There are a number of considerations people take in determining whether they want white or yellow gold, but often platinum isn't considered. There are a number of reasons why you'd want to take platinum over white gold and several reasons why you might prefer the white gold over platinum. Because it is much more difficult to work with than gold, there are far fewer jewelers in any given city that will craft custom platinum rings than will work with gold. If you have a particular artist in mind to craft the ring of your dreams, platinum may simply not be an option.
Platinum is more expensive. Not only is the metal more valuable, but it is more costly to craft and anneal as it melts at higher temperatures than gold. One recent development in China is the introduction of palladium jewelry which shares most of the properties of platinum, but is less expensive. Western markets, however, have not been swept up in the palladium trend and continue to be dominated by platinum and gold.
Platinum is much harder than gold. The more pure the gold is, the softer it is and 24 carat gold is completely impractical for any kind of jewelry. If a ring is going to stand the test of time, it should be as low as 10 carat gold and even there it will wear away and grow thinner over time. Platinum, however, is much less resistant to erosion and will last literally for generations - virtually for ever.
The hardness of platinum gives it one serious flaw, however. It is hard to scratch, but when you do scratch platinum, the scratch will remain ugly and won't wear away, so if your wedding band is going to be platinum, you shouldn't be wearing it while you garden or exposing it to rough surfaces. Of course you shouldn't be exposing white gold either, but platinum is much less forgiving in this regard. A scratched platinum ring can be repaired, but this too is costly.
Because gold rings must be of a low carat, they contain a high percentage of other metals. White gold is still made out of pure gold which is always yellow, but it is mixed with white metals, so that it has a mostly white appearance. Platinum, however, has no yellow pigment at all, so it'll be a purer white. If you're setting a diamond of high grade white color in your wedding band, a little bit of yellow in the metal will make the diamond's color appear to be of lower value than it actually is. A platinum ring is pure platinum and isn't "cut" with low grade metals. This makes it more costly, but also more special.
The metals that are mixed with gold to make white gold may include nickel or silver and in very high end white gold it is possible that platinum or palladium is used. Nonetheless, while pure gold is non-reactive and hence hypoallergenic, white gold made with silver, nickel, or other metals may cause a reaction in people who are very sensitive to silver jewelry. Platinum is hypoallergenic like gold, but a platinum ring has no irritation-inducing impurities.
In order to make white gold look particularly white, it is often plated with rhodium, a very valuable metal in the platinum family. Rhodium is very hard and every bit as beautiful as platinum, but it is applied in the thinnest possible layer over the gold. In time, the rhodium will wear through and the white gold will appear less shiny and less white. This is unavoidable and the only remedy is to have the ring re-plated. Likewise a ring plated with rhodium may not cause an allergic reaction, but one with the rhodium worn down may start to cause problems for the wearer.
The long story short is that a platinum ring is more expensive, harder to have custom made, and harder to repair if scratched than white gold, but is clearly superior in every other way. A platinum ring will last forever and can be passed down through the generations as an heirloom.
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