Couple Tracks Down Strangers Who Helped Find Their Lost Engagement Ring — Then Invites Them to Their Wedding

“I thought for sure we’d never see each other again," good Samaritan Mark Mikkelson said of the the prospect of reuniting with the couple at their upcoming wedding

Just minutes after Donald Carman popped the question to fiancée Brittney Delegado at the beach, her engagement ring got lost in the ocean. Another couple, Mark and Vicky Mikkelson, saw what happened and rushed over to help, ultimately saving the day by using metal detectors to locate the ring, according to a Bradenton, Florida, Patch site.

The two couples lost contact after their chance meeting that day in May 2022, but they will soon be reuniting for a special occasion — Delegado and Carman's wedding.

When the soon-to-be bride and groom began planning their nuptials, they were determined to track down the Mikkelsons and extend them an invitation to their destination wedding, which is set to take place in November in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Delegado found the Mikkelsons by posting on a Facebook group for Florida's Anna Maria Island — where they got engaged — that included a photo of the two couples posing together on the beach after their triumphant recovery of the ring.

Related: Woman’s Lost Wedding Ring Found at a South Carolina Recycling Center: ‘Needle in a Haystack’

Vicky spotted the post within hours and exclaimed, "That's us!" per Patch. Now, the Mikkelsons have marked their calendars for Carman and Delegado's big day and plan to travel to Punta Cana to watch the couple say "I do."

“We’re so excited and can’t wait for it,” Vicky said of the wedding, according to the outlet.

Mark added, “I thought for sure we’d never see each other again.”

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Carman and Delegado also recounted the story of their engagement and how the unfortunate mishap with the ring happened. During their visit to Anna Maria Island, one of their favorite vacation spots, Carman had arranged for a photographer to take pictures of the pair, per Patch. Delegado had no idea her then-boyfriend had a big surprise up his sleeve.

The photographer had the couple wade into the water out to a sandbar. “We were pretty far out there and the waves were pretty high around us,” Delegado recalled to the outlet. “The photographer told me to look into the sunset and when I turned, [Carman] was down on one knee.”

She immediately said "yes," but as the photographer was capturing another shot, a wave "knocked into" Delegado's hand and the ring box dropped into the water. "It was just gone,” she told Patch.

As luck would have it, the Mikkelsons happened to be passing by at the time and quickly jumped into action. “We came up to them and Brittney was crying, ‘I lost the ring, I lost the ring,’ ” Mark remembered.

Related: Six Strangers Help a Michigan Couple Find Missing Wedding Ring: 'It Just Rekindled Hope'

The Mikkelsons rushed to their nearby condo and brought back a pair of metal detectors. After a few minutes of searching, Mark homed in on an area of seagrass close to where Carman had proposed.

“I heard that ‘bing, bing, bing,’ and said, ‘Here it is!’ I used the sand scooper, picked out the ring and washed it off with water,” Mark said.

“He found it in five minutes," Delegado told Patch. "That’s the moment I finally started to cry.”

The two couples snapped a photo together to capture the happy moment, and then went their separate ways. Since that day nearly two years ago, both have enjoyed telling their friends and family about the lost ring.

“We tell people that story all the time," Delegado said.

Soon, the foursome will be able to reminisce about it in person when they come together again to celebrate Carman and Delegado's wedding.

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