Not a huge wedding hall, hotel or lush green field, a couple in Portland said “I do” to each other in a ceremony at an ice cream shop. On May 2, Alex Dias and Michelle Nguyen got married at a local Salt & Straw outlet that held a special place in their relationship.
Michelle, a native of Portland and a sports medicine doctor, grew up visiting the store with friends and often treated herself to ice cream while doing her residency at Indiana University during the pandemic. She revealed to People Magazine that the location of the ice cream shop was one of the factors she considered when moving back to Portland, and that's how she ended up staying “five minutes from where Alex was.”
The couple had an interesting beginning to their story. As Alex shared, Michelle had “ghosted” him on their first date, assuming she would move to New York City and worried that they would end up in “a long-term thing” if she went on the date. But fate had other plans. She got a job in Portland, and during an ice storm in January 2024, the two reconnected.
One of their earliest memories together involved Salt & Straw's famous Arbequina olive oil-flavoured ice cream. “On our third date, I was gonna cook dinner for her and ran out right before that date over to Salt & Straw, the same one where we just got married, and picked up a pint of the olive oil ice cream,” Alex shared. Since then, visiting the shop became a regular tradition for the couple.
In June 2025, Alex proposed to Michelle at the same store. Later that year, when Michelle noticed a post from the brand asking couples to share their stories for a special event, she submitted their photos and an essay about their connection to Salt & Straw.
The company eventually selected them for a wedding celebration and planned every detail of the ceremony, including a custom strawberry tres leches ice cream cake. Tyler Malek, the Salt and Straw co-founder, even officiated the wedding. Michelle's bouquet was also customised and placed inside a waffle cone, an idea Alex said was his.
Following the ceremony, which Alex described as “everything that I could have dreamed,” the newlyweds served ice cream and made waffle cones for their guests.