‘Heirs’ to love – Daniéla and Marvin go the distance

It might have been the initiative of a mutual friend which brought Daniéla Morgan and Marvin Heirs together at a party in 2013, but the credit for making the relationship work is on the shoulders of the couple, who decided to continue communicating with 1,500 miles in-between them.

The idea of long-distance relationships are usually unsettling for new romances, because not many couples are willing to navigate being away from each other for prolonged periods, but Daniéla and Marvin did not mind travelling for love.

In 2013, Daniéla, who had migrated to the US and was on a career-driven path, and Marvin, a popular event promoter, were introduced to each other by Tollani Reynolds at a party during one of her trips to Jamaica. Contacts were exchanged, and the rest was history.

“Granted, I didn’t know much about her. My first reaction was, ‘This girl is beautiful.’ We partied the entire night and met up the next day. After our first conversation, it felt like we had already known each other for a long time. We spent her entire trip together and it was nothing short of laughter. She knew what she wanted and she made it very clear from the beginning. I liked that she was career-driven but still knew how to have fun. It was the perfect balance,” Marvin said of Daniéla.

So, imagine how he must have felt when, after leaving Jamaica, Daniéla went ghost on him. It is the oddest memory he has of her — prior to them taking the next step — which always brings a smile to Marvin’s face. “She was showing me absolutely no interest. She hardly responded to any of calls or messages; when she left the island, communication was slim to none, but I never stopped pursuing her. When she visited to see me for the second time, we spent a lot of time together and I realised she was a woman with all the qualities I was looking for. I had no doubt in my mind that she wasn the one for me. I had really become ‘heir’ to a love like no other,” he stated.

Over the next decade, the two experienced the adventure of youthful relationship leaps, twists and turns, travelling back and forth to see each other and making memories while doing so. The couple admits that the first year after putting a label on their friendship was a little rocky, but being the ‘climbers’ they are, they both endured and continued pushing to the top. “In addition to the trips every three to four months, we adopted an attitude to not give any attention to the naysayers. We have a very public relationship and I am a well-known person, always in the public eyes, and we are constantly hit with unsolicited opinions. This helped to strengthen our communication and trust in our relationship,” Marvin shared.

After a proposal on the day of her college graduation in January 2022, the two decided on a wedding in Jamaica. Another friend of Daniéla’s, Saskia Steele, who played the role of her maid of honour, coined their hashtag ‘Heirs to Love’ on the night of the proposal.

“We have overcome the scariest part of our climb, which is the distance and not being able to hold each other physically through it. We’ve been together for so long, we were just excited to make it official to spend forever with each other. It is only up from here, the sky is the limit,” shared the Heirs, who celebrated their forever with over 100 guests in a majestic wedding ceremony held at the Caymanas Country Club on February 4, a year after the planning began.

Daniéla added, “The meaning behind our hashtag is ‘the inheritance of pure love upon this new chapter’. The meaning of marriage, to us, is loving each other, caring for each other, supporting each other, and simply just having each other’s backs. Like Beyoncé and Jay-Z, our celebrity couple match, we believe that no matter the circumstances we always stick together; [so] even on our bad days, we never allow an outsider to know what’s going on. It goes back to having that open communication while we navigated long distance, to work it out and move forward.”

There are several qualities which attracted Daniéla to Marvin, but the number one thing was her feeling safe within his arms, she said.

“Other than the love he shows me daily, he is very protective and always ensures that I’m okay, no matter what’s going on. He made me know he was the one I want to spend the rest of my life with, without words, because of the way he protects not only me, but my friends and family as well. He also has a habit of kissing me on my forehead, which I think is the cutest. He has taught me how to be resilient,” Daniéla said of Marvin.

He selected Don’t Change by Musiq Soulchild for their first dance, a song he had chosen in the earlier stages of their relationship because he thought the lyrics truly represented their love, and she could not agree more. With a backdrop of blush, gold and white, and the added contrast of emerald green worn by the bridal party, she described everything about their love story to their wedding day to be like “perfection”, and although on the day the couple was not able to do a ‘first look’ as they had hoped, due to being an hour behind, the outdoor ceremony and indoor reception was a realisation of a dream come true. As the Heirs honeymooned at an all-inclusive resort in Montego Bay, nostalgia started to sink in. They said, “We could relive that moment over and over.”

Her favourite moment. “Walking down the aisle to meet my husband, knowing that after we’ll be pronounced husband and wife.”

His favourite moment. “Standing at the altar waiting for my beautiful wife to walk down the aisle was just simple amazing. But [it was] the actual second we exchanged vows and were pronounced husband and wife, because it became official that I get to spend the rest of my life with my wife. Knowing that I married the love of my life was the best feeling ever.”

Marvin explained that he had been excited by the idea of telling her he would make her his wife someday but was afraid she would run, because of the stigma attached to a Jamaican man saying this to a woman who lives overseas. However, he knew within his heart the day would come.

“Marriage is showing your love and appreciation to your better half, and if you love her that much, give her your last name. One value my parents have impressed upon me is how to be a man and treat a woman. It means so much to me, as it’s what aided me to be the man I am today to make the right decision to marry the one I love,” Marvin said.

“Though our marriage is still fresh, I think the most surprising thing about being married is the amount of support we’ve been getting. There has been a lot of outpouring of love from friends and family. I had no idea of how many persons support our union,” he continued.

stephanie.lyew@gleanerjm.com