WPBN: The worst nightmare that a bride could have imagined came true during her engagement shoot.
When Niki Mack and Corey Berebitsky were taking photographs of their engagement on November 24 at the Italian Cultural Garden in Cleveland, they were beaming with happiness over the occasion.
It was their third attempt at a picture shoot owing to the unpredictability of the weather in the city, and they were thankful for the “beautiful fall day.” Their joys, however, were quickly replaced by frowns when Mack’s diamond engagement ring was discovered to have fallen down a sewage drain.
It was Emily Ruth, the wedding photographer for the Lakewood-based couple, who discovered that Berebitsky had something on the back of his pants at the beginning of the shoot. Mack went to clean it off.
“My fiancée went off to wipe off whatever was on my pants, and as she was doing so there was a ting sound and she looked down and the ring was not on her hand,” Berebitsky stated.
Mack’s ring had abruptly fallen off her finger, and the sound that was heard was the sound of it rolling into a sewage drain that was located nearby.
“Niki was surprisingly calm,” Berebitsky recalls his fiancée’s reaction to the situation. “Myself, the first thing that goes through my head is, ‘Oh my God, we’ve been pushing off the ring resizing for so long, and of course this happens.'”
Despite the fact that she could still see her ring in the drain, Mack maintained her composure. While this was going on, Berebitsky reported that his “heart dropped” and that he was experiencing an internal panic about how they were going to get it out.
The diamond baguettes that are set on the side of this ring were taken from both of the couple’s grandmothers’ rings, which means that it cannot be replaced and holds a priceless value for the couple.
“Money is one thing. You lose it, the insurance can pay for it or whatever,” Berebitsky stated. “But you can’t get the diamonds back from family.”
For assistance, the couple dialed the hotline that was designated for non-emergency situations. The ring was retrieved from the sewer with the assistance of firefighters from Cleveland Fire Station 30, who arrived at the scene less than ten minutes later.
According to Berebitsky, “They were extremely helpful and able to get the ring out. I personally could not watch as they pulled it up just for fear it was going to fall [back] down. But they were very calm and confident.”
The firefighters were uncertain as to whether or not they would be able to retrieve the grate from the drain in a timely manner; hence, they made the decision to employ a metal rod in order to retrieve the ring. Approximately five minutes later, the ring emerged, looking as good as new.
The couple intends to give a present to the firefighters as a way of expressing their gratitude for the assistance they provided in reuniting them with the ring.
The celebration of Mack and Berebitsky’s wedding is scheduled to take place in October 2025. They first became acquainted with the dating app Hinge in November 2021 and subsequently were engaged at Lakewood Park.
In the meantime, they had at long last completed that essential task that was on their list of things to do: It is currently being resized at the jewelry store where the ring is being kept.
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