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This column was intended to be a report on trends, fads and fashions in weddings these days, but it took a sharp turn into a local love story when I found out about the on and off romance saga of Dusty and J.B. Holmes.

I was looking for photos of happy couples being married on the beaches at Marco Island or Naples; I was browsing the Web site Weddingsbyphyllis.net, the Internet home of Phyllis Bator-Sinoradzki.

One of Phyllis’s newlywed photos showed a beaming bride, Dusty Beck and a proud, smiling groom, J.B. Holmes, of Naples.

When I phoned them to get permission to use their photo, I was intrigued to learn that for Dusty, 55, and J.B., 63, this was their first marriage.

Thinking there must be a story there, I began asking questions and Dusty shared a tale reminiscent of a romance novel. It reminds me a bit of the hit British TV comedy, “As Time Goes By.”

Dusty has a warm, engaging telephone personality and, as she told the story, I soon understood why she had called it a sort of fairy tale.

“I was 19 or 20 when we met in the Detroit area. We dated there, but his job took him to Maryland so we made a commitment and got engaged. He gave me a star sapphire ring and had one made for himself too. Once we got to Maryland we both realized we didn’t want to get married right then. I was very young. But you can’t really go back and say, ‘OK let’s just date now,’ so we just sort of split up. No big fight or anything. Soon he got transferred again.”

35 Years later…

Flash forward to August, 2006. Dusty was working as a nurse in Albuquerque NM. She did not know where J.B. was — that he was living in Naples, retired for a time, now teaching math and science at Beacon High School.

Had she ever thought about J.B. over the years?

“Yes, I had thought of him several times I guess, but never really thought I would ever see him again. I had no idea where he was. We’d both moved so many times and I never thought we’d get in touch.”

One day J.B. was browsing the Internet, looking at some classmates and reunion-type Web sites. He came across Dusty’s posting. He called her and they talked for the first time in 35 years.

They talked by phone almost daily after that, even exchanged photos, but not of each other. They sent pictures of their dogs — Dusty’s two Jack Russell Terriers and J.B.’s Golden Retrievers.

In their conversations, they learned that neither had ever married.

“We’d both had a lot of life experience, but basically he seemed to be the same guy I knew so long ago,” Dusty recalls.

Four months later…

In December of 2006, Dusty agreed to travel from New Mexico to see J.B. in Naples. She’d never been here before.

“When we met at the airport here I recognized him right away but I don’t think he recognized me at first,” Dusty says. “I had found that star sapphire ring he gave so long ago and wore it on the trip. When I arrived, he had put his matching ring on too. As we were driving to his place and talking it was a little uncomfortable. We were both a little nervous. But then we got to the house, he parked the car. I just turned to him and said, ‘Well, kiss me.’ And he did, then said, ‘Well now I feel better.’ After that, things were just fine. We were okay. Really okay. We never lost our love.”

Eight days later…

Dusty says their time together was easy and seemed so natural. Then one evening... “J.B. proposed. He didn’t hesitate or anything. I don’t think that he was prepared or planned ahead to ask, he just did it. I said ‘yes’ and he took off his star sapphire ring and put it on my finger.”

Dusty and J.B. decided they both would put their homes up for sale, his in Naples, hers in Albuquerque. And she had other transitional things to do there with her job.

“We agreed that whichever home sold first, that person would move to the other’s town. My house sold first and that was that.”

February 17, 2007 — the wedding

“The beach just seemed a natural place to be married,” Dusty says. “The gulf shore was special to me, moving here from New Mexico where we had no beaches.”

So on a cool Saturday evening, J.B. and Dusty got married on the beach at Lowdermilk Park, with guests gathered and Phyllis Bator officiating.

This past February 17, Dusty and J.B. went to the beach again at sunset, celebrating their first anniversary. The year had flown by.

A couple of old sayings may apply in some ways to Dusty and J.B., in a good way.

“Fate — everything happens for a reason. And when fate happens look for the good in it, as it is there.” — Catherine Pulsifer, author of inspirational books and poems.

“Everything comes gradually at its appointed hour.” — Ovid, Roman poet b. 43 BC.