Line #75 Main/LostWeddingRing


1	[[quoteright:957:[[VideoGame/MarioKart8 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mk8d_squeakycleansprint_view_11_8.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:957:So ''that's'' where that thing went!]]
3	The wedding ring has gone missing -- eaten by an animal, dropped down the drain, accidentally sold in a garage sale -- and [[ASimplePlan convoluted machinations]] are needed for its safe return. A common complication is that the ring loser can never, ''ever'' tell their spouse it was lost, afraid that they will get mad at the fact/assumption that they took it off in the first place.
4
5	This can also be any other token of love, a photo of a wedding, set of love letters, etc. A common replacement is a lost ''engagement'' ring that must be recovered in time for the well-planned elaborate proposal (or, in time for the wedding itself).
6
7	In Western culture, losing one's wedding ring is considered extra bad because it's bad luck for both the marriage and everything else, not the least of which would be proving one's marriage in the days before certificates and legal records.
8
9	This trope appears in lots of {{Dom Com}}s.
10
11	Compare with BrokenTreasure and ReturningTheWeddingRing, when the ring is intentionally given back to signify the end of a relationship.
12
13	----
14	!!Examples
15
16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
19	* In one ''Manga/CaseClosed'' story, [[spoiler: Miwako Sato]] is rather distressed because she has "lost something" that turns out to be a ring given to her by her boyfriend [[spoiler: Wataru Takagi]]. (It's not exactly an engagement ring, but she still cherishes it.) Some more misunderstandings make him and their friends believe [[spoiler: that [[MistakenForPregnant she's pregnant]] ]] instead.
20	* The MacGuffin in ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''. There are two rings passed down as heirlooms in the two houses of the Cagliostro family. They are to be used as the wedding rings in the event that a major member from one house marries a major member of the other, reuniting the family. When pressed face-to-face, markings on the side of each ring become writing: a clue to revealing the family treasure. They are also the physical key. The greedy Count wants it, and attempts to force Clarice, the Duke's sole heir (no prizes for guessing why) to marry him so that he can have both rings. However, Clarice becomes a RunawayFiancee, and during the brief period after Lupin rescues her the first time and her recapture, she gives the ring to him. And of course he gets dragged into it.
21	* In one episode of ''Manga/ChisSweetHome'', the mother misplaces her wedding ring. Chi the kitten is the one who ends up (accidentally) finding it.
22	* ''Manga/FasterThanAKiss''[='s=] Fumino lost her ring for a short time, much to her distress.
23	* One chapter of ''Manga/FutariEcchi'' is about Makoto losing his wedding ring.
24	* One episode of ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'' did this. The person who lost the ring was Tiff's father. He got a new one every year, and he lost it every time (though it appears they're married). This time, Kirby accidentally tosses it out of a window, and various mishaps make it fall farther out of the main character's reach, until it gets swallowed by a fish...that Chef Kawasaki was preparing for their anniversary dinner. Kirby realizes its the same fish and retrieves the ring from it.
25	* In ''Manga/{{Lady}}'', this happens to [[spoiler: Lynn]] when [[spoiler: Mary cruelly pranks her via stealing a key-shaped jewelry piece that belonged to Lynn's MissingMom and sending Lynn to search for it in the snow. A desperate Lynn does so and almost ''dies''; her CoolHorse Alexandra goes off and finds her in time, and Mary returns the stolen Key.]]
26	* ''Anime/KazeNoShojoEmily'': Miriam Murray lost her wedding ring 50 years before the events of the story, leading to Emily and Ilse searching for it in the HauntedHouse.
27	* [[spoiler: Kei Tsuchiya]] from ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'' uses this to KickTheDog levels. [[spoiler: When Miki drops either a bracelet given to her by Yuu as a gift (manga) or a Toryo medallion with a picture of Yuu and Miki herself (anime) during work without realizing it, he keeps it to himself for several days, and then ''gives it to Yuu while lying to him about how Miki wants to dump him''. Yuu doesn't believe Kei's words, but his and Miki's relationship already was rather troubled, and they break up for a short while.]]
