Groom claims dog ate his passport days before wedding in Italy

‘It’s almost like the ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse but with slightly bigger ramifications,’ groom says

One couple experienced wedding scaries two weeks before their big day in Italy after their dog ate the groom’s passport.

Donato Frattaroli and Magda Mazri never dreamed of a setback quite like this when they began planning their nuptials a few years ago. According to a report by NBC Boston, the couple went to city hall on 17 August to pick up their marriage licenses and letter of intent. When they returned home from a celebratory dinner, their golden retriever, Chickie, presented them with a chewed-up surprise.

Speaking with the Boston Herald, Frattaroli said: “Our extremely cute one-and-a-half-year-old golden retriever decided that maybe she doesn’t want us to go away to get married, so she hopped up on the counter and decided my passport was a nice new toy to play with.”

Not only did Chickie shred the first four pages of his passport, but she got a couple of back ones as well. Mazri told NBC Boston that she, unfortunately, got “every important page”. She remarked: “It was like every important page. Like all of his personal information - completely torn up, his picture page was torn up, the barcode on the back of the passport was torn up.”

Frattaroli and Mazri planned to tie the knot on 31 August in northern Italy at La Torre di San Marco, per The Herald’s report. However, the typical processing period for passports takes about eight to 11 weeks – including delivery – or five to seven weeks if expedited.

With the end of summer travels filling up appointments in and around Boston, the hopeful couple reached out to their city’s lawmakers for help in getting a passport.

“Sent out an email to Congressman [Stephen] Lynch’s office, then got in touch with Senator [Ed] Markey, their staffs have both been incredible, super communicative,” the groom-to-be admitted to NBC Boston. “But ultimately it really comes down to the State Department and the passport office.”

In a discussion with The Herald, Frattaroli pointed out how bizarre his situation sounded. He noted: “It’s almost like the ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse but with slightly bigger ramifications.”

Even with the extreme time crunch, Mazri is manifesting that everything will work out and their European dream wedding will go as planned. “I’m not allowing myself to even think Plan B. There’s no other option for me,” she confessed to NBC Boston. “We are going to Italy on Friday one way or the other.”