Planning a wedding? Make sure to read these tales before you choose a ring bearer.

Don’t Trust an Owl With Your Rings

In 2013, Sonia Cadman decided to surprise her soon-to-be husband, Andrew Matley, by hiring an unusual ring bearer: a barn owl named Darcy.

Unfortunately, on the day of the Wiltshire, England, couple’s ceremony, the specially trained bird chose to fly the coop.

When it came time for her delivery, instead of heading down the aisle, Darcy promptly darted into the church rafters to enjoy an hour-long nap.

Luckily, Cadman had entrusted the owl with imitation rings, so the ceremony continued as planned. As for the groom, he thought it was a hoot!

Treasure in the Vegetable Patch

While weeding a plot of potatoes on her farm near Armena, Alta., in 2004, Mary Grams lost her beloved engagement ring.

After days of frantic searching, she gave up and bought a replica in hopes that her husband would be none the wiser.

Thirteen years later, she got a shock: her daughter-in-law plucked a carrot from the family’s vegetable patch with the missing diamond ring wrapped firmly around it.

I had such a happy feeling when I saw it,” says Grams, now 84. “The garden is rotovated twice a year, and it’s a miracle that the ring didn’t get cut up.

Diamond Ring in the Rough

A Sotheby’s auction piece proves that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

The article in question, a 26-carat cushion-cut diamond ring from the 19th century, sold for an incredible $1,093,300 in June. Its provenance wasn’t quite so glamorous: the vendor, a woman from West London, bought it at a trunk sale in the 1980s for only £10.

For decades, she believed it to be a cheap piece of costume jewellery. But earlier this year, a jeweller caught sight of the bling and encouraged the woman to get it appraised, so she brought it to Sotheby’s, where she learned its true value.