28	* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' has managed to do this one, despite there not being a wedding ring to lose. The emotional situation so perfectly matches this trope that some characters ''assume'' the missing ring is a wedding ring - which makes no sense and so confuses them[[note]] The real story is that the ring is a magical item that functions like a wand. Evangeline gave it to Negi for training purposes.[[/note]]
29	* It's not a wedding ring, but in ''Literature/OnlyTheRingFingerKnows'' Wataru and Yuichi's matching rings hold almost the same significance as a symbol of their relationship, so when Wataru's ring is stolen and held hostage - twice - by someone else who has feelings for him, it causes him quite a bit of stress. The first time, anyway. The second time, he decides he needs to focus on resolving the current problems between himself and Yuichi rather than worrying about a souvenir like the ring.
30	* In a filler episode of ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' a young man loses his engagement ring after a fight with his girlfriend - it gets swallowed by a catfish. Kenshin happens to catch said fish, which coughs up the ring as it's cooked. [[AccidentalMarriage He then gives it to his girlfriend Kaoru, not knowing its symbolism...]] And HilarityEnsues.
31	* In ''Manga/SpyXFamily'', Loid lost the ring he was going to use when asking Yor to pretend to be his wife. So he [[https://pm1.narvii.com/7390/82b72d50d73d6db270146cb5e5a3e3bd54cb37e6r1-629-487v2_hq.jpg uses the pin of a grenade he threw at some mooks]] as a substitute wedding ring.
32	* Cruelly used in ''Manga/SteppingOnRoses'', when [[spoiler: Nozomu ''steals'' Sumi's wedding ring.]]
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* A subplot of the Creator/DCComics miniseries ''Hero Hotline'' has Lester "Private Eyes" Lee lose his wedding ring down a sewer grate and has to call in rubber-limbed fellow hero Tom "Stretch" Longacre to fish it out so Lee can marry Melanie Boulder, a Dolly Parton {{Expy}}.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
40	* ''Film/TheAbyss''. The male protagonist drops his ring down the toilet, but then changes his mind and fishes it out. Which is just as well as the titanium ring (symbolizing permanency) [[ElementsDoNotWorkThatWay prevents a hatchway from sealing on his hand later on]].
41	* In the Spanish movie ''Airbag'' the ring gets lost in a VERY NSFW place.
42	* ''Film/AmericanWedding''. [[SchmuckBait Don't ask]] what Stifler has to do to [[{{Squick}} save the ring.]]
43	* Just to underscore the unlucky circumstances, the film ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'' has Marilyn Lovell lose her wedding ring down the shower drain. This actually happened to her in real life, but she was able to recover it.
44	* It was kind of the husband's fault in ''Film/BigFish''--he used it as a fishing lure.
45	* At the climax of ''Film/CaptainClegg'', the King's revenue men are closing in on the protagonists, a band of smugglers operating out of the local church, but they decide that before they run away, they're going to conduct an impromptu wedding for the OfficialCouple. When it comes time to exchange rings, one of the minor smugglers quickly produced a pair of plain, unadorned rings for them to use - a quick cut informs us he took them from the hanging of one of the church tapestries. It's pretty funny seeing a romantic comedy trope like this dropped into the climax of a swashbuckling adventure movie.
46	* ''Film/TheFountain'': Tommy is a surgeon, so he has a reason to remove his wedding ring from his hand and keep it in what he assumes is a safe place. When he cannot find it, he panics. He is already terrified of losing his wife, and seems aware of the ominous symbolic and metaphysical implications of the lost ring.
47	* ''Film/ImagineMeAndYou'', dropped in the punch at the wedding.
48	* In ''Film/LostAndFound1999'', Dylan is entrusted with a ring that his buddy Mark intends to give to his wife for their anniversary. Unfortunately the ring is swallowed by a dog that Dylan has kidnapped, forcing him to wait until the dog passes the ring.
