Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series: “The stranger I will never forget”, which celebrates those kind souls who touch our lives for only a moment, but leave a lasting impression.
Every good wedding has one little, little crisis.
Everything went according to plan for Calivé and Shannon Jackson when they exchanged vows on the sands of Playa Del Carmen on December 14, 2023. The couple had decided to elope and boarded a plane from their home in Trinidad and Tobago to the beaches of Mexico for a party all to themselves.
“We love to travel and be in love with different places,” Calivé Jackson told CNN. “We love what everyone with the right amount of zest for life loves: making memories and collecting as many experiences as possible.”
They were about to collect another.
At that point, the Jacksons were well aware that even intimate weddings require dozens of small details to be taken into account. They had been planning the event for a year and were confident they had everything together.
But what they didn’t plan for was the enormity of the day, the emotions that come from putting aside plans to do, because ultimately – Finally – can fully concentrate on their love.
“Shannon and I were so incredibly nervous,” Jackson said. “We were suddenly in the moment, shocked that we were actually there and about to get married. So of course everything was a blur.”
Oh, and there were tears. (Every good wedding needs a few of those, too.) As they said their vows, the newly minted Jacksons were, in Calivé’s words, “a blubbering mess.”
“It was quite embarrassing that we were crying so much,” she said.
The official then asked for their wedding rings to seal the deal.
The Rings? The Rings!! Shannon patted their pockets, one after the other and then again. No rings. The search became a little more hectic.
“Mayday, mayday!” their photographer Ezequiel Marcellini called. “We lost the rings!”
“Then everything suddenly stopped, everyone started looking; us, our wedding planner, our officiant,” Jackson said. “Someone ran back to our room and still couldn’t find them. We searched our photographer’s backpack and didn’t find them either.”
Meanwhile, life continued around the wedding whirlwind. Vacationers wandered the beach and enjoyed the day. Some had stopped to watch the wedding from a distance.
Then an Argentinian man and woman saw that something had gone wrong and approached the distressed couple.
“They came over and were so excited for us, they were crying almost as hard as we were,” Jackson said.
Once they realized what was wrong, the Argentinian couple offered their own wedding rings without a second thought. Ending the ceremony with a pair of borrowed rings wasn’t the Jacksons’ original plan, but that’s the nice thing about little crises: they make you really appreciate the moment.
Calivé and Shannon returned to their seats, said what needed to be said, and placed the rings on each other’s hands.
“We didn’t think they would fit,” Jackson said. “But they fit so perfectly that it felt like some kind of magic.”
Then, of course, there was more crying. The two couples exchanged “thanks” and “congratulations” and posed for a few photos that will no doubt have a special place in Jackson’s wedding album.
By the time the excitement died down and the Argentinian couple was on their way (with their rings back), Calivé Jackson realized she didn’t even know their names.
However, she did honor them with a message on X that drew a lot of love, both for the newlyweds and for the kind strangers who stepped in to make their wedding even more special.
“We are beyond grateful. Our wedding day was already special because we were there to celebrate our love, our happiness, the house we built together and we thought we were there alone,” Jackson told CNN.
‘But that turned out not to be the case. People celebrate where there is love, and we got to share our moment with so many people who were so happy for us. We can never thank those two enough for that.”
Oh, and the Jacksons finally found their rings. They were always in a bag in the bottom corner of an equipment bag – at the wedding.
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