It is the stuff of sitcoms and nightmares: the best man losing the ring in the middle of a wedding ceremony. For one couple, the scenario was all too real. Elizabeth Gray and Lewis Aubrey were in the middle of their vows when Lewis’s brother, Matt, dropped the ring. Flower displays were pulled apart, carpets lifted and floor grates removed, all to no avail. The mortified best man even let guests rummage inside his sporran, but the ring was nowhere to be found. After 10 minutes of fruitless searching, the bride’s mother offered the use of her own ring so that the couple could be married. Guests continued to scour St John’s Church in Redhill, Surrey, while the bride and groom posed for photographs. The newlyweds then headed off to their reception, believing they would never see the ring again.However, the Rev Nicholas Calver was not one to give up easily. He returned to the church armed with a spade and, after two hours, found the missing band. “I was determined to find it and went back to the church in the evening. In the end, there was a crack between the step and the raised dais. “I thought it must be down there so I levered them apart with a spade to make the gap bigger, shone a torch down and saw the ring. I was delighted to find it.”
