Movies Set at a Wedding

Ten films where the vows are the least dramatic thing in the room.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A restaurant table with a lobster dinner, a blank wedding invitation sealed with wax and a pack of cigarettes.

    10. My Best Friend's Wedding

    P.J. Hogan · 1997

    Julia Roberts spends four days in Chicago trying to wreck her best friend's wedding, and the movie dares you to root for her. Test audiences hated the first ending, so Hogan grew Rupert Everett's part and reshot. Roberts had cut her hair and wore a wig. Worth it.

  2. Two champagne glasses and a stack of blank name tags on a reception table, an empty dance floor behind.

    09. Wedding Crashers

    David Dobkin · 2005

    Vaughn and Wilson crash weddings for sport until one lands them a weekend at the Treasury Secretary's family compound. Made for $40 million, it grossed $288 million and put stage-five clinger into the language. The studio wanted Burt Reynolds over Christopher Walken.

  3. A wedding cake on a castle lawn at night, a huge planet filling the sky above it.

    08. Melancholia

    Lars von Trier · 2011

    The first half is one reception at a Swedish castle, and it goes about as well as a wedding can when the bride is in a depressive spiral and a rogue planet is headed for Earth. Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress at Cannes. The cake is not the problem.

  4. A round banquet table crowded with platters and teacups under hanging red paper lanterns, two empty chairs at the head.

    07. The Wedding Banquet

    Ang Lee · 1993

    A gay Taiwanese man in Manhattan fakes a marriage for his visiting parents, who insist on a proper banquet. Made for $1 million, it grossed $23.6 million, shared Berlin's Golden Bear and features Ang Lee as a guest. The banquet is the funniest bad idea on this list.

  5. A bridal bouquet on a cracked suburban driveway beside a cassette tape and a swim cap.

    06. Muriel's Wedding

    P.J. Hogan · 1994

    Toni Collette gained 40 pounds in seven weeks to play a Porpoise Spit misfit who wants a wedding more than a husband, then marries a South African swimmer who needs citizenship. ABBA said yes two weeks before shooting. The backup plan was the Village People.

  6. A row of identical bridesmaid dresses on hangers above a giant heart-shaped cookie broken in half on the floor.

    05. Bridesmaids

    Paul Feig · 2011

    Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo wrote a wedding movie where the dress fitting, the shower and the flight to Vegas do the real damage. Made for $32.5 million, it grossed $289 million and got Oscar nods for the script and Melissa McCarthy. Skip the Brazilian place.

  7. A swimming pool at dawn with a champagne bottle floating on the water and a silk wedding veil draped over the diving board.

    04. The Philadelphia Story

    George Cukor · 1940

    Katharine Hepburn, freshly labeled box-office poison, got the rights with Howard Hughes's help and sold them to MGM with cast approval. The eve-of-wedding chaos won James Stewart an Oscar, which he gave to his dad's hardware store. Best comeback plan in Hollywood history.

  8. A kitchen at night with an open dishwasher, its racks packed tight with plates, beside a wedding cake under plastic wrap.

    03. Rachel Getting Married

    Jonathan Demme · 2008

    Anne Hathaway comes home from rehab for her sister's wedding weekend and torches the rehearsal dinner toast. Jenny Lumet wrote it, Demme shot it handheld with musicians playing live on set, and Hathaway got an Oscar nod. The dishwasher-loading contest is a horror film.

  9. A wedding canopy strung with marigold garlands under heavy monsoon rain, puddles reflecting rows of brass lanterns.

    02. Monsoon Wedding

    Mira Nair · 2001

    A Punjabi wedding in Delhi, start to finish: the tent, the rain, the marigolds, the cousins and one family secret finally said out loud. Shot in 30 days for $1.2 million, it won the Golden Lion at Venice. Every wedding movie since looks underdecorated.

  10. Four tiered wedding cakes in a row on a church lawn, with a single closed black umbrella standing at the end of the row.

    01. Four Weddings and a Funeral

    Mike Newell · 1994

    Richard Curtis wrote it after going to 65 weddings in 11 years, which is either research or a cry for help. Shot in 36 days for about £3 million, it grossed $245 million, won the BAFTA for Best Film and got a Best Picture nomination. The title is also the plot summary.

Honorable mentions

  • An outdoor reception table with a tiered cake, a single orange and a cat sitting beside a red rose.

    The Godfather

    Francis Ford Coppola · 1972

    Not a wedding movie, but its opening reception runs more than 26 minutes and sets up the whole film: favors asked, a singer begging, Luca Brasi rehearsing his speech. Shot on Staten Island with hundreds of local extras. The cake had to be replaced every day.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A collapsed tiered cake on a mansion lawn beside a pile of overturned folding chairs.

    The Big Wedding

    Justin Zackham · 2013

    De Niro, Keaton, Sarandon and Robin Williams, five Oscars between them, as a divorced couple faking a marriage for their adopted son's wedding. It scored 7% on Rotten Tomatoes and got Katherine Heigl a Razzie nomination. Nobody used an Oscar.

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