Like many couples, Nicholas Pyle and Carol Han, met by chance on a dating app, and their chemistry was instant from their first night out in Manhattan. The only catch was that, at the time, Nicholas was working as a financial consultant in London, while Carol runs a social media agency Community Atelier in New York (where she is now also the founder and CEO of clean-chic candle company Nette). They did long-distance for several years, and during this time, Carol came to discover luxury jewler Jessica McCormack’s townhouse. Located at 7 Carlos Place in Mayfair, London, the 19th-century six-story residence is home to the brand’s store, atelier, headquarters, and its own in-house workshop. Carefully curated by McCormack herself, it’s filled with fine art, antique furniture, and ornate cases with diamonds on display.

McCormack has a similarly deft hand in taking traditional jewelry techniques to a contemporary new place. “I love how she melds these worlds together with pieces that nod to history but with her own modern twist,” Han says. “I could spend hours in there!” And thanks to the open-door policy, Carol would often pop by when she would visit Nicholas.

Carol and Nicholas’s own worlds collided when he permanently relocated to New York, and soon after, they became engaged while on holiday in Antibes. The couple instantly knew they wanted McCormack to create custom wedding bands that told their love story and represented themselves. With this in mind, Carol also took advantage of the designer’s demi-bespoke experience, where you can update any existing Jessica McCormack style to your liking or add elements to a ring or stone of your own, as Carol did. So, she shipped the ring that Nicholas initially proposed with to London, where the Jessica McCormack team worked with her over email and via phone to transform the east-west cushion-cut diamond to include a classic button-back setting (a JM signature that’s famously comfortable) plus two side bumpers for a little something extra.

The next time Carol visited the townhouse, it was with Nicholas to codesign his-and-hers bands, who also has the fondest memories of codesigning meaningful pieces side by side: “I especially liked the experience of spending time in the townhouse and adding special touches to our rings.” Carol’s diamond eternity band was accented with a sapphire to mark the month that they were to be wed (September), while Nicholas’s white gold band had a secret aquamarine stone set inside, an homage to Carol’s birthstone. “They are beautiful in their simplicity, but the little details make them so special,” she says. “We wanted to do a little something extra that wasn’t necessarily visible to everyone else.” Nor did they shy away from wearing their wedding bands out of the store. “We just couldn’t resist,” she recalls. “We had a fun cheat night where we wore wedding rings for an entire evening before the wedding day.” The couple was just as elated when they made it official in the Catskills in 2018, where they were photographed holding up their his-and-hers bands, as seen in their wedding feature on Over The Moon.

“The entire Jessica McCormack process was so intimate and personal,” Carol said via Zoom last week. “I just fell in love with the entire Jessica McCormack aesthetic,” she added while pointing to heart-shaped Gypset diamond earrings by the designer for proof of her devotion. Now, her eye is on a sapphire pendant to match her wedding band (a perfect present considering the couple’s four-year anniversary is fast approaching). Below are a few more “fantasy pieces” Carol hopes to add to her collection, whether to mark a major milestone as a couple or just, well, because. As she says herself: “I’m a Jessica McCormack fan for life.”