The Ultimate Guide to Bridal Ear Curation: Create A Bridal Earring Stack
Photography by Bates and Bates PhotographyDid you know that your ears are as unique as your fingerprints? In recent years, the bridal ear curation trend has become more and more popular with brides planning entirely bespoke piercings and layering multiple earrings to suit their wedding aesthetic, personality and unique ear anatomy. Whether it’s a subtle arrangement of dainty diamonds or a bold mix of metals and gemstones, bridal ear curation offers a stylish way to elevate any bridal look. In this article, we’ve got everything you need to know about creating your own bridal ear stack with our fave shoppable pieces as well as styling tips and materials you should be looking for.
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Your guide to bridal ear curation with shopping suggestions to create your ideal bridal earring stack
What is Ear Curation?
Ear curation is where a professional piercer or jewellery expert will look at the anatomy of your ear and recommend placements for multiple earrings. These earrings can be customised to suit the kind of metal and gemstone you want to add personality to an everyday or evening look and create an overall aesthetically pleasing experience. The earrings chosen for this can be hoops, huggies, studs, statement earrings and more.
What we love specifically about bridal ear curation is that there are no rules! You can keep things minimalist and dainty or bold and colourful. If you’re wearing your hair up and perhaps are wearing a wedding dress with a neckline that doesn’t suit a necklace, playing around with your bridal earrings will give you that glam but elegant and sophisticated look we love so much.
Types of Ear Piercings
1. Lobe Piercing
The most common and traditional ear piercing, located on the soft, fleshy lower part of the ear.
2. Upper Lobe Piercing
A second or third piercing above the traditional lobe, still on the fleshy part of the ear.
3. Helix Piercing
A piercing on the upper cartilage of the ear, along the outer edge of the ear.
4. Forward Helix Piercing
Located on the front curve of the upper ear, near where the ear meets the side of the face.
5. Industrial Piercing
A pair of holes connected by a single straight barbell, typically on the upper ear through two parts of the cartilage.
6. Tragus Piercing
A piercing on the small, thick section of cartilage that partially covers the ear canal.
7. Anti-Tragus Piercing
Located on the cartilage directly opposite the tragus, just above the lobe.
8. Conch Piercing
Done through the large, flat area of cartilage in the middle of the ear, it can be either inner or outer conch depending on placement.
9. Daith Piercing
A piercing through the innermost fold of cartilage, just above the ear canal, often associated with relieving migraines.
10. Rook Piercing
A vertical piercing through the thick cartilage fold between the outer ear and inner conch.
11. Snug Piercing
Pierced through the inner cartilage rim, just above the anti-tragus.
12. Orbital Piercing
Similar to an industrial piercing but involves two holes connected by a single hoop rather than a barbell.
13. Flat Piercing
Located on the flat area of cartilage on the upper ear, just inside the outer rim.
14. Transverse Lobe Piercing
A horizontal piercing through the earlobe, rather than the typical vertical placement.
15. Auricle Piercing
Pierced on the outer edge of the ear, halfway between the earlobe and the helix.
If you decide that for your bridal earrings, you’d like to get some more piercings you need to take into account healing time. Each piercing varies in terms of healing time, pain level, and care required. You should expect to wait at least 6-12 months for cartilage (many piercings can take longer) and slightly less for lobes before you can swap out the original stud for your gorgeous bridal earrings.
How to Start Styling Your Bridal Ear Curation?
Traditionally, when it comes to styling your bridal earrings, most people choose symmetry so that their ears mirror the same pattern on each side. However, as with eyebrows, your ears are sisters and not twins, so if you have different piercings on one side compared to the other, that’s okay!
There are four main things to consider when styling your individual ear curation:
Skin Tone
You might want to opt for metals that look best with your complexion (hair colour can play a role in this too). We’ve all seen colour analysis become very popular across fashion and beauty as to what colours you should wear and look best on you based on your skin tone.
Personal/Wedding Aesthetics
With so many incredible jewellery brands out there, you can really let your personality shine through and curate your own aesthetic and ‘ear story’ with the earrings you choose. Sticking with a theme like botanical, boho, celestial, classic or minimalist is the best way to go for cohesion. Plus, this way you can match your bridal earrings to your overall wedding aesthetic too.
Weight & Style of Earrings
This is why we recommend visiting a professional jewellery piercer or stylist who can help you with the right placements of your bridal earrings. Not everything would work well next to each other and some earrings are heavier than others, which could cause your piercings to stretch or just make the earrings uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time.
Your Ear Anatomy
If you didn’t know, ears are totally unique. In fact, they’re just as unique as a fingerprint and could easily be used to identify you. This means that every ear curation is entirely bespoke to you. If you have smaller lobes, you can focus on spreading your piercings or using ear cuffs up your ear instead of overcrowding the lobe area and vice versa.
What Materials Should Your Bridal Earrings Be?
Solid Gold
The best choice for any curated bridal earring stack would be to use 14k or 18k gold. This is because solid gold will pretty much last you a lifetime. It’s waterproof, fade-proof and will never lose its lustre. It’s also hypoallergenic which means it’s suitable for initial piercings and would allow you to get any piercings (or last-minute) piercings done closer to the wedding.
Plus, we’re all for the sentimental moments and if jewellery is something you’d like to pass down to family members or even lend to friends for their ‘something borrowed’, then investing in real solid gold is the best way to ensure longevity.
Mixed Gemstones
Using mixed gemstones is such a nice way to add colour and play with textures too! The gemstones could be your and your partner’s birthstones or your children’s. The gemstones could also match the colour scheme of your wedding decor or your bridal bouquet. When it comes to creating a dreamy bridal earring stack, it’s all about the contrasting elements.
Pearls
In our eyes, the ultimate bridal jewellery or accessory is pearls! Maybe it’s the subtle pearlescent shine or the white colour, but they’re so inherently bridal that they’d be perfect for bridal earrings. Pearls can make your complexion glow and actually have been used throughout history as a symbol of love.
Gold Bridal Earring Stack
For our brides who love gold jewellery, you can take a look at our fave selected bridal earrings from beloved brands.
Silver Bridal Earring Stack
More of a silver kind of girl? Browse this edit for our must-have bridal earrings from more brands we love.
From sparkling diamond huggies to crystal studs, these are the earrings to layer up for your wedding
Thinking about your necklaces and other accessories? You can head to our wedding jewellery article for even more inspiration. Are you as obsessed with pearls as we are? Then we’ve got good news for you. We have a dedicated pearl wedding accessories article for you to browse.
