Most brides-to-be spend years picturing the perfect proposal — the setting, the timing, the person asking the question. What AnnaBelle Warner never imagined was ending that magical night at a fire station, getting her brand-new engagement ring cut off her finger.
On the night of Saturday, Oct. 25, in Ohio, Warner, 20, and her then-boyfriend, Will Munhall, 22, drove to her family farm after dinner. Waiting there was Warner’s childhood cow, Buttercup, proudly wearing a sign that read, “Will You Marry Me?”
“It was absolutely perfect and so personal to us,” Warner says.
When Munhall slid the ring onto her finger, Warner knew right away it was a tight fit.
“Will had bought my ring on a trip to Ireland a few weeks before,” she explains. “We had to guess my ring size based on other rings I owned, which didn’t fit perfectly. When he put the ring on me during the proposal, it was definitely snug, but I didn’t care. I had been waiting to be engaged, and I wanted it on!”
At first, she chose to ignore how tight it felt. But as the night went on and they celebrated with family, the discomfort started to build.
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“As the night went on and we met up with family, I started realizing it was getting tighter and tighter,” Warner recalls. “Around 11:15 p.m. I told Will, ‘I have to take this off before I fall asleep or my finger is going to be purple.’”
The couple tried everything they could think of at home — elevating her hand, ice, cold water, dish soap — but nothing worked. Finally, they decided they had no choice but to head to their local fire department and ask for help.
About 15 minutes after they arrived, firefighters had safely cut the ring off her finger.
“I panicked a little because I didn’t think you could fix a ring once it was cut,” Warner says. “Will felt terrible and was so apologetic the whole time, even though it wasn’t his fault at all.”
The next day, they brought the damaged ring to a jeweler, who reassured Warner it could be repaired. Less than a week later, it was back on her finger.
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“I had it back by that Friday, and it’s been perfect ever since,” she says.
Warner and Munhall met about a year and a half ago at a pizza shop in their hometown. She’s a hairstylist and small business owner, and he’s a college senior studying accounting. The Sunday after the proposal, Warner shared photos from their big moment on Instagram, captioning them, “The easiest ‘yes’ of my life. 🤍💍 @willmunhall15”
“Even with the ring incident, the whole day was perfect,” Warner says. “And I truly wouldn’t change a thing.”
