A nerve-wracking marriage proposal on a lofty Michigan suspension bridge took an unexpected turn when an engagement ring slipped from the groom-to-be’s grasp, plummeting 118 feet into the snowy abyss below.

Trevor Van Camp had just posed the big question to his longtime partner, Danielle Jenkins, beneath the festive glow of Christmas lights on the SkyBridge at Boyne Mountain in Northern Michigan. As he bent down on one knee, the ring slipped through the grating.

“I was so nervous when I went to retrieve the ring from its box. I glanced down, which was not the best idea, and suddenly, the ring was gone,” Van Camp recounted.

Momentarily frantic, the couple quickly realized they needed to search for the missing ring.

The heart-stopping moment when Trevor Van Camp proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Danielle Jenkins, occurred under the dazzling Christmas lights of the SkyBridge at Boyne Mountain in Northern Michigan. (Boyne Mountain Resort)

The couple got clearance from the resort to go down the snowy mountain and spent two and a half hours searching with metal detectors along with the resort’s night shift snowmaking supervisor, Pat Harper. 

The ring slipped through Trevor Van Camp’s fingers and fell off the 118-foot suspension bridge. (Boyne Mountain Resort)

Harper said that just as the couple was preparing to give up the search around 10 p.m., his metal detector pinged. After using his hand to move a little snow and dirt, he discovered the edge of a ring sticking out of the ground.

“I kind of sat there for a minute and I was like, ‘There’s no way you just found that,’” he said.

Pat Harper, the resort’s night shift snowmaking supervisor, found the ring using a metal detector just as the couple was giving up their hours-long search. (Boyne Mountain Resort)

The couple was overjoyed that Harper had found the ring.

“I give big props and kudos to Pat for doing that for us, because he saved the day, he really did,” Jenkins said. “It was an experience that we now have, a story to tell of our engagement.”

With the ring now on Jenkins’ finger and a fun story to tell, the couple said they’d return to the resort to finish their walk across the SkyBridge.

“We’ll probably come back in the wintertime to finish our journey across the bridge with the lights and enjoy the full experience that we cut short to find my ring,” Jenkins said.