LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (KTXL) – Many people choose to get married at Lake Tahoe, but for one couple, things didn’t go as planned when it came time for the ring.
“It was going off without a hitch, and I was thinking in my head, ‘No weddings just go without a hitch, or did we just crack the code,’” said bride Marlee Kent.
The short answer is no.
When it came time to exchange rings, groom Andrew Kent opened the box holding his bride’s diamond ring and the ring fell through a crack in the dock where they were standing and right into the lake.
“I’m so happy to finally be marrying Andrew. There was a smile on my face the entire time even though I was like, ‘No,’” Marlee Kent said.
The ceremony was paused as the couple frantically tried to come up with a plan to get it back.
“Andrew was like, ‘I am getting in’,” Marlee Kent said.
The minister convinced him not to because of how cold the water was, so the ceremony continued even with the ring still on their mind.
“Inside I was like, ‘Okay, we’ll get it back. We’ll get it back,’” Marlee Kent said.
After the wedding, the couple went to Facebook for help and found Phill Abernathy, the founder of the Facebook group Tahoe Scuba Diving.
“It’s one of those, the sooner the better, don’t hesitate,” said Abernathy.
The next day, Abernathy went to work and after 30 minutes of moving rocks, he asked the second most important question, “I go, ‘Hey guys I have one last question, does your ring look like this?’ That is probably the picture you have seen, where I have the ring and they are going ‘hurray!'”
“That moment is an ecstatic feel-good moment,” Abernathy said.
The couple concurred.
“We have a memory of a lifetime,” Marlee Kent said.
“He says, ‘Effectively, yeah, you are famous now but for being a klutz.’ I was like ‘That’s alright,” said Andrew Kent.
The couple is from Washington State but visits Lake Tahoe every summer, and they say future visits are going to be even more special.