In a twist of fate, the Binnies find lifelong love

From time to time, a love story unfolds in the midst of planning one of life’s most romantic events: a wedding. Natélégé Mundle and Garfield Binnie met under unusual circumstances, and with love already in the air, there was no telling where life would take them.

“In 2017, my mother, Sue-Anne Holness, was working as a wedding and events planner for Sandals Resorts. Coincidentally, she was assigned to coordinate the wedding of my now mother-in-law,” Natélégé explained to Island Wedding.

On the day of that wedding, the plans made by the bride for her son’s accommodations unfortunately fell through. And because he was 15 years old at the time, he wasn’t allowed to stay at the adult-only resort.

Since it was a planner’s duty to mitigate any nuptial dilemma, Holness decided to ease the stress by opening her home in Montego Bay to the teenager.

“At first, I didn’t think much of it,” Garfield revealed. He was young, surrounded by strangers and his main concern was having a place to rest.

According to Natélégé, he was very shy and mostly kept to the room he was staying in. “It wasn’t until the next day that we had our first conversation and to our surprise, we discovered we shared the same birthday. I also found myself suddenly crushing on this complete stranger I had just met,” she revealed.

She and her two younger sisters welcomed the teen with open arms, “We got to know each other through conversations and even played games. I felt like I had known her and her little sisters for years,” Garfield shared.

For the sisters, it was their way of helping him feel at ease in a new and unfamiliar place. And though a crush was quietly waiting in the wings, a relationship was the furthest thing from Natélégé’s mind.

After the eventful weekend, Natélégé and Garfield kept in touch through Snapchat and calls via Skype. “Even though we lived on opposite sides of the island, she was fun, easy to talk to, and I was happy that we were able to build a bond that was both long and lasting,” he added. For Natélégé, the occasion marked the beginning of seven wonderful years of friendship.

THE BEGINNING

Garfield was handsome and amusing in her eyes, but she chalked up their meeting as a chance encounter, expecting they would only cross paths for a short while. Little by little, her perspective changed, and he became a constant in her life.

“We started out with small conversations and inside jokes. That soon turned into late-night talks. Skype calls and snaps slowly started building trust, and comfort I didn’t even realise I needed. I found myself looking forward to his messages, his presence, his way of making me laugh when I didn’t want to, or calming me down when I was overthinking,” she said.

Bonding over the years, he stopped being just a friend to Natélégé, and began finding a place in her heart, “Resilient, patient, loving and so supportive, he is the person I trust the most; the one I wanted to share everything with, and the one who could make the hardest days feel lighter. That’s when friendship quietly shifted to love.”

Garfield noticed the smooth transition from innocent conversations to deep connection.

He admires how selfless, driven, ambitious, nurturing, and beautiful she is. To Garfield, Natélégé is the one who truly understands him, offering unwavering support and unconditional love.

“There were years of chasing after her, of being best-friend-zoned time and time again because of the distance, but I never gave up. I always felt there was something real there and something worth waiting for,” he admitted.

AS FATE WOULD HAVE IT

Then, as fate intervened, everything changed in November of last year. “We finally had the conversation we’d been avoiding for too long. We talked about why we never made it work, despite the deep feelings we had for each other.”

That’s when the pair decided to eliminate the excuses. “We were going to give each other a real chance. From that moment, everything shifted. We started talking every day again, catching up on the parts of life we had missed, learning about who we had become in the time apart.”

On December 7, 2024, though miles apart, they finally found themselves emotionally in sync. Garfield arranged to have flowers delivered with a note asking a simple question: “Will you be my girlfriend?” Natélégé said yes, the same answer she would give five months later when he asked her to be his wife.

Wasting no time, he planned a beach proposal for his beloved. She thought they were heading to a simple romantic picnic, but instead, she was blindfolded and guided to a secluded spot.

“I removed the blindfold and asked her to keep her eyes closed. That’s when I went down on my knee and asked her to open her eyes. After seeing her face light up with joy and her smile shine more radiantly than the stunning sunset view that overlooked us, I asked her if she would make me the happiest man and marry me,” Garfield recounted.

With a wedding under way, who better to plan these nuptials than the person who was responsible for their meeting in the first place? Holness was honoured to guide the young couple on their journey to ‘I do’.

On July 27, Natélégé and Garfield vowed to love, honour and cherish each other forever in a garden ceremony held at Stay Yah Jamaica in Montego Bay, St James. According to the gorgeous bride, the wedding was everything she dreamed of, “I was surrounded by love, with the full support of my mom and grandmother, who both worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure everything ran perfectly.”

She recalled her favourite moment of the day, coming face-to-face with her handsome groom as she walked up the aisle towards him, “As soon as our eyes met, his tears started to fall. They were so genuine and raw that they became contagious. Everyone around us, myself included, began to cry. It was one of the most emotional and beautiful moments of my life. I’ll never forget the look on his face. It said everything without a single word.”

For the dapper groom, the small and intimate wedding was nothing short of amazing, “The best moment for me was when I finally stopped shaking and started walking back down the aisle with my wife beside me, surrounded by smiles and happy tears and all the people who knew what it took to get us here.”

To celebrate their matrimonial union, the newly-weds shared their official first dance to Perfect by Ed Sheeran. “Every word mirrored our journey, because we truly were just kids when we fell in love. The song captured our story in the most beautiful way. And it felt like the perfect full-circle moment, surrounded by loved ones with my husband’s arms around me,” Mrs Binnie reflected.

krysta.anderson@gleanerjm.com