By Eliza Murphy, ABC

One man’s recent plan to pop the question took an adventurous lesson from “The Little Mermaid,” after he decided to go under the sea.

“I booked a cruise for Christmas. It was a Christmas gift for her,” Joseph House, of Lynchburg, Va., told our “GMA Live!” anchors this morning about his recent proposal. “I wanted a proposal that was going to be something creative that I had never heard of or seen before.”

So House, 23, came up with the idea to tie the ring to his bathing suit using dental floss, and shock the love of his life underwater while she least expected it.

“We were going down to the Caribbean, and Grand Cayman is known for their scuba diving,” he said. “Neither of us had ever gone scuba diving before and it just seemed like a good idea.”

House and Jessica Forbes, who have been dating for more than a year, were spending one of their days-in-port scuba diving for hidden treasure. But Forbes had no idea just how precious of a treasure she would uncover.

House took Forbes down to a treasure chest buried in the ocean floor, with a map inside that tracked what he calls, “the course of their relationship.” At the end of the map’s course was a simple question: “So, are you going to marry me or not?”

As tears streamed behind her scuba mask, Forbes said yes, while frantically pointing to her ring finger.

“When we were under water they showed us lots of other figurines in the ocean, and so when they showed us the treasure chest I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool, a treasure chest,’ and kept on swimming,” Forbes, 21, said.

“And then Joey went down to it, and I saw him trip over his flipper as he was getting on his knee, and I saw the ring on the map, and I saw ‘Marry’ and then I just knew.”

Although Forbes had a slight idea they might be getting engaged while on the cruise, she had given up hope after it didn’t happen on the first day.

“I honestly thought that it was going to be on the cruise,” she said. “But I figured it would be on the first day because he’s really impatient. So after the first day, I wasn’t thinking about it at all anymore because I thought he’ll just do it some other time then.”

The unexpected timing made the underwater surprise that much sweeter.

“You crazy kids, congratulations,” “GMA” news anchor Josh Elliott told the newly engaged couple.

No concrete plans have been made for a wedding date.

“I’m going to finish school first,” Forbes said.

For more on this story  and to watch the video go to:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/treasure-hunt-leads-to-underwater-marriage-proposal/