Fictional Weddings I’d Love to Attend
By TwistieMy good friend and partner in crime, Fabrisse, pointed me in the direction of this article about film weddings the author would have liked to attend. It was an amusing bit of synchronicity since I’d just been thinking about fictional weddings. You know, weddings on television, in films, and in books.
The author of the article has some interesting choices, but I have to admit I’ve never seen well over half these movies, and the rest…those weddings didn’t do that much for me. I also hate confining myself to one medium when I can choose from multiple ones.
Below the cut, see my top ten list (in no particular order) of fictional weddings I’d love to attend and why.
1: All the weddings in Four Weddings and a Funeral. It’s not so much the weddings themselves as the company. I want to snark on the gowns with Fee, get boistrous with Gareth, and be whimsically mushy with Scarlett. Besides, how often does one get to attend a wedding where the groom gets slugged by an enraged bride and the wedding doesn’t happen?
2: Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. It was a crazy wedding; one might even say…chaotic. Still, Max and 99 wound up married, and living happily ever after in spydom.
3: Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe. I grew up reading the Anne of Green Gables series. Anne and her friends are quite real to me. I watched and waited for Anne and Gilbert to work things out and realize (okay, mostly for Anne to realize) that they belonged together. The very best weddings are the ones where the bride and groom are perfectly matched and you can feel the love in the air. I feel very sure that’s the sort of wedding Anne and Gilbert had.
4: Geoffrey Tennant and Ellen Fanshaw on Slings&Arrows. Not only is the groom played by the painfully misnamed Paul Gross, the wedding itself is deliciously nontraditional. The bride wears red because she looks and feels great in it, and the reception takes place in a bar during a cast party. After the honeymoon, the happy couple is determined to start a struggling Shakespearian theater company. Who could resist something that personally unconventional?
5: Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Why? Because I’ve read their story so often and seen so many versions of it on television and in film, and I still love both them and their story. I want to share their joy.
6: Jadzia Dax and Worf. I’ve always been interested in the wedding customs of different cultures, and what could be more entertaining that seeing how Klingon, Trill, Bajoran, and United Federation of Planets customs all meld together to create one wedding. Okay, they mostly seemed to use the Klingon customs, but the potential was there for all sorts of possibilities. And Jadzia did look fantastic in that gown.
7: Mariel Heslop and David VanArckle in Muriel’s Wedding. It may have been a hollow farce of a wedding, but watching the bridesmaids bop down the aisle to ABBA alone is worth it. And then I’m betting the reception spread was out of this world. Sometimes it’s useful to go see What Not To Do up close and personal.
8: Elfine Starkadder and Dick Hawk-Monitor in Cold Comfort Farm. What’s not to love about the free-spirited girl from the most eccentric family in the county marrying the pride and joy of a wealthy family? Besides, the wedding looked like fun. A lovely bride, and proud groom, a fabulous feast to follow, and a couple entirely besotted with one another. And in the end, all the Starkadders live happily in spite of themselves. I’d love to be there.
9: Niles Crane and Daphne Moon on Fraser. It took them a decade to get to the altar, between him being married, her being engaged, and, well, one thing and another. When they finally got there, they wound up having a few hiccoughs trying to please everyone else, but finally manged it fine. Their spur of the moment elopement proves once and for all that all you really need for a successful marriage is two people who love one another truly and an officient to take care of the paperwork.
10: Samwise Gamgee and Rosie Cotton in Return of the King. That was a delightful, bucolic wedding of two good people. There was music and flowers and good food and good cheer. What more could anyone possibly ask? I might stand out as a bit tall in the crowd, but that sounds like fun for once in my life.
What about all of you? Is there a fictional wedding you’d like to be invited to?
September 13th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
That’s so funny, when I first started reading this post I too thought Samwise Gamgee and Rosie Cotton. It would be so much fun! Plus I’m a total nerd who loves LOTR. When I was a kid I taught myself to speak Quenya (elven language)!
September 13th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I have to second the Darcys and the Gamgees, but add in Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. Except that I always wanted to marry Lord Peter myself.
September 13th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Dianasaur, I must admit to only having seen the Peter Jackson films, but Sam and Rosie just look so delighted with one another and their celebration, it’s hard to think of anything better…even though the rabid fangirl part of me was waiting for Frodo to do something to disrupt the proceedings and carry off the groom for his own fell purposes. I am a sadly perverted creature, sometimes.
Anonymous, as much as I adore Lord Peter and Harriet, I had to recuse myself from their nuptual celebration. I was afraid I might actually cause the sort of hullaballoo I thought Frodo might cause at Sam’s wedding.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Twistie, love your choices, especially Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy, Jadzia Dax and Worf, Samwise Gamgee and Rosie Cotton. I would add Nick and Nora Charles of the Thin Man series of movies (open bar and fabulous banter), Shrek and Fiona (Donkey is a party animal), Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler (over the top gown and party), also Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger (who wouldn’t want to see a wizard wedding!)
September 13th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I am soooooo with you on #3. I can just picture myself in Marilla’s parlour, seeing Anne coming down the stairs towards Gilbert. Damn, now I’m getting all misty just picturing it.
I would also have loved to have been at the wedding of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, just so that I could have hugged Jane and given her my best wishes.
Ron and Hermione, definitely.
And lastly, Jamie and Claire from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. To see Jamie in his dress kilt….rawr.
September 14th, 2008 at 7:46 am
I’d have loved to been at both weddings of Becky Bloomwood and Luke Brandon in Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series.
Also, I’d have liked to be at Elle Woods’ and Emmett Forrest’s wedding.
And Edward Cullen and Bella Swan’s wedding (from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series)…. it was described in Breaking Dawn but it was from Bella’s POV and she was all sorts of dazed.
I was working the release party for Breaking Dawn at my local bookstore. I had about 30 preteens/early teens in front of me answering trivia questions. From slightly to my left I hear a bit of a conversation. One of the girls, dressed as Edward, said to her friend, dressed as Alice said “oh my gawd, they’re so going to do it in this book.”
I almost fell over laughing.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Any wedding from a Jennifer Crusie book, but especially the flamingo wedding in “Agnes and the Hitman.” It kept me rolling the whole time. Nobody writes off-the-wall hilarious catastrophes like she does.
September 14th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Anonymous, that’s the one I thought of right off the bat. Can you imagine a cloth-of-gold Worth gown? And on the sentiment side, I’ve always thought of that as the ultimate marriage of mind and heart.
September 14th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Add me to the Wimsey guest list.
I’d love to have been a witness to either of Hildy’s and Walter’s weddings from His Girl Friday.
I definitely second the idea of seeing Nick and Nora get hitched. Was Asta on the groom’s side or the bride’s?
September 15th, 2008 at 8:57 am
The Elizabeth/Darcy wedding is one I have often daydreamed about, not just because it was a double wedding and I wished I had a sister like Jane (or a sister at all really) that I liked so much as to share the day with….but because I desperately wanted a Mr. Darcy of my own.
I also would have liked to attend the Sesame Street wedding of Luis and Maria. Who wouldn’t love to party down with Muppets?!
September 15th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
even though the rabid fangirl part of me was waiting for Frodo to do something to disrupt the proceedings and carry off the groom for his own fell purposes.
Twistie, have you seen the Very Secret Diaries of the LotR characters?
September 16th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Yes, I have, TeleriB. And I have giggled muchly at them.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I alway thought that Meg March’s wedding of Little Women sounded heavenly, so simple and homely and I think Peter and Harriet’s wedding a triumph! And finally enough to eat!