I feel like I need to clear the air before I get underway today.
At my core, I am a romantic.
At the risk of being mocked, or trolled or worse - here's my confession:
When my wife insists on watching 'Married at First Sight', I don't object too hard, and when the couples see each other for the first time, and they're so happy - and we've just heard their sob story, and the triumphant music is playing, and the director is cutting between their smiles - oh, my heart - A tear has regularly found it's way to my cheek. At this point, my wife usually looks at me and says, 'Seriously?' - and I'll so something like, 'But they're just so happy, isn't it lovely?'. I know what you're thinking, reality TV isn't real, but let me have my moment.
So now we know I'm a bit of a loser, and we're ready to wonder: what is our favourite wedding, immortalised on the silver screen?
(While you're here, re-live the catchy Friends intro)
How about, 'The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding? -
It's not a film, but iconic none-the-less. The series FRIENDS went for ten seasons in total, and this wedding occurred at the end of Season 7. That was a whole lot of building up to this point!
It was actually a two-part episode, that set up the proposition that the big wedding, promised, might not eventuate. You see, Chandler, the loveable goof hears a phone message, offering the couple as 'The Bings' (Bing was Chandler's last name). That completely freaked him out, and he went missing... meanwhile, Chandler's parents (previously not in the show) are arguing with Monica's parents - the comedy of course being in the side remarks they make of each other. Then there's Ross, doing his Ross thing - playing the 'Big Brother' "If you hurt my sister..." and then musing over it for the rest of the episode. Then of course there's Joey - who was, at the time, shooting a World War 2 Period film, and it was inevitable he would be late - and he had a special role. He was going to be the guy who married the lovebirds, he'd even been on the internet and got himself ordained (yea, that's a thing, and go figure, it was a scam back in 2001!).
Against this backdrop, Chandler is still missing. Rachel takes charge in order to delay Monica - and, just at the right time. Everyone is there, and the ceremony is underway.
The vows are exchanged, and at this point, I was balling my eyes out. The promises they made to each other were beautiful and heart-felt - and Chandler whispers reassuringly to Monica that he was glad to find the positive pregnancy test in the bin... but, it's not hers. The camera pans to Rachel - and the scene is set to invite the audience back to Season 8!
Now - the wedding itself wasn't over-the-top or extravagent - it wasn't a full blown night out, no expenses spared kind of a deal. Instead - it was intimate, and it invited the audience into the pews. More than that though, we'd been voyeurs this entire time, and now, this wedding was the culmination of our own hopes and dreams for this couple, which we'd seen develop over seven years. Against this backdrop - how could we not simply be happy and smile?
Fun fact: the show was filmed with a TV audience, who knew about a pregnancy. However - the final camera shot, panning to Rachel, was not filmed with an audience present. This meant no one in the public knew about the surprise reveal until it aired!
This post was in response to the CineTV Twitter Prompt
https://twitter.com/CineTv_io/status/1505325183552430083
- CineTv_io