At17, an age when most kids are picking their prom dates and choosing colleges, Jermaine O'Neal was busy being drafted by the NBA and meeting the love of his life.

Jermaine met La'Mesha Roper in 1996 when he moved to Oregon shortly after signing with the Portland Trail Blazers. "He was 17 and I was 17," Mesha recalled.  "He couldn't do what some of the other [older] players were doing [and] we hung out from then on."

The couple remained inseparable, and Jermaine asked Mesha to marry him eight years later, taking her aside during an Indiana Pacers New Year's Eve party and presenting her with a flawless, 17-carat yellow diamond ring.

"I caught her off guard," Jermaine said. "She didn’t think I would propose since we'd been together for so long."

The pair wed in the Bahamas two years later, at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, lodging at the nearby luxury villas at the One and Only Ocean Club.  Mesha worked with her wedding planner, Judy Burnett, to create a wedding that was both traditional and infused with local culture. Instead of lighting a Unity candle, the couple performed the Bahamian custom of pouring sand together to unite the two families, and a full choir sang "Oh, Happy Day" as the bride and groom departed the ceremony.

For Jermaine, the most poignant moment of the wedding was seeing his six-year-old daughter, Asjia. "I was pretty cool until my daughter came down the aisle and looked at me with this look of peace and happiness," Jermaine remembered. "It was an emotional moment; I told my mother and my brother that I wasn’t going to cry at all."

At the reception, guests were greeted with personalized touches such as "Mesha Passion" cocktails; a decorative theme of pink, silver and white complimented the bride's two-piece, off-white Pnina Tornai dress. Dinner was surf-and-turf with prime steak and lobster tails, while dessert included a chocolate tart and champagne sorbet.

"Mesha did a great job with planning," said Jermaine. "Everything was set perfectly." 

Later, the couple danced as pop singer Brian McKnight performed their wedding song, "For the Rest of My Life," and DJ Biz Markie spun new rap and old-school classics.

Following the wedding, Jermaine and Mesha traveled to the Exclusivity at Captain's Bay resort in Anguilla, and later St. Martin and St. Thomas, where they enjoyed a low-key honeymoon. After nearly a decade together, "We spent most of the time kicking back and going over the memories," Jermaine said.