26-year-old musician Zoey Conant shared the bizarre passport issue that nearly caused her to miss her wedding in Costa Rica.

A recent destination bride isn’t just sharing the epic photos from her rainy but magical beach wedding; she’s also sharing the horror of initially being denied entry into the country days before her nuptials were set to take place.   

In November 2024, Zoey Conant, 26, and her husband, Blane Conant, 29, from Columbia, S.C.,  tied the knot in Costa Rica in an intimate ceremony surrounded by their loved ones on the beach. However, when the couple first arrived at the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in the Costa Rican city of Liberia four days before their wedding, Zoey was informed that her passport had been flagged, People magazine reported. 

“We touched down in Costa Rica after 12 exhausting hours of travel. I was dying to feel that sun on my skin and maybe hit the beach. Then it all fell apart at customs,” Zoey told the publication. 

Her passport was reported lost or stolen, so she had to fly back to the US and apply for a new passport. Since she had just arrived after a layover in Miami, she was being sent back to the Florida city. The ordeal was even more confusing because Zoey had entered her passport’s credentials several times, including scanning it multiple times in US airports, the Daily Mail reported. 

“I just LOST IT. Full-on ugly crying in the middle of customs,” she told People.

While her passport clearly wasn’t lost or stolen if someone with a common name or the same name as you flags their passport, your passport can sometimes be flagged in error. Without a public database to search or any communication sent to her, Zoey had no way of knowing this before she started her journey. 

Zoey and her then-fiancé had to quickly explain the situation to their friends and family who had traveled with them before she was placed back on a plane to Miami alone. When their wedding party learned they all sprang into action, attempting to help. Blane wanted to travel with her, but the show had to go on, and he had to stay behind to keep ironing out the logistics of their wedding. He told People it felt like a “bad dream.” 

“We had a very tearful goodbye and we started letting everyone know the situation,” he told the Daily Mail. “I was very angry at first and then very much in a cloud of disbelief… I wished it was happening to me rather than her.”

While on the plane ride back to Miami, Zoey said the flight attendants noticed her emotional state and called her up to the front. After learning more about her situation, they gave her the phone number of a passport agency that could help her quickly. 

Back in Miami, Zoey quickly filled out all the necessary paperwork and got an appointment at the passport agency the next morning. She did run into a few snags trying to get her passport photo—the photo machine was down at the first pharmacy she visited—and initially wore clothes that did not meet the standards for an official passport photo. 

Finally, once in front of someone at the passport agency, she pleaded her case, and miraculously, she would have a new one in her hands by noon that same day. The miracle required her to “drop a fortune.” She was back on a flight later that day and on her way to finally get married. 

After three years together, Zoey and Blane, who have a band together named Writ3rs Block, were finally married on Nov. 16, 2024, on a black sand beach in Junquillal. 

Despite a little rain from a flash storm, Zoey said, “The day was absolutely amazing,” while speaking to the Daily Mail. “We all hung out for most of the wedding day and just walked to the beach and gathered around for the ceremony.”

After the couple exchanged their vows, they ran straight into the water with their whole wedding party. 

“It felt like a dream come true,” Blane said. 

If anything can be learned from their situation, it’s this: It’s highly recommended to arrive at your destinations well in advance of your big day!