49	* ''Film/MerrilyWeGoToHell'': The bridegroom loses the ring, and seems to eventually find it. A close up of the bride's hand, however, shows that he really did lose it and gave a corkscrew instead.
50	* Played for Drama in ''Film/MysteryTeam''. Finding the ring is a pivotal part in both Jason's character arc and solving the mystery.
51	* ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou?'' ends with the ring still missing.
52	* In ''Film/SpiderMan3'', while on his way to propose to Mary Jane, Peter Parker (as Spider-Man) must battle the second Green Goblin and loses the family heirloom ring. He gets it back.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Literature]]
56	* In ''Literature/AllDressedInWhite'', a missing wedding ring becomes an important clue in solving the mystery of the missing bride. Amanda and Jeff's wedding bands were taken from Jeff's room safe - which he tended to be careless about locking - during the wedding trip. Jeff says that in all the confusion and distress looking for Amanda, he didn't even realise the rings were gone until he got back to New York and assumed that a hotel employee stole them. Meghan says it's an unlikely coincidence that the rings happened to be stolen the same day Amanda disappeared, and puts forward that Amanda took them as a keepsake when she decided to take off. Laurie and her team agree that it's too big a coincidence, especially as the rings wouldn't be worth much, so it seems improbable an employee would risk being caught with them. Things get stranger still when Amanda's ring is found [[spoiler:with her body, as Jeff claimed Amanda was never in his room that night]]. It's eventually revealed [[spoiler:Nick took the rings while having a nightcap in Jeff's room and put Amanda's ring on her finger after killing her; because the rings were well known to be kept in Jeff's room, Nick hoped that it would lead the police to conclude Jeff had murdered his fiancee following a fight, which nearly succeeds]].
57	* A cat in ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' proved ultimately responsible for the disappearance of a valuable ring that Stacey was accused of stealing.
58	* Creator/DorothyLSayers opens ''Busman's Honeymoon'' with an account of Literature/LordPeterWimsey's marriage to Harriet Vane, noting that Peter's nephew pretended to lose the ring five times, then really lost it, but as the groom was a detective he was able to find it.
59	* In ''Literature/InsaneCity'' by humorist Creator/DaveBarry, the groom-to-be loses his wedding ring (and tuxedo) a few days ''before'' the wedding. Getting it back without his BrideZilla fiancee knowing about it involves dealing with a stripper, her greedy Death Star-sized boyfriend, a desperate Haitian refugee and her children, a snake handler, a lusty orangutan, a woman more attractive than his fiancee... Parts of it resemble a KafkaKomedy.
60	* The novel ''Literature/OldestLivingConfederateWidowTellsAll'' has a scene where the heroine's five-year-old daughter ''swallows'' her wedding ring.
61	* In ''[[Literature/RamonaQuimby Ramona Forever]]'' by Creator/BeverlyCleary, the wedding ring gets lost because it was stitched to the pillow it was carried on too tightly, and when the bride pulls it loose, it flies into the air and gets lost. Ramona eventually finds it on the heel of the bride's shoe.
62	* ''Literature/RememberDippy'': Niko, who runs the local pizzeria, has been in despair since accidentally dropping his grandmother's ring, which he was going to use to propose to his girlfriend Carmelita, down a vent. Ripping up the floor to retrieve it would cost more than the ring is worth. [[spoiler:The protagonists send Linguini the ferret into the vents to look for it, then lure her back with a squeaky toy. When she reappears, she's holding the ring in her teeth. Johnny later hears that Carmelita said yes.]]
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
66	* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': Pete bet his wedding ring in an office poker game when Jack forced the crew to play for inordinately high sums. Halfway subverted in that Pete still had money left.
67	* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|2003}}''. Lee Adama takes off his wedding ring during a rocky period of his marriage to Dualla and ends up losing it while drunk. The shock of this forces him to patch things up with his wife [[spoiler:though she leaves him anyway at the end of the season.]]
