How Many TV/Movie Weddings Have Been Called Off in Progress?

Cafe Society
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I’ve seen several recent threads in which people asked whether anyone’s actually seen a wedding in which the clergyman said “Speak now or forever hold your peace” and somebody actually objected.

Almost everybody agreed that, nowadays, the question is rarely asked. And nobody seemed to have witnessed firsthand a wedding that was called off after the service began.

But it sure seems to happen CONSTANTLY in movies and on TV. Fictional brides and grooms get ditched at the altar all the time. Fictional brides and grooms regularly decide during the exchange of vows that they shouldn’t really get married, and call off the wedding in a crowded church. And when the clergyman says, “Speak now,” somebody always speaks.

This comes to mind because just last night, my son was watching an old rerun of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which Will and his bride call off the wedding while making their vows.

How many other TV shows and movies can you think of where this happens?

I know that Oscar Madison and his fiancee called of a wedding in the middle of the service. And both Felix and Oscar objected during the wedding of Oscar’s ex-wife Blanche.

How many other instances can you recall?

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The Wedding Singer comes immediately to mind.

ETA: The bride never shows up.

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Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Lisa Simpson’s wedding in 2011 on The Simpsons.

I think there was something in that *The Graduate *movie.

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In Bones, artist chick & rich slime guy bailed on their wedding.

In Spiderman 2, MJ bailed on astronaut guy.

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Smokey and the Bandit: first one takes place after the bride ran out and the second one, IIRC, shows her running out of the chapel.

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There is a wedding in Spaceballs but not the one that was originally intended.

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That reminds me of another trope- not only does a couple often end a wedding in the middle of the service, some OTHER couple then decides “As long as we have the clergyman and the church here, WE should get married!” (That happened in the ***Fresh Prince ***episode I alluded to earlier!)

Uhh… did you get a license beforehand? No? Then this wedding doesn’t count. You KNOW that, right?

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Also Mr. Burns’ wedding to Marge’s mother.

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Reese Witherspoon calls off an elaborate wedding in midstream in Sweet Home Alabama. And the groom’s mother is portayed as a witch for getting angry about it!

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Arthur, the original movie.

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Daphe and Niles left Danny standing at the altar at the very last moment in Frasier. Though it was never shown (pity!) Diane left Frasier standing at the altar in Cheers!

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IIRC, in the first episode of LA Law, Grace walked out of her wedding to be with Michael.

I have a vague memory of a woman in a (probably '60s) sitcom being asked “Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband?” and, after a brief pause, answering “No!” in a tiny voice. can’t for the life of me remember which show it was, though.

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In the first episode of the Andy Griffith Show, Opie objected but was ignored. “First they say speak up then they say shut up”.

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In Ever After, the prince is about to marry the wrong princess when Cinderella walks in and somehow something something happiness.

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In the 1993 Beverly Hillbillies movie, Granny and Elly May crash the climactic wedding ceremony in a monster truck, interrupting the minister halfway through the word “wife.”

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In *King Of Queens *Spence was going to “speak up” but someone else beat him to it.

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Such a common trope that a couple of years ago I started a thread to ask if anybody’s ever been to a wedding that was called off.

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Nobody’s mentioned The Graduate yet? Good, that means I get to be first.

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Post 3

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This happens in *Mama Mia *.