The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding

"The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding" is a double length episode of the television sitcom Friends. It first aired on May 17, 2001 as the finale of season seven. It is usually broadcast in a one hour slot and presented on DVD as one complete episode, but when the episodes are split the two parts are differentiated by the suffixes Part 1 and Part 2. For his guest appearance, Gary Oldman was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

Plot

Part One

Monica is making a list of things which are most likely to go wrong which seems to be all Rachel's chores when suddenly Joey appears telling them that he got a part in the movie which he wanted, which is related to World War I.

At the studios, Joey has started shooting with Richard Crosby (Gary Oldman) who keeps spitting while saying his lines which annoys Joey. When he can't stand it anymore, he talks to Richard about it, when Richard tells him that all good actors spit while saying their lines. Therefore, when they shoot the next scene, Joey and Richard both constantly spit at each other while saying their lines. When their scenes are over for the day, Joey is given lines for scenes for the next day. However, Joey can't come the next day since he is performing Monica and Chandler's wedding. Because he's still in the mood of saying the lines, he accidentally spits on the man who gave him the lines, while telling him that he has important plans due to which he can't come.

Back at Monica's apartment, Chandler and Monica are going to their wedding rehearsal. Chandler listens to the answering machine after Monica leaves, when he realizes they're becoming "The Bings". At the rehearsal things are going smoothly until Chandler's parents come and things go crazy. When Chandler's mom, Nora Tyler-Bing (played by Morgan Fairchild), is introduced to Monica's parents Jack and Judy Geller, Jack embarrasses himself by asking her "so...are you Chandler's mom or dad?" Chandler's mom and Chandler's dad, Charles Bing (played by Kathleen Turner), keep having arguments. As a consequence, Rachel is told by Monica to keep them away from each other. Since Rachel doesn't know what Chandler's dad looks like, Monica describes him, saying "a man in the black dress". When Rachel looks around, she spots a woman in a black dress having a drink nearby, and assumes that she is Chandler's dad. When both of them introduce themselves, the woman says her name is Amanda and Rachel replies "Oh, I get it - a-man-duh!", embarrassing herself.

When they return to their apartments, Rachel, Phoebe and Monica are sitting down at the table in Monica's apartment. Monica gets up, walks to her wedding dress and asks Rachel and Phoebe if anyone wanted to be in charge of looking after the dress. Rachel volunteers, but Monica ignores her since she obviously thinks Rachel is irresponsible from results in the past. Rachel is hurt when she volunteers twice and Monica doesn't give her the responsibility. She states that she can be responsible, leading Monica to feel as if she's misjudging her. She apologizes to Rachel and hands over the responsibility to her.

Ross continues with his search for Chandler and goes to Rachel's room. As he isn't there, Ross heads towards the door. However, a yellow piece of paper next to the phone catches his eye. When he unfolds it, he finds a note from Chandler saying "tell Monica I'm sorry". Ross immediately goes across the hall to Monica's apartment - Rachel opens the door when Monica is in her bedroom, and Ross explains the situation to her. A little while later, Phoebe arrives at the door to find out what's going on and when Rachel just hands over the note without explaining the situation, Phoebe assumes Ross wrote it and tells him to tell Monica himself that he's sorry. Ross goes out to search for Chandler but unfortunately fails.

The next morning, Ross arrives at Monica's apartment and informs Rachel and Phoebe that he still hasn't found Chandler. When he leaves, Monica comes out of her room in excitement and starts getting ready. Seeing that Chandler still isn't found and Monica's so excited and thrilled about her wedding day, Rachel starts to panic and eventually cries. Therefore, Phoebe takes her to the bathroom because Monica can't see her in this state or she will know something's wrong. When they're in there, Phoebe finds a positive pregnancy test in the garbage and deduces that Monica is pregnant.

Part Two

Ross tells Rachel to stall Monica so he can have more time to search for Chandler and Phoebe helps him search. When Monica comes back out of her room to begin getting ready for the wedding, Rachel distracts her by saying "I'm never gonna get married" and started to cry.

Meanwhile, Ross and Phoebe find a confused Chandler in his office. Ross convinces Chandler to go back to the apartment and begin getting ready, doing one thing at a time, not thinking about the goal. In Monica's apartment, Rachel tries other less believable tactics to distract Monica and she realizes that something is going on. Rachel decides to tell Monica, and starts saying "We can't find Chandler...". At this point, Phoebe opens the door and gives a thumbs-up sign to Rachel, who suddenly changes the subject "Chandler...'s vest", controlling the situation.

At the studios, Joey is stuck shooting an easy scene over and over since Richard is drunk and can barely stay focused. The director made it very clear to Joey that he can't leave until the scenes are finished or as long as Richard is on set and conscious, so Joey convinces a confused Richard that they've completed all of their scenes and sends him home.

At the hotel, everything is ready for the wedding when Joey calls Rachel to warn her that he'll be late. Meanwhile, Ross is keeping an eye on Chandler since he still has cold feet. Chandler steps out to sneak a cigarette when he suddenly hears Phoebe and Rachel coming, so he ducks into a storeroom to hide. He overhears that Monica's pregnant and takes off again. Rachel finds another wedding finishing up in the same hotel and convinces the minister to officiate the wedding in case Joey doesn't arrive in time. Meanwhile, Ross and Phoebe find Chandler again, who admits that he was indeed running away until he found a small baby outfit in the hotel's gift store and realized that someone that small can't be scary. He then goes with Phoebe and Ross to the wedding.

As the ceremony begins, Joey finally arrives and takes his place between Monica and Chandler, accidentally letting slip that Chandler had second thoughts about the wedding. Monica delivers her self-written vow, while Chandler delivers one from the heart - both speeches are very moving. When the ceremony is over Chandler tells Monica that he knows about her being pregnant and how Phoebe told him she found a pregnancy test in the trash, but she reveals she didn't take a pregnancy test. Phoebe then turns to Rachel and says "And they're going to have a baby!" Rachel replies in tears, "Uh huh..." The camera then zooms in on Rachel showing her looking worried and very emotional, leaving the audience with the knowledge that it is in fact she who's pregnant.

Production

The show was filmed over two weeks, with all of the scenes featuring Gary Oldman being filmed in the first week. The wedding was filmed in the second week, with the final shot of Rachel filmed after the studio audience had left.^[2]

Reception

The first part has a 9.1 rating at TV.com^[3] with the second having a slightly higher 9.3.^[4] Gary Oldman received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his portrayal of Richard Crosby.

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The One With Chandler and Rachel's Wedding

External links

• "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding: Part 1" on IMDb
• "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding: Part 1" at TV.com
• "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding: Part 2" on IMDb
• "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding: Part 2" at TV.com