Top 15 TV Weddings

Greetings, reader!

My brother Ville is getting married this week! With their wedding just two days away, I had just enough time in between fulfilling my duties as wedding band director to write an appropriate blog post for this week - the top 15 iconic TV weddings. Ranging from chaotic to elegant, small-scale to grandiose, and twist-filled to sweet, these are some of the most memorable wedding episodes from the world of TV.

A spoiler alert is in order, as many of these are couples who get together during the course of the series and whose eventual marriage might therefore be a big plot event!

Here are my honorable mentions:

- Andy & April (Parks & Recreation: Andy and April's Fancy Party, Season 3 Episode 9)

- Leida & Stekan (Andor: Harvest, Season 1 Episode 3)

- Miles & Keiko (Star Trek: The Next Generation: Data's Day, Season 4 Episode 12)

- The Doctor & River (Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song, Season 6 Episode 13)

- Will & Mackenzie (The Newsroom: Contempt, Season 3 Episode 4)

15. Ellie & Vic (The West Wing: The Wedding, Season 7 Episode 9)

The characters getting married are recurring ones, and not among the show's most memorable (even though Ellie was always my favorite out of President Bartlet's three daughters). The episode isn't so much about the couple, but about the wedding in general, preparations and atmosphere and all.

Airing as the final season's midseason finale, The Wedding was the perfect injection of joy and lightness into what was a generally hectic and dramatic final season - although the upcoming election and other big storylines are on everyone's mind, it's a great breath of fresh air to spend this episode celebrating love, with the White House all decorated for the happy couple's union. It's cute, and creates a nice contrast to the more stressful narratives happening around it.

14. Mike & Susan (Desperate Housewives: Getting Married Today, Season 3 Episode 23)

There were many good weddings to choose from when it came to Desperate Housewives - one of the more lavish and all-out ones might have been more obvious, but I'm a sucker for the unconventionally romantic. So, I went with Mike and Susan - and just to be clear, I'm referring to the first of the two times they got married.

After their original plan is derailed, a postponing of the nuptials seems inevitable - until, in the closing moments of the season finale, Mike receives a late-night 'work call'. When he arrives on the site, he's greeted by a reverend, who leads him to Susan, waiting in the woods with a white dress. With Susan's daughter Julie as their witness, the show's best couple gets married under the stars. It's a touching moment, and an ultimately very appropriate way for them to tie the knot.

13. Shirley & Andre (Community: Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts, Season 3 Episode 11)

Now, there are many kinds of good TV weddings, and a variety of them made it onto today's list. Shirley and Andre's re-marriage ceremony might not be the most romantic, but as a TV wedding, it's among the most entertaining ones. Every storyline going on throughout the reception (that takes place in Greendale Community College's study room, because of course it does) is gold, from Jeff struggling with his toast to Troy&Abed being weird as hell by being normal. Also, Shirley and Andre do have their sweet moments amidst the episode's chaos!

12. Glenn & Maggie (The Walking Dead: This Sorrowful Life, Season 3 Episode 15)

There's something profound about this one. Getting married might not be the first idea that crosses your mind when you're out there surviving a zombie apocalypse, but that's precisely what makes it hit hard. With the world forever changed and marriage/weddings seeming like one institution among the rest that would be a thing of the past, the show's best couple goes "F**k that - we love each other, and want to get married".

For the penultimate episode of season 3, with many long-term plotlines simmering and everyone's life in danger as two survivor communities are at war in addition to the ever-present danger of walkers, this provides an excellent moment of levity. Maggie's dad Hershel, a true man of faith, officiates, which definitely adds to the moment's emotional power. A wedding in the midst of all the post-apocalypse chaos might seem silly as an idea, but it plays out as a nice reminder about what really matters in life, and what it is that motivates people like Glenn and Maggie to keep on trying even in such dire times.

11. Monica & Chandler (F.R.I.E.N.D.S.: The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding, Season 7 Episodes 23-24)

It was a challenge in itself to pick which F.R.I.E.N.D.S. wedding to go with, as all of the main ones have their strengths. Ross and Emily are obviously the most eventful and dramatic occasion, while Phoebe and Mike had an adorable wedding that really looked like them - yet in the end, I had to go with this one. It may be conventional, but there's nothing wrong with conventional - Monica and Chandler got married in a romantic ceremony that made for a fantastic season finale.

Of course, in sitcom wedding tradition, some things had to go wrong and keep us on edge, so we got absolute gems like Joey officiating in a World War I uniform and a pregnancy-scare whodunit storyline in the midst of it all. Still, the main focus throughout the two-parter is where it should be - in the couple tying the knot, and their genuine love for one another. The scene with the vows is among the show's most touching moments.

