IT’S fair to say that newly-wed Luke Denoual’s married life did not get off to the best of starts…
Just hours after tying the knot, he and his bride, Ellen, decided to go for a cooling-off dip in the sea in St Brelade’s Bay.
It was all going swimmingly until he looked down – and realised that his wedding ring was missing.
A few heart-stopping moments followed, but, thankfully, metal detectorist Steven Andrews proved himself to be the best man to get Mr Denoual out of the soup.
“We were in the water for ten or 15 minutes, and as soon as we came out I noticed it was missing,” he said. “I tried to laugh it off, but it was such a downer, and many of us spent several hours looking for it without any success.”
On Monday, two days after his wedding at La Mare Wine Estate and the day after losing the ring, Mr Denoual was put in touch with Mr Andrews, founder of the Jersey Lost Ring Metal Detecting page on Facebook.
Mr Andrews said he had been to the site close to the Wayside slip and after around an hour-and-a-half of searching had found the palladium and yellow gold ring buried in the sand.
“It was quite a straightforward one. I’ve had searches where I’ve spent 40 or 50 hours before, and sometimes it doesn’t work out,” he said. “Jono Steventon, who runs Jono’s Watersports down there, helped narrow down the area and after that it’s like mowing the lawn, you go up and down to make sure you’ve covered everywhere.”
Since setting up as the go-to man for lost jewellery seven years ago, Mr Andrews has found 88 items – mainly rings – around the Island’s coastline.
“I’ve had some wedding rings lost by people within a week or so of getting married, but 24 hours is the record,” he said. “I didn’t know at the time they’d only got married on Saturday, but I knew by the look of the ring it was pretty new – there wasn’t a scratch on it.”
The lost property was returned to Mr and Mrs Denoual yesterday, just in time before the couple leave the Island today before returning to their home in Chelmsford, Essex.
Mr Denoual, who was born and brought up in Jersey, admitted the loss of the ring hadn’t been part of the script after a 13-year relationship, including being engaged for 18 months.
“We were ecstatic when Steve got in touch – it had been a perfect trip apart from what happened to the ring, so to get it back just before leaving was superb.”
Mr Andrews posted a picture of the find on social media, with a Lego model detectorist holding the ring on the sand and beaming broadly, just as Mr Denoual was when he got the good news about its safe return.