68	* ''Series/BeingHumanUS'': Sally's rotten fiancé Danny kills her over her losing her engagement ring down the sink.
69	* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'': Cory goes to a bar with some new friends, who convince him to take off his wedding ring to have a better time. Said bar turns out to be stocked with trashy waitresses who all dance at scheduled times, which causes Cory to leave. Topanga finds out he went and he promises to never ever go back, until he realizes he left the ring at the bar. He returns, only to discover that the bar has an entire stash of lost wedding rings, so he has to sort through them. Once he does, he dances with joy, and the waitress all start to as well. Topanga, having been tipped off by a friend, discovers him in this setting, and [[NotWhatItLooksLike he must explain everything to her]]. For added chuckles, it's his ''engagement'' ring, which everyone makes fun of him for having in the first place.
70	* ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'': Ryan's wedding ring doesn't get ''lost,'' it just gets stuck on Espositto's finger (then almost lost when they finally get it off) because...
71	--> '''Ryan:''' How do I tell my wife I took off my wedding ring to see if strippers would flirt with me? Maybe she'll see the humor in it.
72	* ''Series/Charmed1998'': After they get engaged Piper gives Leo her mother's wedding ring to give back to her at a "romantic moment" but Leo loses it before he can do so. On Phoebe's suggestion, Piper casts a spell to return "lost things" which gets the ring back along with ''everything else'' the sisters have lost over the years such as missing socks and old friends they haven't seen in years.
73	* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' does this with an engagement ring. Captain Awesome gives Chuck an engagement ring for safekeeping (so the girl he plans on proposing to doesn't find it), and Chuck hides it inside Big Mike's stuffed fish. Said fish then gets stolen. HilarityEnsues.
74	* ''Series/DavesWorld'': In a singles bar, Dave lends his wedding ring to Kenny to see if the latter can still pick up women despite being supposedly married. He can, and unfortunately leaves the ring at his latest conquest's house.
75	* A recently widowed Corday drops her wedding ring down the sink while scrubbing in for surgery on ''Series/{{ER}}''. Romano retrieves it for her using a surgical scope and forceps.
76	* Not surprisingly, ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' devotes an episode to this one. The original reason Raymond removed his wedding ring is a relatively harmless brand of idiocy ("Were you spinning it again?") but there's also some tension when an attractive single woman hits on him.
77	* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': Carl yells at Harriet for leaving her wedding ring on the kitchen counter because it could fall down the drain. To teach her a lesson, Carl takes the ring the next time Harriet takes it off to wash dishes. When Harriet comes to look for it in the kitchen, Carl gloats about finding it and while telling Harriet to be more careful, he accidentally drops the ring down the drain and spends the rest of the episode fishing it out.
78	* ''Series/FraggleRock'':, Junior Gorg has to remarry his parents, however he drops it into the hole leading to The Rock, where it travels through the possession of all the major characters before miraculously returning to Junior just in time for the ceremony.
79	* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Daphne misplaces the engagement ring Donny gave her and goes to ridiculous lengths to hide the fact, such as shoving her hand inside an uncooked turkey and claiming she was just stuffing it. When she eventually finds the ring again Donny reveals he knew the whole time ''because'' she kept doing ridiculous things like greeting him with a turkey on her hand.
80	* An episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' involved Phil and Vivian renewing their vows and Phil losing the rings. Turned out Vivian had taken them to be engraved.
81	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'':
82	** Rachel wants to return her engagement ring to her ex-fiance, only to have lost it inside Monica's lasagna.
83	** Ross's family wedding ring was lost before his ceremony, but it was actually lost by Joey, the best man who was afraid to tell Ross the groom. At first they thought the stripper stole it, but as it turns out, their pet duck swallowed it.
84	** In one episode, another guy buys the engagement ring Chandler picked out for Monica, and he and Phoebe actually go to the restaurant where the guy is proposing to convince him to trade rings.
