What began in a home garage with a single wooden ring has grown into a thriving, nationally respected jewelry business known for making deeply personal heirlooms. Charlotte jewelry makers Rustic & Main crafts wedding and engagement rings using reclaimed and storied materials—from historic whiskey barrels and naval ship teak to dog fur yarn and rose petals.
Founded by husband-and-wife duo Mike and Summer Yarbrough, the business was born from necessity. Mike, no longer able to wear his traditional band due to carpal tunnel, fashioned a lightweight wooden version that caught the eye of a local hairstylist. Their experiment became a full-blown business, one rooted in craftsmanship, sentiment, and sustainability. Today, with a growing team, a newly restored retail space (once Luke Combs’ childhood home), and an unwavering commitment to U.S.-based artisanship, Rustic & Main stands at the intersection of love, legacy, and local pride.
Here, Summer tells us a bit more about the early days, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and what’s next for the family-owned business.
Tell us about how the idea came together and the early days of being Charlotte jewelry makers.
Mike developed carpal tunnel syndrome sometime in 2014 and stopped wearing his traditional gold band. We’d been married 20 years so it meant a lot to me for Mike to wear his wedding band. Mike was raised by his grandfather, who had a construction business and woodworking shop. So, he thought he could create a light wooden ring that would not feel heavy and cold. The next day he wore it out when he got his haircut. The stylist asked if he could make them one. Jump forward to April 2016, and he launched the first two styles of wooden rings on Etsy. I quickly had to step in to help out. We hired our first teammate, Jeffrey Payne, that December. By summer of 2017, we had seven other people involved in the business working from our house, launched a Shopify site, and Mike quit his full-time job.
What do you think makes you and your husband not only good as romantic partners but in business as well?
Mike and I are extreme opposites in some ways and intensely the same in others where it really counts. Boy, have we had to grow and reign in all of this so that we can thrive in marriage and business. Our marriage and business wins when we appreciate what each other has to bring to the table. And when we listen to each other instead of defending our own pride and ideas. Both Mike and I will put in the hard work to learn and grow in everything. That includes how to properly apply a business management system at RM to how the heck do you get an engagement ring made from concept to finished product. It has been a blast developing our exclusive engagement and fashion ring design together… Mike is the big engine for e-commerce, and I am the champion for local relationships and brick and mortar retail.
You note that you think customization is a big part of your success—tell us a bit more about that.
A lot of the success we experienced up front was simply because we were filling a much-ignored gap. Guys wanted to be part of the wedding story too. We started out offering our own materials for the rings, such as weathered whiskey barrels and teak from the USS NC Battleship’s deck. However, we quickly morphed into a taking meaningful objects from our customers and adding them into the ring design.
There is not much that we have not been able to incorporate into rings, from the metal belonging to a car enthusiast’s favorite ride to wood from a grandfather’s barn. Inside our retail location, we have what we call the ”Playground.” It is a system of magnetized ring shanks (the round part that goes around your finger) and stones. Customers can create an array of rings using this system and see what they look like on their hands.
What has been the most challenging part of growing a business asCharlotte jewelry makers, and what’s the most rewarding?
Challenging: We were growing at whiplash speed until 2020. We were blessed that we did not go under like most wedding-centric businesses at the time. Even a micro wedding needs bands. We got stuck with being just an e-commerce brand at this point since there were no viable options to open a true retail location. Rewarding: We currently employ 35 full-time, including Mike and me. We also keep a variety of contractors busy, from the US companies that make our ring blanks to the many contractors it takes to execute a redesign on a historic home Rewarding: Writing a check out to help someone in need or help a charity, seeing a new product come to the completion stage, and hearing how their jobs changed our teammates’ lives.
What’s next for these Charlotte jewelry makers?
We want to expand in our own community. We hope to make connections with others in the wedding, jewelry, and design industry. Now we have the retail location that we are eager to fill with walk-in customers and appointments. One of our big goals this year is to create a line of rings that use US-mined and/or ethically-sourced stones.
