It wasn’t quite love at first sight but Gregory Prescott and Toni Archer-Prescott’s love story reads like a real life fairytale.
A chance meeting on Instagram in March last year has resulted in a proposal, a wedding and a honeymoon. The newlyweds who tied the knot on March 15 believe that they have found their happily ever after – and it all began with a simple post about coffee.
“One day I posted my coffee on Instagram with a caption saying if I don’t have one of these every morning my co-workers walk on egg shells around me. Some days after I saw a notification from Toni T Berry (Archer-Prescott’s Instagram name) a London native, who commented on the post. She said if she doesn’t have her vanilla latte every morning she’s like a pitbull coming off steroids,” recalls Prescott, a DJ at Sangeet 106 fm, who goes by his sobriquet DJ Simply E.
“I thought that was so hilarious. I clicked on her profile and I saw she posted a video. I commented on it and told her I loved her accent. She replied saying she loved my Trini accent too.”
Two weeks later, the father of three recorded a 15 second video thanking Archer-Prescott for her “Instagram shout outs.” Flattered that Prescott took the time to recognise her comments, Archer-Prescott, a receptionist at the National Health Service in England, reached out to him again, this time asking if she could add him as a friend on another social networking site – Facebook.
“We would message each other periodically. There was never any real attraction between us,” she admits.
That is, until Prescott added her to his contact list on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).
“That first night, we messaged each other all night. I didn’t sleep at all. I went to work the next day without even closing my eyes,” she notes.
“We spoke every day after that, about anything and everything. From that first conversation on BBM I knew there was something there. We never got bored of each other. What I loved about him was that there was no sleaziness. He never came at me in a sexual way. He wanted to get to know me, genuinely.”
Despite being 4, 000 miles away and having a five hour time-difference, the two became inseparable.
“I admired her strength but it was her humility that caught me. The fact that she’s always smiling despite the things she’s been through. I loved everything about her.”
After three months of virtual courting, Prescott, 43, decided to take matters into his own hands. He bought Archer-Prescott a commitment ring and sent to her via mail. He also bought a ticket to London for a ten –day trip. Two months after purchasing the ticket, Prescott arrived in London where he saw his future wife in person for the first time.
“The money I used to buy the ticket was money I set aside to buy a piece of music equipment but seeing her was more important,” he says.
“When she picked me up at the airport and we had our first kiss, I knew then and there that she was the woman for me. It felt like we knew each other for years.”
Archer-Prescott, 38, introduced Prescott to her entire family, including her two teenaged children.
“Everybody loved him. They all knew him from our video chats so he fit right in,” she asserts. The couple would be apart again until March 1 this year when Archer – Prescott, who had never traveled outside of the UK, flew to Trinidad for two days for Prescott’s birthday.
They then visited Barbados for a vacation. It was there Prescott proposed. Twelve days later, the two sealed the deal with a small, intimate wedding on the front porch of Prescott’s Arima home in the presence of his family and closest friends.
“It was a beautiful day. Everybody got involved to assist with the wedding. The outpouring of love and support we have received is amazing,” Archer-Prescott says.
Although the couple will have to rely on Instagram and social media a little while longer as Archer-Prescott has gone back to London, they vow to make things work until Prescott migrates there at the end of the year.
“Long-distance relationships only make sense if there’s a plan to end the distance and we have a plan,” Prescott says.
“We are soul mates. We are two hearts but one soul. This is the woman I have always been waiting for. Every day I look at her and every day I fall in love.”
Instagram connects Trinidad & England for a true fairytale love story