85	* ''Series/FullHouse'': Once with Danny's wedding ring, once with Jesse's engagement ring.
86	* ''Series/HomeImprovement'' had Tim accidentally knock Jill's ring down the drain. After trying and failing to dislodge it with croquet balls, he finally built a gadget to ''blow'' it out of the vent (and into a pot of soup on the stove).
87	* ''Series/ILoveLucy'': Ricky hides Lucy's wedding ring to teach her a lesson about carelessness, but his plan backfires when Lucy believes that she lost it in the cement of their newly built outdoor grill which she proceeds to take apart brick by brick. To make matters worse Ricky actually loses the ring. At the end of the episode it's found in a hamburger.
88	* ''Series/KimsConvenience'': Mrs. Kim has a habit of taking off her ring and forgetting about it when she's doing tasks like washing the dishes, much to Mr. Kim's annoyance. He hides it and tricks her into thinking she's lost it to teach her a lesson, only to accidentally lose it for real. He finds it again at the end of the episode, but not before buying his wife a new ring.
89	* ''Series/LifeGoesOn'': Parents Drew and Libby have spent the entire episode arguing. Towards the end, she takes off her ring, obviously contemplating her troubled marriage. Sure enough, she then accidentally drops it down a ''sewer grate'', leading her to venture underground in order to find it. Needless to say, the shock leads her and Drew to patch things up.
90	* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': When Sun lost hers, almost all examples are suggested by the various characters. Jack had been in this situation before the crash, but his solution (buying another one) was impossible. Hurley even went so far as to suggest following the dog around for awhile...
91	* ''Series/MadAboutYou'':
92	** On his and Jamie's second wedding anniversary, Paul loses his ring and frantically searches the house behind his wife's back. It's finally traced back to a hot dog vendor.
93	** Non-ring example: In one episode, Paul threw out their wedding cake to make room in the freezer. Until then, he didn't know its importance to her -- and the viewers didn't know of its existence. It signaled a problem in their relationship only because it ''caused'' one, which was of course resolved by the end of the episode.
94	* In one episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', when Hal and Lois fall into an enraged volley of hurtful secrets they've been keeping from each other:
95	-->'''Hal:''' I lost my wedding ring three years ago! This is part of a lawnmower!
96	* In an early episode of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', Peggy Bundy takes straight-laced Marcy to a strip club and Marcy loses her wedding ring down the speedo of a male stripper. Marcy cannot go back-stage to ask the stripper to give the ring back thanks to the "[[NoodleIncident Peggy Bundy Rule]]", so she leaves a note for the stripper to send it to Peggy's address. The next day when the stripper shows up to the house Al gets the ring and gives it to Steve- the two plan all sorts of emotional black mail for Marcy. In the end, when Steve sees how guilty Marcy felt about losing the ring he gave it back to her in an envelope saying it was from Peggy and he didn't know what it was. After she goes into the bathroom and shrieks when sees what was in the envelope, they both get into bed and hold hands to look at the rings, Steve asks Marcy "So you lost your wedding ring down a stripper's jock strap?"
97	* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': Margaret loses her wedding ring, and when the guys can't find it, they forge it. Margaret only discovers the ring is a fake because the engraver omitted the "N" in "our love will Never fail." When Margaret finds out the deception, gets angry, but decides that she appreciates the effort they made for her. Considering she ended up divorcing the guy some time down the road... it's oddly prophetic.
98	* Happens in the ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' hundredth episode "Holy Matrimony, Murdoch!": Best man George Crabtree discovers he's lost the bride's ring just before leaving for the church on the big day. An exasperated Brackenreid goes in search of the tardy George (who has been searching for it), and when told of the reason for Crabtree's absence the Inspector says they'll borrow his wife's ring if need be just to finally get the job done. Constable Higgins comes to the rescue, having retraced his friend's steps and finding it had fallen into George's typewriter.
