Not everything was smooth sailing for one Florida couple’s romantic boat proposal.
Scott Clyne was preparing to pop the question to his girlfriend, Suzie Tucker, at sunset on Nov. 12 when the picture-perfect proposal took a dramatic turn: the ring box fell out of his pocket and into the water.
The entire saga was captured on video and shared by Clyne across social media to document the hilarious moment. It has over 8 million views on TikTok alone.
In the Facebook video, Clyne, 35, and Tucker, 32, stand on the bow of the boat doing the iconic pose from “Titanic." Unfortunately, as soon as Clyne begins to get down on one knee, the ring box plops into the water.
Clyne quickly dove after the jewelry. Thankfully, he was able to retrieve it before it sunk. A friend then helped him back onto the boat, where he finished his proposal. Laughing, Tucker readily accepted.
“This is 100% real. 100% my luck. 100% will never forget….” Clyne captioned the video.
This wasn’t the only disruption to Clyne’s plans to propose. During a phone call with TODAY, Clyne revealed that he had initially planned on popping the question in late September, during a trip to the Florida Keys. Unfortunately, Hurricane Ian thwarted those plans, but Clyne still knew he wanted to propose on a boat.
“It’s how we first met,” he explained. “We met on a sandbar through mutual friends in Inglewood and it’s our passion to boat. So I figured that the perfect proposal would be to do it at sunset with our two best friends and get them involved. It was a beautiful night for it until everything went wrong with the proposal.”
Clyne's plan was well thought-out: while the couple’s friends readied rose petals and a “Will you marry me?” banner, Clyne would distract Tucker by recreating the “Titanic” pose at the bow of the boat so that she wouldn’t turn around and see the setup.
Clyne got the signal from his friends that everything was in position. But when he started to get down on one knee, the ring box slipped out of his hand.
“I went immediately in after it," he recalled. "It just happened so fast.”
Luckily, the box floated momentarily, allowing Clyne to grab it before it was lost forever. He started the proposal again—this time just slightly more soggy.
Clyne said Tucker didn’t even realize what happened when he jumped off the boat. “She said she was focused on the banner,” he explained. “By the time the ring fell out, she thought I had actually fallen over. She was laughing hysterically, but she didn’t even see the ring drop or anything.”
Of course, Clyne had arranged a surprise dinner to take place after the proposal.
“I obviously didn’t plan to be swimming and I didn’t bring an extra pair of clothes,” he said, “so I attended dinner soaking wet.”