Hollywood movies always tend to glamorize mundane everyday events and glorious special occasions alike. In particular, when it comes to movies about weddings and matrimonial bliss, the nuptial ceremonies are often over-dramatized and romanticized in ways that do not feel authentic.
Whether it's the character's circumstances that fail to register as realistic or the lavish ceremony itself that seems too good to be true, many liberties are taken with most cinematic wedding ceremonies. Yet, one of the reasons to exaggerate a wedding ceremony is to create the utmost joy in the viewer. No matter how outlandish they seem, they remain a great overall experience.
The entire premise of Bride Wars is as unrealistic as they come, yet the unfathomable final wedding ceremony is also pretty great. Kate Hudson's Liv and Anne Hathaway's Emma are two best friends who somehow manage to plan their dream weddings on the same date because they are too selfish to let the other one have it.
As such, a risible feud develops between the two, and Liv and Emma try to sabotage each other's nuptial ceremonies taking place in the same room, including via a hilarious wrestling match. In the end, Emma calls her wedding off and reconciles with Liv at her ceremony mere feet away.
Love Actually features a delightfully unrealistic fairytale wedding between Chiwetel Ejiofor's Peter and Kiera Knightley's Juliet in a traditional church setting. After tying the knot, Peter's friends - led by Andrew Lincoln's Mark - begin popping out of the pews and balcony with flutes and trumpets to accompany a live rendition of "All You Need Is Love."
As joyous as the gala is, the most unrealistic part is that it was arranged by Mark, who later expresses his love for the newly named bride.
According to In Style, the lavish wedding ceremony featured in Sex And The City would have cost roughly $230,000. While that may seem reasonable in the world of Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw, that is an unrealistic figure for nearly everyone else.
Of course, appearances can be deceiving. While the first wedding ceremony was as grand as they come, Mr. Big left Carrie at the altar. Learning her lesson, she pared down her next wedding ceremony by marrying John at City Hall in a nameless gown and a modest diner-set reception.
Despite the gorgeous decorations and radiant charms of Julia Roberts, the ceremony at the end of My Best Friend's Wedding would never happen in reality. Roberts plays Juliette, a food writer who made a pact with her best friend Michael (played by Dermot Mulroney) that they would marry each other by age 28 if they weren't already hitched.
Four days before his wedding to Kimmy, Michaels calls Jules to invite her to the ceremony. She then spends the whole movie trying to break up their marriage, only to give a maudlin speech as the maid of honor at the last minute before losing the man of her dreams.
The romantic fairytale quality of the wedding ceremony in The Princess Bride is one of the dreamiest of its kind. Set in an ancient vestibule flanked by draping leaves and backlit by candlelight, the royal affair is as great as can be.
However, the bumbling marriage officiator turns the serious ceremony into an unrealistically silly event. Moreover, at a cost of $20,000 Ducats, equivalent to roughly $3 million, it is the most unrealistically expensive movie wedding on record.
The sumptuous outdoor wedding ceremony between Catherine Zeta-Jones' Marilyn and Billy Bob Thornton's Howard in Intolerable Cruelty is astronomically unrealistic. Conjured as a ploy to trick her divorce attorney George Clooney's Miles, the grand affair is one giant ruse.
Set in a gorgeous rose garden surrounded by colorful foliage and hundreds of guests, Howard eats his prenuptial agreement with barbecue sauce to prove to Marilyn that he doesn't care about losing his money to her in a divorce. However, Howard turns out to be an actor hired by Marilyn to trick Miles, her true romantic interest.
Never mind this pricey grand ceremony that cost over $181,000; even aside from that, the wedding in Sweet Home Alabama is as unrealistic as they come. Just as Reese Witherspoon's Melanie is set to marry Patrick Dempsey's Andrew, she finds out she is still married to Josh Lucas' Jake, who arrives in the middle of the ceremony with a lawyer and divorce papers in tow.
In an instant, Melanie realizes she still loves Jake and calls off her wedding to Andrew. Upon returning to what would have been her wedding reception, Jake and Melanie share a heartfelt dance as husband and wife. While it tugs at the heartstrings, the plot is very far-fetched.
For no other reason than to showcase profligate elegance and over-the-top extravagance, the wedding in the modern rom-com classic Crazy Rich Asians is simply too good to be true. It's also the one most desirable to attend in any movie in history.
With hanging lanterns, florid bouquets, regal architecture, a river of flower petals, and a woman singing a slow rendition of "I Will Always Love You," one couldn't fantasize about a more lavish wedding ceremony. The glowing light-sticks held by the guests and tearful close-ups of the bride and groom also add a great dreamlike quality - that is unattainable in real life.
Played for heightened comedic laughs, the final wedding ceremony between Maya Rudolph's Lillian and Tim Heidecker's Doug in Bridesmaids is overtly unrealistic.
At an unrealistic cost of roughly $110,000, the histrionic laser show, gaudy water fountains, and unaffordable performance by 80s pop band Wilson Phillips is tons of fun but not very plausible for ordinary people. The ending lip-sync dance-off also feels like more of an SNL skit than a genuine wedding ceremony.
Nothing about the great, fun-filled party atmosphere of the wedding ceremonies in Wedding Crashers comes off as credible. However, the final half-hearted, mealy-mouth speech delivered by Owen Wilson's John to suddenly win the heart of Rachel McAdams' Claire is more than ludicrous.
When John musters the courage to tell Claire how he feels during her wedding, she quickly loses interest in her groom-t0-be, Sack (Bradley Cooper), in front of all their friends and family and happily accepts a kiss from John.