99	* Jess loses her dad's wedding rings in season 4 of ''Series/NewGirl'', and Nick has to try to get them back from her mom, who is currently high.
100	* ''Series/PerfectStrangers'': Larry starts a turkey-selling business, and when Jennifer's wedding band goes missing, it's assumed that one of the birds ate it. Only after the cousins have destroyed their neighbors' Thanksgiving feast in search of the ring do they discover it was in Jennifer's jewelry box the entire time.
101	* On the SoapOpera ''Series/PortCharles'', Karen removes her engagement ring to wash dishes. Her fiance's spiteful ex, who's trying to get him back, steals it, knowing that she will make poor Karen look careless and irresponsible and herself look like a hero when she "finds" it.
102	* Divya loses her engagement ring in the ''Series/RoyalPains'' episode "Comfort's Overrated". (She took it off to do a procedure, and the patient ate it.) She's not worried that her fiancé will think badly of her, but she is annoyed when the other characters call it a bad omen, since she's determined to make her ArrangedMarriage work.
103	* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': The engagement ring Turk planned on proposing to Carla with was first dumped down the waste disposal and then eaten by one of his patients. In a later episode, after Carla "finds out" what happened to the ring, Turk puts it in his mouth to prove how clean it is... with predictable results.
104	* ''Series/SeventhHeaven'': This contributor can't remember if two or three rings were lost in the same episode.
105	* On ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' ("The "Ocu" or the "Pado"?", season 6), Charlie was proposing to his (then) girlfriend Chelsea by hiding the engagement ring in her glass of champagne, but she downs it in one gulp, swallowing the ring. She ultimately retrieves it by using a pasta strainer to catch it coming out, after threatening to eat a big block of cheese so that he never sees the ring again.
106	* ''Series/TheUnusuals'': Detective Beaumont borrowed her boyfriend's watch, only for it to be stolen by the criminal of the episode.
107	* On ''Series/{{Wings}}'', a wedding ring incident leads to Helen having to marry Joe while he still sits in his underwear with his hand down the toilet. God, that was sad.
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Music]]
111	* In Music/GunsNRoses' [[MusicVideo video]] for [[Music/UseYourIllusion "November Rain"]], during the wedding scene Slash pats himself down trying to find the rings, only for Duff to reveal that he has them on his pinky.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
115	* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'': Liz, trying on her sister-in-law-to-be's new engagement ring, manages to drop it down the sink; Michael has to go to some trouble retrieving it.
116	* ''ComicStrip/GasolineAlley'': Slim's wife Clovia discovers her wedding ring missing following a family trip to an amusement park; Slim returns to the park, pays admission all over again, rents a metal detector, and suffers a number of indignities, all to no avail. Turns out Clovia left the ring on the bathroom counter and just forgot.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Video Games]]
120	* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' had retrieving a {{NPC}}'s wedding ring as an early FetchQuest.
121	* In ''VideoGame/ChibiRobo,'' one of the [[ExtendedGameplay post main-story missions]] has you plumbing the depths of the Sanderson's drain for Mr. Sanderson's lost wedding ring. The ring, however, serves another purpose; the ring itself is found before the end of the game, [[spoiler: allowing Chibi to use the anniversary date engraved inside as a password to actually cause the last of the end game events.]]
122	* One early side quest in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' is to look for a lost wedding ring for a RichBitch.
123	* This is the plot of a late-game side quest in ''VideoGame/FableIII''.
124	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure'': A hidden side-quest sees the protagonists use their Police Dog Zeit to track down the Vice-Police Commissioner's wedding ring he lost while drunk, which is mostly PlayedForLaughs. It turns out the Special Support Section's esteemed BadBoss [[spoiler:gave his ring to a hooker while pestering her to run away with him.]]
