"The One With Monica & Chandler's Wedding, Part 1" is the first half of the two-part season seven finale of Friends. Both parts aired on May 17, 2001.
Plot
Joey unexpectedly gets a part in a movie about soldiers in World War I but his famous co-star Richard Crosby keeps spitting in his face for the sake of articulation. Ross makes everybody burst into laughter by threatening Chandler physically if he ever hurts his little sister.
Monica tells Chandler that she'd kind of been expecting him to freak out over their upcoming wedding, and she's so glad he didn't because it kept her calm, or at least calmer than she might have been. Just moments later, Chandler hears the new outgoing message on their answering maching, where Monica tells people to leave a message for "The Bings", and Chandler immediately begins to freak out. Seeing his sexy celebrity mother and drag-queen dad at the rehearsal dinner and hearing several more people refer to him and Monica as "The Bings" makes matters worse. After the dinner, when Ross goes to Joey's apartment looking for Chandler (who's staying there that night because of the whole "the groom isn't supposed to see the bride before the wedding" thing), he finds an empty apartment and a note saying "Tell Monica I'm sorry". Meanwhile Joey finds out he is expected to be on-set on the day of the wedding and tries to get out of it to no avail.
Ross goes looking for Chandler while Phoebe and Rachel try to keep Monica occupied so she won't realize Chandler is missing, and Monica is so excited about her upcoming wedding that she doesn't notice their odd behavior. Rachel and Phoebe find a positive pregnancy test in Monica's bathroom waste basket.
Cast and Crew
Main Cast
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
Supporting Cast
Gary Oldman - Richard Crosby
Kathleen Turner - Charles Bing / Helena Handbasket
Elliott Gould - Jack Geller
Morgan Fairchild - Nora Tyler Bing
James Michael Tyler - Gunther
Mark Roberts - The director
Christina Pickles - Judy Geller
Claudia Stedelin - Amanda
Peter James Smith - The assistant director
Roger Hamilton - Wedding Rehearsal Guest
Crew
Directed By:
Kevin S. Bright
Written By:
Gregory S. Malins
Trivia
- With this episode, everyone's parents except Phoebe's have appeared in an episode together;
- Monica and Ross's parents Jack and Judy have appeared together regularly throughout the series, they first appeared together in "The One With The Sonogram At The End" (S1E2);
- Joey's parents have only made one appearance in the series, both appeared in "The One With The Boobies" (S1E13), although they didn't share any scenes together;
- Rachel's parents Leonard and Sandra both appeared in "The One With The Two Parties" (S2E22), although they didn't share any scenes together;
- Chandler's parents Nora and Charles/Helena both appear in this episode.
- Jennifer Aniston's father's names was Anastassakis, but her father changed years before she was born. Jennifer's father's real last name is used for the Greek couple having their wedding in this episode.
- The fake names Rachel used were Monica Stephanopoulos and Chandler Acidophilus.
- Stephanopoulos was the last name of Monica and Rachel's neighbour in The One With George Stephanopoulos.
- Acidophilus is a species of bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus) naturally found in the human intestinal tract.
- Chandler's parents, Charles and Nora Bing, were named after the favorite Thin Man series character Nora Charles, one half of a very famous movie detective couple of the thirties.
- Matt LeBlanc and Gary Oldman had previously costarred in Lost In Space, a 1998 film based on the tv series.
- Gary Oldman received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work in this episode.
- This is the only time Jack and Judy are seen in Central Perk.
- According to the DVD commentary for this two part episode, 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.
- While visiting the coffee house, Jack mentions Rita Moreno, who is a Puerto Rican actress, singer, and dancer, best known for her portrayal of Anita in the film version of West Side Story. She has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and a Tony.
Continuity/Goofs
- In this episode, we hear the outgoing message Monica has recorded on her answering machine happily announcing to callers that if they are calling after Saturday (the day of the wedding) they've reached "The Bings!" However, in "The One with the Holiday Armadillo," Monica told Chandler she was not planning to change her last name. Additionally, more than two years after their wedding, in "The One with Princess Consuela," we learn that Monica still has not officially changed her last name to "Bing". Besides, if the wedding actually ocurred on May 15th 2001 like she said on The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress it wasn't a Saturday, it was on a Tuesday.
- When Monica and Chandler are talking in the apartment about how they actually made it, Chandler's arms are crossed in front of him. When the camera angle changes, his arms are down by his side.
- In this episode Ross mentions Molly, who is supposed to be Chandler's childhood dog, but in The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs, Chandler says he hates dogs. This dislike could have developed later in Chandler's life.
- When Monica leaves the apartment, you can see the wall to the left of the door swing forward on hinges to align with the door.
- When Joey and Phoebe are talking about his co-star spitting on him, and Phoebe says that she gets spit on at work, Joey puts his hand on her arm. Then in the next shot, when Monica and Chandler are walking along, Joey puts his hand on Phoebe again.
- At the rehearsal dinner when Chandler loosens his tie and unbuttons his collar, the tie changes its appearance in the following shots from being tighter to looser several times.