The Costa Rica Wedding Nightmare: As Seen In People

Click on the photo to read Zoey and Blanes POV on People.com

Zoey and Blane were hit with one obstacle after another on the way to their Costa Rica wedding in Nov. 2024 and the way they handled it is worthy of admiration.

I feel lucky to call these two friends of mine. They have always been some of the most positive and light hearted people I know. The kind of people that would literally “give you the clothes off their back” as they say. Watching them grow together as individuals and a couple over the years has been a pleasure and honestly inspires me to look for the silver lining. When they asked me to come along on their Costa Rica wedding adventure I was of course over joyed and excited to celebrate them because if anyone deserves a grand celebration it’s these two.

I had actually been in Central America for a couple months leading up to their wedding as I was covering another destination wedding in a neighboring country and took the opportunity to work remote between these book end Central America weddings.

As I wrote on my travel blog www.minasisley.com, my time in Costa Rica was quite literally the definition of “Murphys law”.

After a series of unfortunate events over the course of three weeks that included a severe tropical depression, record breaking floods and remnants from a hurricane on the golf, plus all of the symptoms the state of emergency declaration brought, I was literally over the moon excited for Zoey and Blane to arrive with the rest of our friends and their family to hopefully turn this trip around.

I kept telling myself “They will be here in x days and regardless of the weather, WE will have a WONDERFUL time all together!” Especially because this specific crew are the people you want around you in a crisis. They will inevitably handle any situation with care and boost the mood while doing it.

So the day finally arrived and I no joke sprung out of bed before the sun rise in a small costal town called Santa Teresa where I had spent the last roughly three weeks. I took the first cross country transport that came through town to the Liberia airport where they were due to arrive about the same time as me.

Five hours of riding through the rain on the winding, steep, jungle roads. An uneasy experience I have gotten used to at this point. To finally arrive at the airport at the same time I receive a text from Zoey that they had just landed! The energy was already feeling better and the timing could not have been more perfect.

I sat inside for probably 45 minutes still not having heard from them since the initial text and I started to get a little worried because many many people have come out of the customs area already… Finally about an hour or so after arrival, Blane walks out, alone, with a very defeated look on his face.

Of course my first question was “Where’s Zoey??” to which he responded “They sent her back.” and at this point my eyes are popping out of my head and I am WILDLY confused because what do you mean they sent her back?? Literally what could have possibly prompted that??

Then out walks Blanes family, his sister holding Zoeys wedding dress. Blane starts to pace and I have a million questions as I go into full crisis mode.

They explained that the border control agent said her passport “had been reported missing or stolen” and that she had to return to the states as they could not grant her entry. Mind you, she is holding the passport in her hand, it has her photo in it, its not expired, it had only been used once, and she herself had never reported it missing or stolen. Not to mention it wasn’t flagged at any other check point leaving the country. Not when they bought the tickets and put their passport info in, not when they checked in for the flights or arrived at the airport and went through international security with the passport and then handed the passport to the gate agent to even board the plane in the first place. Oh and by the way, there is no way to check if your passport has been reported lost or stolen without your knowledge apparently.

So at this point, Zoey is on an airplane, we have no idea what state she’s being sent to, and Blane and I start calling everyone we have ever known that may have knowledge about what to do in this situation. You would have thought the kitchen of our airbnb that night was the White House situation room. My phone was the only one with working international service for the first 24 hours they were there so we all sat around researching every office number for every state rep we could find for her district and took turns making calls off of our list while Zoey ended up in Miami game planning on her own. Given that this was only a few days after the 2024 American presidential election, not one representative or their office was answering the phone, but we kept calling.

We were determined to get her back in time for the wedding which was in 3 days at this point.

Eventually we got ahold of a representatives staffer who helped open an emergency expedited passport case and Zoey went through the steps of making that happen in Miami. It ended up being women stepping in to help at every stage of the issue. A woman staffer finally getting back to us, a woman at the passport office helping rush the new passport, a flight attendant on the flight to Miami giving her all the info she had that could help, a woman at the Miami hotel reception that took her new passport photo, many friends offering her a place to stay in Florida while we sorted the situation out. When us ladies hear “wedding crisis” we rally and I do love that sentiment.

Long story short, we pulled off what we thought was an impossible task in 48 hours and Zoey made it back to Costa Rica in time for the wedding.

When we picked her up from the airport she said “I feel like this was just god showing me I can absolutely handle hard things on my own, its kinda symbolic just before I get married”. Her genuine grounded outlook is one that stays with me always. I have so much admiration for the two of them and the way they handle the bumps in life with such grace.

Of course the rain didn’t let up but as I suspected, it didn’t stop us form having a great time. We played soccer on the beach in the rain, dove into the ocean fully clothed because we were already soaked anyways, played spoons on the floor after the rehearsal dinner, and they tied the knot barefoot on the black sand beach of Juanquille, Costa Rica while the rain drizzled down on us in our formals and nobody cared because every one of the 25 people there were just grateful to be there in that moment, fully present and experiencing a core memory in real time.

SO many things had gone wrong up till this point and yet still everything was perfect. Exactly as it was meant to me.

This whole trip felt like a testament to life and how directly our outlook and the people around us affects our experiences. The worst bits of life don’t feel all that bad with the right people around you.

It’s safe to say this wedding story is one that will stand out forever. I will never forget the pure joy and grounded resilience in the face of adversity that this week exemplified.