125	* A PlayedForDrama version occurs in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': Kafei, a man who got turned into a child by the Skull Kid, was robbed of his ceremonial wedding mask (essentially the equivalent of a wedding ring) by a thief named Sakon. It's SeriousBusiness because, apart from having great personal meaning to Kafei, the mask is meant to fuse with Anju's Moon Mask to form the Couple's Mask, the one and only proof that any wedding has taken place (apparently, there aren't marriage certificates in Termina). Kafei flatly refuses to face Anju again without it.
126	* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' features an introductory crafting quest to replace a lost wedding ring. If you go on further, you meet the husband of the quest giver, who [[spoiler:also lost his ring and gives you an identical quest to replace his ring as well.]]
127	* ''[[VideoGame/MarioKart8 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe]]'' features Squeaky Clean Sprint in Wave 5 of the Booster Course Pass, which features a wedding ring in the DownTheDrain section (which provides the page image). The track would later reappear in ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'', in which the ring is now the Binding Band from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey''.
128	* In ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'', a whole heap of trouble occurs after Oswald presents his new wife Gwendolyn with the ring which controls a powerful magical cauldron that the entire world is fighting a war over, because Gwendolyn's father Odin wants the ring very badly, and Gwendolyn wants her father's love and approval very badly. Learning that Gwendolyn gave away the ring he gave her as a token of his love sends Oswald straight over the DespairEventHorizon, and Gwendolyn has to single-handedly storm the fairy kingdom of Ringford to get the ring back.
129	* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', Frankie and Francesca have lost their wedding ring, and Francesca won't let them leave for the mainland to go see her sick father until it's found. Mario, of course, ends up being the one to have to retrieve it, because they won't stop looking in completely the wrong area. Later, he'll lose it in town, and post a trouble in the Trouble Center asking for help in finding it, lest he be forced to say "I love you!" some insane number of times. Note that he's already been forced to say it 100 times.
130	* In ''VideoGame/PopfulMail'', a elven woman from Treesun has her wedding ring stolen by the leader of the Badger Bandits. The badger boss' lair is close to town, but he's surprisingly tough to beat for an early-game enemy (being a combination GiantMook and EliteMook).
131	* In ''VideoGame/ThreeTheHardWay'', one of Vance's BountyHunter mission is to find a wedding ring for a guy who's married to a seamstress. Completing this quest would allow Vance to get special clothes from the seamstress in order to meet with Duke Salem of Burlington (since commoners can't enter the city).
132	* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3FutureRedeemed'': One mission board sidequest has a man begging someone to find his lost ring before his wife finds out. You can find it and return it to him, and he's thankful... but his wife still found out, because [[DidNotThinkThisThrough posting a public request is not a good way to keep something secret]].
133	* The premise of a sidequest in ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}''. An NPC bemoans that she lost her ring and a fish swallowed it. In order to get it back, you need to track down a fish finder and then run around in the shallow water catching fish with your bare hands until one spits it out. She then loses it ''again'' in Episode II, at the same time there's a rash of people losing rings. You have to find her exact ring and return it to her. The other lost rings just get left.
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Western Animation]]
137	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "[[Recap/ArthurS1E25DWThinksBigArthurCleansUp D.W. Thinks Big]]", Arthur becomes the ringbearer for his Aunt Lucy's wedding. The ring gets lost ending up in the pipe organ. Arthur is perfectly willing to retrieve it, but is too big to go inside the organ. Fortunately, D.W. is small enough to retrieve it. It also serves to nicely expose Cora's true personality to everyone. She's small enough to go inside, but unwilling to, saying the bridal couple can "just get another ring."
138	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBabaloos'', the titular characters have to comb the beach in search of a lost wedding ring belonging to Kevin's mother.
139	* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': In the season ten premiere "The Ring (But Not Scary)", Bob decides, since he couldn't afford an engagement ring when he and Linda first got married, to buy her a diamond ring as an anniversary present. Unfortunately the kids find it, the ring gets stuck on Gene's finger, and it goes missing on a trip to the local water park. Bob and the kids are forced to sneak into the park after-hours and find it (with the help of Nat, the eccentric but friendly limo driver from "V For Valentine-detta").
