When Chris Mathieu asked for Valerie Boring's hand in marriage, she didn't mind at all that he did it with a bright red, emerald-cut garnet set in a band made not of gold or platinum, but of cheapie sterling silver.

That's because the couple planned to go to Ring, Version 2, from the start.

"He said 'You should have some say in the ring design,' " recalled the bride, now Valerie Mathieu.

At a celebratory dinner the next week, Chris Mathieu's mom presented Valerie with a small box filled with family wedding rings, including an heirloom gold band with rose-cut diamonds.

"She told me to take the rings to a jeweler, and make a new one for myself," said Valerie Mathieu, who married Chris in 2006. "I was touched beyond words.

"Many people pass on heirloom jewelry to the next generation. I don't know of many people who give the next generation complete artistic license."

The wedding ring, that immortal symbol of never-ending love, has undergone a transformation of late, as trends toward platinum bands, conflict-free diamonds and colored stones have taken hold.

In keeping with today's hot preoccupation with environmental awareness, recycling of rings is growing ever more popular, too.

The Mathieus, who live in Punchbowl, ended up combining the gold from one ring belonging to his great-aunt with the gold and the rose-cut stones from his great-grandmother to make a burnished-gold creation.

Keri Shepherd, co-owner of The Wedding Planners, says she has been seeing more antique-cut diamonds and antique settings. Though she's not sure that's purely for environmental reasons, she suspects it has to do with seeing what celebrities are doing — and today's cause celebre goes by the color green.

"And BIG," Shepherd added. "For a while there, it was simple and small, but a lot of girls I'm seeing out there have pretty big rocks on their hand."

Michael Han, of The Wedding Ring Shop on Kapi'olani Boulevard, said colored diamonds and platinum bands have become highly desirable, though that also means they might be cost-prohibitive. Platinum bands can run from $300 to $2,000 — and that's before you even set a stone in them.

Hawai'i brides might be a bit more conservative about their wedding settings than their ... dare we say "flashier?" ... Mainland counterparts, but they seek out quality, Han said: "Quality trumps size and overall mass."

And The Wedding Planners' Shepherd has noticed that men are beginning to care more about the rings that they wear, too. Platinum and the burnished look is popular, she said.

"Years ago, it was a basic band, but now they are getting a little bolder," said Shepherd, whose Honolulu-based business does about 80 weddings a year. "Now, they do diamonds or some sort of design or scrollwork or design pattern."

Valerie Mathieu grows sentimental when she thinks of not only the conflict-free garnet her husband first picked out, which was probably mined in Alaska — "I saw the movie 'Blood Diamond,' it was a real eye-opener," she explained — but also of the Victorian-era stones and gold that have been in her husband's family for generations.

She didn't cry when her mother-in-law-to-be offered her the heirlooms with no more than a "do with this what you will."

She's not a crier.

"I was speechless," said Valerie Mathieu. "It was a true gift."