A couple spent two and a half hours searching for their £14k engagement ring in the dark after it flew out of the man's hand during beach proposal shoot. Kirsten Durand, 31, and Tory Parker, 30, were taking engagement photos when the ring slipped from the box into the sand.
It disappeared from view, and with the tide approaching they spent the next two and half hours combing the sand with the help of sieves and a metal detector. Finally their photographer, Yakira Parise, was able to dig out the ring and reunite it with Kirsten.
Kirsten, who runs a party business, from Vancouver, Canada, said: “We were taking our photos and doing a mock proposal and after Troy said will you marry him I leapt into his arms and we fell to the sand. We didn’t realise until our photographer asked for a close up of the ring that it was missing.
“We were freaking out. The ring has always been the most important part to me and I’d become so attached to it.
“It was freezing and getting dark so we were shining our torch lights and combing every part of the beach. We were looking at the photos to see if we could work out where it was.
“We had a metal detectorist come so we were all looking by him but it was actually our photographer who eventually found it. I was crying and so happy as soon as it was back on my finger.”
Troy, an owner of a martial arts studio, said: “We were freaking out because we didn’t know when the tide was coming in. We didn’t want it to get washed away.”
Troy proposed in April 2022 during Kirsten’s Bridgerton themed birthday party, but the couple decided they wanted some ‘save the date’ photos taken. They arranged a shoot in October 2022 and took some mock style photos of the proposal.
“It ended up being a disaster,” Kirsten said. “The ring has always been more important to me than the wedding or the dress. I wanted one I could pass down to my kids. So it was devastating when we thought we had lost it.”
The couple searched from 5.30pm until the ring was finally discovered at 8pm. “There were so many times I felt like giving up,” Kirsten said. “Amazingly our photographer just pulled it out the sand and said ‘I found it.’
“She handed it to me and my hands were frozen but I was so happy. I never want to take it off again.”
