MOST couples want their wedding to be awe inspiring. And therein lies the foundation of an enormous industry that, for a price, can guarantee bragging rights for the betrothed, whether it’s beachside fireworks, a chocolate-candy-bar multitiered cake flown in from Napa or flower-covered candelabra.

But in an age when it’s possible to outsource the entire affair, some couples are now forging bonds while forging their own gold, oxy-propane torches in hand, to create DIY wedding bands.

“It just makes a difference to put blood and sweat into the ring that he will wear his whole life,” said Millie Hale, 23. She made a dragon-scale-patterned white-gold band for her husband, Ralph Hale, also 23, a lover of, that’s right, the game Dungeons and Dragons. “It’s special to me as well as to him. Plus, it’s a good story to brag about at parties later on.”

The couple — both second lieutenants in the Air Force but based in separate cities — spent $2,415 to make each other’s wedding bands in a daylong workshop called the Wedding Ring Experience, which now has eight locations, including Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco, where the Hales made their rings. Last year the company, headquartered in San Diego, held 340 workshops nationwide, up from 160 in 2007, an official said.