10. Worf & Jadzia (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: You Are Cordially Invited, Season 6 Episode 7)

Ah, nothing like Klingon wedding traditions. If you think you've been to some over-the-top bachelor parties, you should know that we humans have it easy - in this episode, we follow Worf and some of his closest work friends as they embark on Kal'Hyah, which is roughly the Klingon equivalent of a bachelor party. Essentially, it's a four-day ordeal marked by physical trials from fasting to bloodletting.

Once all of that is resolved, the actual wedding takes place, to the backdrop of some classic Star Trek drama. As outlandish as the culture clashes between the Klingon Worf and the Trill Jadzia Dax may seem, it turns out to be a classic example of the sci-fi genre using creative premises to ponder some very real-life themes. As the child of a multi-cultural marriage, I find the episode's portrayal of two people trying to fit their cultural heritages together when planning their union to be fascinating - there are some struggles, but the end result is quite beautiful.

9. Daphne & Donny (Frasier: Something Borrowed, Someone Blue, Season 7 Episodes 23-24)

This was an interesting one to rank - it's a wedding gone wrong, yet it's probably the most romantic happy-ending episode of the entire series. The entirety of the two-part finale to the show's seventh season follows the wedding ceremony of Daphne and Donny, and, well - if you've seen the show, you know how it all goes down. It's not a successful wedding by any conventional merits, but what does go down is the ultimate turning point for the show's best love story.

I watched Frasier from start to finish for the first time last year with my fiancée Martta (it's one of her favorite shows), and as fate would have it, this was the episode we watched on the night we got engaged. And even though the episode is about a wedding gone wrong, it still felt incredibly appropriate, because in the bigger picture, it is about the right love story happening.

8. Edmure Tully & Roslyn Frey (Game of Thrones: The Rains of Castamere, Season 3 Episode 9)

Haha, another classic TV wedding-gone-wrong! I'm hoping Ville&Nelli's wedding goes over more smoothly than this chaotic series of shenanigans. What fans refer to as "The Red Wedding" serves as a good reminder to avoid any classic wedding faux-pas, like guests wearing chain armor under their garments, or the organizers forgetting to vet the wedding band for crossbows. As you can guess, mayhem ensues!

7. Lily & Marshall (How I Met Your Mother: Something Borrowed / Something Blue, Season 2 Episodes 21-22)

Classic, classic stuff. The unforgettable imagery of Marshall chaotically shaving his hair, which would be flashed back to about 3 000 times later in the series due to how funny the visual is, is reason enough to put this wedding onto the list. But it's a lot more than that as well. Sure, it's one of the biggest clichés in modern sitcoms - "the couple plans a big conventional wedding, but changes their plans last-minute and actually get married in a more intimate setting" - but it's a cliché for a reason, and this right here is one of the better examples.

The secret official ceremony, with just the main friend group present, is cute and feels thoroughly appropriate, and the 'fake wedding' after-party that follows is a nice follow-up. The end result is just the right type of nuptials for the couple in question, and certainly one of the show's most romantic hours.

6. Liz & TJ (Gilmore Girls: Last Week Fights, This Week Tights, Season 4 Episode 21)

It's objectively funny that from all the legendary couples that get married over the course of Gilmore Girls, my favorite (in terms of the actual wedding) would be Luke's silly sister and her loser-with-a-heart-of-gold husband. There were obviously many great weddings to choose from - I appreciate the poetry of Sookie&Jackson getting married at the inn, the weddings-within-weddings layers of Lane and Zach's ceremony, the chaotic drama throughout Richard and Emily's vow-renewal, and the romantic payoff of Lorelai and Luke finally tying the knot in A Year in a Life. Yet still, I had to go with this one - Liz and TJ have a reneissance-themed wedding in the Stars Hollow town square, and it's just the most delightful occasion.

With beautiful costumes, impeccable decorations and just an ultimate vibe, the wedding ceremony becomes one of TV's most memorable ones. It's easy to be happy for the couple - as big of a joke as TJ is, his heart is in the right place, and the couple is clearly so very right for each other. The wedding also works wonders in furthering an even greater love story - who could forget Luke and Lorelai dancing to Reflecting Light, on what could be seen as their first date? Swoon-worthy stuff right there.

5. Jake & Amy (Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Jake & Amy, Season 5 Episode 22)

Ah, this is the stuff. The fifth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine concludes with the wedding of the show's central couple (and one of TV's finest love stories), Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago. It's about as classic as sitcom weddings get: there's a plan that goes wrong in about a million different ways, but after a whole bunch of improvisation, they manage to pull off a very sweet and legitimately moving end result.

