Something has happened in the ten years since my husband slipped a wedding ring on my finger. It’s not earth shattering, mind you, but it is a noticeable shift. Just about every woman I know who’s gotten engaged or married over the last couple of years has gravitated away from what used to the be the norm. Have you noticed? Have you wondered what I’ve wondered?

It’s impossible to miss. Go to any jewelry Web site or store and look at wedding sets and you’ll see it.

Where has the gold gold gone?

Everyone seems to be wearing silver, these days. Okay … Not silver, silver. The color silver, as in white gold or platinum. We expect things to fall in and out of vogue when it comes to food, music, clothing, architecture and home décor. But wedding rings? I guess so! Isn’t it funny how our tastes change?

I remember a friend of mine telling me that the day he got married he thought to himself, “They’re going to bury me with this ring.” The statement was a little odd, yes. But what do you expect from a guy! I thought the sentiment was really sweet, though. It showed how committed he was (is) to his wife and how proud he was (is) to wear the ring she gave him on their wedding day.

And it’s that exact sentiment makes me feel really awful to tell you what I did because it has nothing to do with how much I love my husband or how committed I am to him. I’m just sort of tired of my gold gold wedding rings. I’m feeling dated.

This is really wrong, isn’t it? How horrible of me. Especially if you knew what my sweet husband had to go through to get the ring I wanted. I remember when he took me shopping for rings, and we narrowed them down to two. One would’ve been fine. It was simple and beautiful, and I would have loved it. The other was gorgeous. Actually, it was a loose diamond, an emerald shape that we wanted to mount onto a certain setting. And honestly, it was completely out of our league at the time.

But somehow, on a chilly February day, he managed to pop the question and produce the ring that had dazzled us both. I’ll never forget it. I was shocked. I still love it, and I still love him. I’d never consider trading him in on a different model, and I hope he never wants to do that to me.

So are you wondering… what did I do?

I gave my wedding rings a makeover.

I turned them silver. Not silver, silver. Silver as in dipped in rhodium. Ever heard of it?

I hadn’t until about a year ago. One of my relatives did the same thing to her wedding ring. I thought she was crazy at the time. Who knew, huh? At the time, it was just information I filed away.

But this week, I took the plunge. Or rather, my rings did.

Turns out, rhodium dipping can be good for people who develop an allergy to their rings. It’s also good for people whose white gold tends to turn a yellowish color, and it can brighten platinum jewelry which can look dull and grayish.

I’d never heard of rhodium, or so I thought. It actually was on the periodic chart I was supposed to have learned in high school and college chemistry. It’s in the same family as platinum. It’s a bright silver color, and like platinum, jewelry made entirely of rhodium is very, very expensive.

Rhodium plating, though, is not. Prices can vary, but a good bet is that it will cost you somewhere around $30 per ring to be plated. And if you absolutely hate the result, it’s not permanent. Plating usually lasts only about a year. You may have to give up your rings for a week. That’s how long mine took to be dipped. I went to a jeweler who didn’t have the facilities to do the work in the store. My rings had to be sent off. When I got them back, I couldn't believe the difference! They really turned out beautiful.

So now that you’ve heard the whole thing, am I so terrible?

I will admit that if my husband were to say he was tired of his ring, I’d probably wring his neck. (But only if he told me he didn’t want to wear it at all.)

I’m proud of my wedding rings. I love wearing them. It's just that something old has become something new, again. So even if my rings look a little different, what they represent in my heart has not changed. And that’s not a bad way to start the next ten years together. Is it?

Katharyn is the digital producer for WFAA-TV and contributes regularly to o8sis.com. Her column appears every Tuesday. Do you have a topic for Shop Talk? E-mail o8sis