--- title: Man Drops Ring Into Ocean description: Man drops ring into ocean while proposing to girlfriend in Southport North Carolina canonical: https://time.com/4014646/man-drops-ring-ocean/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-28T14:39:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:59.042Z og:title: This Marriage Proposal Went Horribly Wrong at First og:description: Man drops ring into ocean while proposing to girlfriend in Southport North Carolina og:url: https://time.com/4014646/man-drops-ring-ocean/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5904ccbdf6a77048/69886162428a9e865dccedc2/ring-ocean.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4230 og:image:height: 2379 og:image:alt: ring-ocean og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Marriage Proposal Went Horribly Wrong at First twitter:description: Man drops ring into ocean while proposing to girlfriend in Southport North Carolina twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5904ccbdf6a77048/69886162428a9e865dccedc2/ring-ocean.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Marriage Proposal Went Completely, Horribly Wrong  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 28, 2015 2:39 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 28, 2015 2:39 PM UTC In what appears to be every boyfriend’s worst nightmare, a man got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend on a deck outside a waterfront restaurant in Southport, North Carolina, when he dropped the ring through the cracks into the ocean. [WBTV.com](http://www.wbtv.com/story/29887223/photos-charlotte-area-couples-proposal-goes-awry) reports 25-year-old Matthew Picca jumped in, along with 24-year-old girlfriend Kayla Harrity’s brother-in-law and sister and some patrons of the restaurant, Old American Fish. Picca even ruined his phone during the desperate search. But, Harrity said, “\[a\]fter ten flashlights, and five pairs of goggles and over 1.5 hours of searching in the water…the ring was found!” Picca got to propose all over again, and Harrity said yes, so the incident is just water under the bridge now. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4014646/man-drops-ring-ocean/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4014646/man-drops-ring-ocean/"},"headline":"This Marriage Proposal Went Completely, Horribly Wrong","datePublished":"2015-08-28T14:39:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:59.042Z","description":"But there's a beautiful happy ending","url":"https://time.com/4014646/man-drops-ring-ocean/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Family & Relationships"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5904ccbdf6a77048/69886162428a9e865dccedc2/ring-ocean.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5904ccbdf6a77048/69886162428a9e865dccedc2/ring-ocean.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ring-ocean","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4014646/man-drops-ring-ocean/","name":"This Marriage Proposal Went Completely, Horribly Wrong"}}]}] ```