Our endless love
Don’t marry the person you think you can live with; marry only the individual you think you can’t live without.” — James C Dobson
Administrative assistant at the National Commercial Bank’s (NCB’s) Corporate Banking Division Camesha Cole and Business Banker at NCB Shaun Allman will readily admit that theirs was not love at first sight.
They met in 2006, when Cole began working as a teller, and Allman — who was also a teller at the time — gave her on-the-job training. And while at first there were no sparks or warm and fuzzy feelings between them, after two years of friendship, Allman began to develop an attraction towards Cole. When he finally worked up the courage to confess his feelings, however, he was rejected.
“I just was not interested in having an office romance at the time. But he was very persistent, and after a few months I eventually broke my own rules and gave in. It turned out to be the best decision I have ever made,” Cole told Vows.
Six years, and countless island adventures later, on a cool evening in December 2012, Allman — and a select group of Cole’s girlfriends — would come to realise that she was not a woman who is easily surprised.
“It was my birthday, and I had been snooping around. I not only expected jewellery, but I expected a ring. I called two of my besties, Ahesia and Nikiesha, and asked them if they thought I should go ahead and get my nails done for the event,” Cole recalled.
Little did she know the consternation caused by this suggestion — indeed, her besties had both accompanied Allman to purchase her ring the day before. The challenge now became how to keep the proposal a secret. Cole in the interim, searched Allman’s house high and low for any traces of a ring, but to no avail.
The surprise came the following day, during her birthday dinner when not only was she not presented with a ring, but instead, a box of her friend’s jewellery, polished to look new. She could barely contain her disappointment, or hold back tears for that matter.
After dinner came the moment of truth. The birthday cake appeared with the question ‘Will You Marry Me?’ written on the top.
Cole and Allman wed on December 28, 2013 on the lawns of the Caymanas Golf and Country Club in a ceremony officiated by the bride’s aunt Delceta Claudius. The bride, gorgeous in a Sophia Tolli gown, made her way up the aisle with her father Ralston Cole by her side, to the strains of Diana Ross and Lionel Richie’s Endless Love by saxophonist Tafane Duchsaecab. Meanwhile, at the altar, her husband-to-be, elegant in a Carlton Brown suit, anxiously awaited the arrival of his soulmate.
“It was a perfect day, with the exception of me crying before the ceremony started, as the sky was dark and it seemed as if we were in for a downpour. However, as soon as the wedding started, the sun came out. I almost cried again because I was so happy, but the moment I started tearing up, my dad squeezed my hands and said, ‘Stop the crying or you’ll be an ugly bride.’ Instantly, I was all smiles,” Cole recalled.
Poolside cocktails followed the ceremony, and the reception, which took place at the Caymanas Golf and Country Club, featured the pulsating mixes of Renaissance’s DJ Blaze. Guests erupted into cheers as the couple celebrated their union by dancing to John Legend’s All of Me. There’d be more when Cole spontaneously grabbed the microphone and began singing Shania Twain’s You’ve Got a Way to her husband.
The newly-weds spent their honeymoon on a romantic seven-day Caribbean cruise, with stops in The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Grand Turk.
