Nur Balqis Hakim Lokman Hakim’s research while affiliated with MARA University of Technology and other places

The term ‘wedding ring’ is commonly used to describe the rings given by either or both the bride and groom during marital ceremony. The significance of wedding rings may differ in accordance to the people’s culture, history, and religion. Particularly among the Malays, there is no specific design or characteristic of a ring to portray their marital status. Unlike the westerners, wedding bands are most commonly used as wedding rings, which have a diagnostic characteristic, a matching pair for both bride and groom and systematically used on the left ring finger indicating its significance to portray one’s marital status. From this observation, we can see that wedding rings have been successfully recognized as a communication object to portray one’s marital status within the western society. However, it is not exclusive only to the western people. The idea of wedding rings is common among Christians of different races. In Malaysia, we can see there is an arising acceptance of the idea of wedding rings as a communication object to portray one’s marital status. This happens through the assimilations of wedding cultures among the multireligious/racial society in Malaysia. The openness of the Malays towards assimilation however is limited by the socially acceptable margin of good and bad. This research aims to discover the effectiveness of wedding rings as a communication object to portray marital status in the Malay society. The result will contribute in determining the designs of wedding rings that will be in demand in the Malaysian jewellery market and thus will enhance our local market by reaching to the target market. The method of research will be a descriptive research, and what to observe is the current Malay wedding culture and also the effectiveness of wedding rings as a communication object to portray one’s marital status. For this, the researcher will conduct a survey to gather information from the samples of target population.

the significance of wedding rings is strongly influenced by the culture of the people. In the Malaysian culture, rings are perceived as a gift from the groom to the bride and vice versa unlike wedding rings in the western culture which are perceived as a symbol of one's marital status. Thus, the design of a wedding ring or a pair of them differs in accordance to these perceptions. Malaysia, being a country that once upon a time was colonised by the western powers has moulded a local culture with a lot of assimilations from the colonization. Aside from that, the immigrants from India and China which made their way into the country have also influenced the culture of the Malays. These assimilations include the wedding cultures of the Malays. The openness for assimilations is however limited by the margin of good and bad. This publication seeks to determine the significance of wedding rings within the Malay culture currently which may have been assimilated with other cultures, specifically the westerns. The significance will strongly affect the designs of wedding rings that will be in demand. This will help in constructing prediction pattern for the jewellery designers in designing and marketing to enhance the local jewellery industry. The method of research will be descriptive research and what to observe is the current Malay culture, the wedding culture and also the perception of the society towards the significance of wedding rings. For this, the researcher will conduct a survey to gather information from the samples of target population.