140	* The final episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' features our protagonist questing for a missing ring that he is supposed to present as ring bearer. He finds it at the last minute.
141	* Also done in ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' episode entitled "The Engagement Ring", in which Fred, as a favour to Barney, uses one of the holes of his bowling ball to hide a ring Barney bought for Betty. Wilma finds it by accident and immediately assumes it was meant for her. Done differently in the fact that the ring isn't lost at all; it's right there on Wilma's finger, being shown off to Betty, even, but Fred just doesn't have the heart to tell Wilma that the ring wasn't meant for her. Eventually the boys manage to get the money together - thanks to Wilma, no less - and a second identical ring is bought for Betty.
142	* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTales'' episode "Sister of the Bride" shoehorns this in alongside many other wedding-related gags, coming very close to DeusAngstMachina territory before it all works out in the end.
143	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb,'' "No More Bunny Business": Isabella's mom loses her wedding ring after taking it off to do the dishes. Phineas uses his new X-Ray glasses to find it in the pipes, though she declines their offer to get it out themselves. (This is also an interesting example because it's the only indication that she is, or once was, married; [[DisappearedDad we never see or hear anything about Isabella's father]].)
144	* This is done in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', when Lisa notices Homer's wedding ring is 'just a band-aid wrapped in tin-foil." He tells her mournfully, "The real one's inside a turtle".
145	* The short film ''Tangled Ever After'', a continuation of ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', is all about this trope. At Rapunzel and Eugene's wedding, ringbearer Maximus sneezes while carrying ''both'' rings, so he and Pascal have to scramble across the kingdom to retrieve them.
146	* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': In "Best Bears", the Bears are helping their friend Darrell get ready for his wedding day, and Panda's task is to pick up the wedding rings from the jeweler's. Panda no sooner leaves the store than he drops them after getting jostled by a jogger, and he ends up chasing them all the way back to the church where the wedding is being held.
147	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/WowWowWubbzy'', Wubbzy accidentally dropped Daizy's ring, which she'd asked him to hold while she did some gardening, and it fell down a hole. He, Walden, and Widget went down after it, had an adventure, got it back safely with Daizy none the wiser, only for Wubbzy to have a close call as he's about to give it back to her.
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151	* OlderThanSteam: The last scenes of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' revolve around this.
152	* Website/TheOnion headline: "Wedding Ring Mistakenly Left Inside Prostitute."
153	* There is a legend about a Russian nobleman who was sailing across the Caspian Sea when the wedding ring came off his wife's finger and sank to the bottom of the sea. She was distraught, so to cheer her up, he ''bought all the land surrounding the sea.'' In this way, you see, the couple would ''still own the ring'' and be spared the bad luck from losing it.
154	* Real life imitated sitcom plots when, in 2009, a man (Reed) proposed to his girlfriend (Kaitlin) by hiding the engagement ring in a Wendy's Frosty (not quite as romantic as the champagne in the similar ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' episode), which she wolfed down, swallowing the ring without even noticing anything particularly lumpy in her dessert. It took an X-ray showing the ring in her stomach to make her believe what happened. She retrieved the ring a couple of days later, and still married the guy. [[http://krazykaitlin.blogspot.com/2009/02/im-engaged.html (Blog account with pictures and video)]]
155	* Another case: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKDRQTEDMbQ One guy]] in California thought it would be fun to tie a wedding ring to a balloon. He hands her the balloon, proposes to her, she jerks in shock and lets the balloon float away taking the ring with it.
156	* I'll see you that and raise you the story of the guy who proposed to his girlfriend on the walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge. Romantic... until he dropped the ring while trying to put it on her finger. The good news is that it fell to the roadway below rather than into the water. Determined to get it back (no doubt thinking of how much he spent on it), he jumped down and proceeded to contend with the rushing traffic in order to find it--and he did.
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Context Main / LostWeddingRing