There's something about weddings that warms the heart. No, you don't have to be the one getting married to start having your Grinch sized heart expand. I'm not even saying that I have my perfect day planned out, but I sure know that I would love it to have a magical feeling. Just think about that fairytale you've had playing in your head since you were young and you will understand that wedding warmth.
$250 a head. Hot dog buns. Chipper chicken. If these things bring a smile to your face (Joker time) then you have seen and loved Father of the Bride. This movie and its sequel were watched almost every week for the better part of my childhood. Anytime my parents asked me what I wanted to watch I would pick these two films. They blend humor and warm-fuzzies like no other. To top it off, Steve Martin mixed with Chevy Chase, via Christmas Vacation, is my father. Relating to or recognizing others in characters is something that makes movies and television even more enjoyable. If you can put yourself in their place then you become more engaged. This engagement is what keeps Hollywood alive.
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Too soon, but then again forever my childhood in these 4 faces.
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Thinking about the other wedding centric movies the following come to mind: Four Weddings and a Funeral, 27 Dresses, Bride Wars, Something Borrowed, The Five Year Engagement, Wedding Crashers, The Hangover and Bridesmaids. I feel like I either quote or think of a moment from all of these films at least once a day. Recently having been in a wedding myself, I heard one of the groomsmen talking about being in 24 weddings. They do exist! I can't imagine knowing that many people close enough, but I guess if in the end I wound up meeting James Marsden and singing "Bennie and the Jets" then sign me up!
These movies generally look towards the wedding day as the culmination of antics that the protagonists have jumped through. In the end you know what will happen, boy and girl fall in love. The journey however is what keeps audiences coming back. Look at How I Met Your Mother. This show spent nine years trying to get Ted Mosby "The One". Everyone wants to find that person, but this show proved how in the end some things are not meant to be or even just about one person. Yes, yes I know he found his other half. She was delightful. If they would have sent their ninth season showing their relationship over the years I would have loved the ending. Instead, SPOILER ALERT, they gave us an entire season devoted to the wedding of Barney and Robin, only for it to last about 6 minutes on screen or 3 years in show time. The audience was very split on their feelings towards this ending. Some loved it. Others felt like they were cheated out of the past nine years. I felt like if they had not spent a whole year one a wedding that was not Ted's then I would have been satisfied and not like I was slapped in the face by Marshall.
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Right in the feels
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I understand there's a life lesson in there. You spend so much time dreaming and planning your wedding day which you think is the most important day of your life but in the end if it is not right or meant to be; there is little you can do to change that. However, the show proceeded to have Ted's own daughter call him out on the fact that this whole story was not told to them for the benefit of learning how their parents met and fell in love before their mother passed, but how they should be okay with him being with Aunt Robin. But um (take a shot)… how is that fair?
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"It's about what's FAIR!" - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
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"All's fair in love and war." I get it now. In the end Ted had two "ones". Tracy McConnell, mother of his two children and rightful owner of the yellow umbrella, and Robin Scherbatsky, the Canadian pop-star, newscaster and owner of the blue french horn that is Ted Mosby's heart. It may take a long time to find your person and even accept them as the person you need. However in the end the journey is greater than the destination.
I'm looking forward to the journeys that Hollywood will take me on in the future. As well as where my own will end up. I know that my wedding will never live up to Hollywood, but that's okay because it will be mine, my own.
