applying the proceeds toward a new stone.

Jewellery redesigns are “becoming more and more popular,” said Alexandra Mann, founder of a Toronto jewellery brand that often works with bridal clients.

Ms. Mann says rising gold prices – up roughly 65 per cent over the past year, combined with broader cost-of-living pressures, are pushing couples to reconsider and reuse the jewellery they already own.

Within a few weeks, Mr. Korabov was ready to propose with a 1.3-carat mined diamond set in an 18-karat white-gold band. Without the heirloom gold, the ring would have cost just over $9,100. Instead, more than half of that was credited from recycled family pieces.

Beyond the savings, the ring carried emotional weight.

“It’s really nice knowing that pieces from my mom and my grandmas are part of my fiancée’s ring,” he said. “Some of them aren’t with us anymore. It makes it feel bigger than just the two of us.”

Mr. Korabov’s decision reflects a growing shift among Canadian couples rethinking one of the most expensive relationship milestones. With engagement rings routinely costing thousands of dollars, heirloom jewellery offers both cost savings and sentimental meaning.

Average spending on engagement rings is hard to pin down. Some wedding websites estimate about $3,500, while other industry sources suggest a broader range of $3,000 to $7,000 as of 2025.

These figures sit uneasily alongside the long-standing “three months’ salary” guideline, a marketing tactic from De Beers dating to the Great Depression, when diamond sales were struggling. The company first promoted one month’s salary as appropriate, later doubling and tripling the benchmark.

Her father’s fortune went to another family. She got a cat – but it changed her life

Applied today, the math escalates quickly. The average income of a 25- to 34-year-old Canadian man in 2023 was $61,200, meaning that someone in Ontario would spend roughly $10,980 under a three-month rule. Those earning $100,000 a year could face engagement ring price tags of more than $18,000.

A lab-grown diamond engagement ring typically costs between $4,000 and $8,000, said Ms. Mann, while natural diamonds often fall between $15,000 and $25,000. Using family gold or stones can significantly reduce those numbers.

“It gets you the best of both worlds,” she said, “you’re scratching an itch of getting a new piece while minimizing the price.”

This balance appealed to Lorne Mlotek, 34, a Toronto entrepreneur and sustainable-building educator. Planning to propose last fall during a trip to Prince Edward Island, he combined elements from two family heirloom pieces: a central stone from his grandmother’s ring and smaller diamonds from his great-grandmother’s engagement ring.

The result was a floral-inspired halo design made almost entirely from existing materials. The cost was about $1,200, largely for labour and a small amount of additional gold – far below what Mr. Mlotek assumed a new ring might cost.

“I always thought a new ring was somewhere between $15,000 and $30,000,” he said. “But I knew that something sentimental, even if it was five dollars, would mean more than something flashy.”

The decision wasn’t driven by financial strain, Mr. Mlotek said. He was in a position to spend more, but “we’re not flashy people,” he said. “It mattered that it came from my family.”

In Vancouver, goldsmith and designer Sasha Shkolnik has watched demand for heirloom redesigns rise steadily over the past decade.

At her Richmond, B.C., jewellery studio, Ms. Shkolnik said nearly every engagement or wedding client who walks through her door asks about reusing old gold. With prices climbing and budgets tightening, recycled materials offer a practical alternative.

“It’s really a way to keep the budget down while getting the sentiment,” she said.

Her studio charges based on design complexity and labour, with custom engagement rings often costing several thousand dollars less when clients supply gold or stones. She also offers ring-making classes for under $500 to couples who want to be involved directly in the process, another way to cut costs while deepening the emotional connection.

When Brooklyn and Jacob Wynnychuk married in 2025, both chose to turn family rings into wedding bands, using pieces passed down through generations.

Mr. Wynnychuk, 27, worked with his grandfather’s 10-karat gold wedding band, a well-worn ring shaped by decades of farm work. The gold was melted down and reshaped, and small diamonds were added alongside engraved Alberta wild roses – a nod to their shared roots and shared love of nature.

Mrs. Wynnychuk, 26, redesigned a chevron-shaped ring inherited from her grandmother, keeping the original diamonds but adjusting the shape so it would sit seamlessly alongside her engagement ring. Together, the rings cost about $2,000 each.

While money wasn’t the primary motivator, redesigning heirloom gold allowed the couple to direct more of their budget toward experiences they valued, including their wedding and honeymoon travel.

“It feels like we’re carrying our family history forward together,” Mrs. Wynnychuk added.