Photos by Noelle Johnson Photography
With These Rings is a sweet studio in Port Townsend, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula where you and your special someone can make your own wedding rings and fall in love all over again. The studio tagline is “You Can’t Buy Love, But You Can Make It.” The owner and artist behind the studio and concept is Stephanie Selle, a kind and gentle soul who will ensure you have a pleasant and creative afternoon melting metals and crafting one-of-a-kind rings.
Michelle and Allen did just that, planning to create bands together and then share a mutual proposal on the coastline. Michelle says, “Our experience with Stephanie was one of the highlights of our entire wedding process.”
Michelle and Allen are both firmly rooted in the Pacific Northwest, and they share many interests: “volunteering at the local humane society, camping, beer, wine, a good binge-worthy TV show, and the great state of Oregon.”
They met in middle school science class, quickly becoming friends and staying close throughout middle and high school. Unsure if they wanted to put their friendship at risk by dating, Michelle says, “we both knew that we would regret not taking the leap to see where our relationship would take us.” So over the next seven years, Michelle and Allen “learned how to support, care for, live with one another, and love each other.”
They both knew marriage was in their future pretty early on, but they did not rush into making that choice. Michelle says, “Our commitment to one another had grown and evolved over time and we were confident and stable in our relationship. We began to see a wedding not as something solely for ourselves but as a time for our friends and family to come together and celebrate the commitment we had already made to one another.” In 2015, the time was right. They had always made life decisions together and considered each other equals, so when it came to the proposal, Michelle felt strongly about doing something unconventional.
And so Michelle turned to the internet, stumbling upon With These Rings, and she “immediately fell in love with the concept.” Michelle and Allen contacted Stephanie, and through their dialogue decided to combine their “ring making session, engagement pictures, and joint proposal into one great day on New Year's Eve.”
Michelle describes a dark and rainy drive up to Port Townsend, but they “woke up to a gorgeous clear blue sky.” They spent the morning writing their proposals to one another. Michelle says, “We arrived at Stephanie's studio in the late morning and were warmly welcomed by Stephanie and our photographer Noelle. Stephanie was amazing through the entire process. She gave us gentle direction throughout but let us do the lion's share of the work.” Michelle reports that “Our experience with Stephanie was one of the highlights of our entire wedding process.” She wrote a glowing review summarizing their experience:
We were both nervous on the day, in no small part due to the fact that we had yet to meet Stephanie in person. Luckily, Stephanie couldn't have been more of a pleasure to work with and we couldn't be happier with how our rings turned out. The process, which took us about three and half hours, flew by. We had a blast making and fine tuning our rings and other than some quick tips and the occasional quality assurance, Stephanie let us do the vast majority of the work. If you are looking for something unique and meaningful for an engagement or wedding ring, Stephanie and With These Rings may be exactly what you are looking for. It certainly was for us.
Michelle describes the rest of the day: “After completing our ring making session, we had lunch at a pizza shop downtown and then met Noelle at a beach at Fort Worden where we proposed to one another and exchanged the rings. Apart from the frigid winds, it was the perfect intimate and meaningful proposal we had hoped for.”