4. Watson & Mary (Sherlock: The Sign of Three, Season 3 Episode 2)

On paper, "a 90-minute episode that technically consists entirely of a best man's speech" is a risky pitch. But man, they pulled it off. This delightfully gimmick-y episode starts and ends with Sherlock Holmes' speech at John Watson and Mary Morstan's wedding, but the multitude of anecdotal flashbacks keeps things innovative and entertaining.

As one can expect from such a premise in this particular series, the protagonist stumbles onto - and solves - a major mystery all during the course of the speech. While it occasionally drifts quite far from the context of the nuptials at hand, the speech always finds a way to circle back, making sure that it's a pretty great wedding episode even if the union of John and Mary isn't the main focus of the episode despite its setting.

3. Mitch & Cam (Modern Family: The Wedding, Season 5 Episodes 23-24)

If you don't shed a tear when watching this, I don't trust you as a human. Plenty of things go wrong in sitcom wedding tradition, with the happy couple's happiness being tested as they go from plan B to plan C, then D, and so on. This keeps the viewer on their toes, while providing many laughs with the episode's eventful nature and plenty of shenanigans. But man, when it's all said and done - the actual moment when Mitch and Cam finally tie the knot is probably the best individual moment in the show's 11-season run.

I dare you to name a better feat of character development than Jay Pritchett, after dealing with his product-of-his-time attitudes and mixed feelings for five seasons, being the unexpected hero who salvages the wedding by having it at his country club. Very few moments from any TV show touch my heart as much as the one where Jay walks Mitch down the aisle, with the voiceover of Claire's sweet 'best person' speech starting to play over the visual of the ceremony going down.

2. Jim & Pam (The Office: Niagara, Season 6 Episodes 4-5)

Leave it to The Office to produce a two-part wedding episode that is mega-entertaining, providing laugh after laugh with every major character having some hilarious subplot going on on the eve of the big day - only for things to take a turn for the ultimately heartstring-tugging by the end. Jim and Pam are one of the greatest love stories, not only in TV but in all fiction, and their wedding episode is truly appropriate for their romance's larger-than-life nature.

It's not just how it happens, but the specifics of how the moment is written and directed that truly make the moment the best possible version of itself. The wedding guests pull a very in-character move of making things silly and embarrassing with their dance surprise - and as the scene goes on, short flashbacks are interspersed throughout it, revealing to the viewer what happened in the hour leading up to the ceremony: Jim and Pam, running off, getting officially married in secret, intimately on a boat, before they joined their friends and colleagues at the planned event.

The moment is incredibly touching, with John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer's acting performances really selling the feelings of true love and passion. Jim's facial expressions have always been the backbone of the show's humor, and while they often take place in awkward and cringy situations, my #1 favorite instance of Jim looking at the camera is when he does so while holding his new wife in his arms, smiling a magnificently genuine smile that really says it all. As does his voiceover to the cameras: "I knew we needed a backup plan. The boat was actually plan C; the church was plan B...and plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago. Pretty much the day I met her".

1. Alex & Izzie (Grey's Anatomy: What a Difference a Day Makes, Season 5 Episode 22)

The main reason why I limited this list's entries to one per series is that otherwise it would've been, more or less, a list of the best Grey's Anatomy weddings with maybe one or two entries from other shows in the mix. Seriously, no one does TV weddings like Shonda Rhimes and company, as was proven by my thought process when considering which one to choose for this list.

My mind went first to Callie and Arizona in season 7 - they're such a great couple, and while the wedding was so drama-free that it could be considered mundane, it was extremely heartfelt and moving. But then I remembered Derek and Meredith, and figured that of course it's got to be them, because what could ever beat the legendary and unconventional post-it marriage? But THEN, I remembered the wedding of April and Matthew, and how it (spoiler alert) turned into the wedding of April and Jackson, in what was the ultimate romantic turning point for my #1 favorite love story in the series. So, surely, it's got to be them, right?

Nope, it turns out. Because after all of that, I remembered one wedding more, one that trumps them all. Alex and Izzie may not have had the chemistry of Callie and Arizona, the compatibility of Derek and Meredith, or the amount of this viewer's emotional investment in the love story of Jackson and April. But, with this particular case, it's all about the context of the wedding. It takes place in the show's 100th episode, and without spoiling too much from people who haven't seen the series but might want to watch it some day, there are things going on in the characters' lives that gives the moment a massive, massive emotional core. One can't help but cry when watching those events unfold, as the end result is a truly tear-jerking testament to true love, not to mention character growth. Can't really imagine a TV wedding better than this one.

Thank you for reading - and congratulations to Ville and Nelli! Here's hoping their big day is as laughter-filled as Jake&Amy's and as sweet as Jim&Pam's, while avoiding the chaotic twists from some of the other entries. Tune in next week for my ranking of the greatest It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes, to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary.