The One with Ross's Wedding

"The One With Ross's Wedding" is a double length episode of the television sitcom Friends. It first aired on May 7, 1998 as the finale of season four. It is usually broadcast in an 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.

The episode is notable for being filmed in London.

Plot

Part one

The Friends pack for London, where they will celebrate Ross's wedding to Emily Waltham. Phoebe is forced to stay at home due to her pregnancy, and Rachel declined to attend the wedding.

In London, Chandler and Joey take to the streets as tourists. Joey, camcorder and pop-up map in hand, immediately embarrasses Chandler with his unfounded enthusiasm. When Joey buys a huge fuzzy top hat with the Union Jack on it (having been told by Richard Branson that all Londoners wear them), Chandler abandons him. He ends up bored and alone in his hotel room. When Joey returns, he apologizes for being impatient. Joey impresses him with a video recording of Sarah, Duchess of York, praising his hat.

Monica, Ross and Emily go in to check up on the hall in which the wedding will take place. It was where Emily's parents got married, and the wedding will be the last event to take place in it before it gets demolished. Unfortunately, they arrive to discover that it's being torn down "a few days early". This is on top of screw-ups on the part of the caterer, florist and musical accompaniment. Monica suggests to Emily that they postpone the wedding until Emily can get everything set up just right. When Emily brings this idea to Ross, he flips out: everyone he invited, after all, had to come over from America. For him, it's now or never. Emily chooses the "never" half. Monica explains that Emily would have been planning the day since she was young.

Together, Ross and Monica salvage the wedding by pointing out how it can still take place in the half-demolished hall: lights, candles, musicians and all. Emily agrees to the idea.

With Phoebe's help, Rachel realizes she still loves him. Despite Phoebe's (accurate) assessment that Rachel has missed her chance, she leaves for London to tell Ross how she feels.

Part two

Phoebe, now alone in Monica's apartment, attempts without success to contact anyone by phone, to warn them that Rachel is on the way to ruin the wedding. She calls Emily's parents' housekeeper (June Whitfield), Emily's mother (Jennifer Saunders) and eventually the hotel, through which she reaches Joey, after being stymied by British manners.

Ross's parents arrive. Contrary to tradition, they have volunteered to pay for half of the wedding expenses — patting Monica's shoulder, their mother notes that "this may be the only wedding we get to throw"— but Jack blows up when he discovers that Steven and Andrea Waltham have padded in a number of extraneous expenses. Ross manages to bargain the Walthams down, but cannot bring the budget to a close before the end of the night.

Chandler, as the primary best man, stands up to make a toast at the rehearsal dinner, which fails to make anyone (except the audience) laugh. Monica, on the other hand, is being hit full in the face by her apparently hopeless prospects as a desirable woman: her parents think she's a failure, her most recent successful relationship was with a man twice her age (Richard Burke), and a drunken member of the wedding party mistakes her for Ross's mother although she is actually his younger sister. She and Chandler console each other over alcohol.

After the commercial break, Ross bursts into Chandler's room, jumping with excitement and shouting to Chandler, who is lying in bed: "I'm getting married! Today!" Immediately after Ross exits the room, Monica's head pops up from under the covers: "Do you think he knew I was here?" They react awkwardly to each other afterwards, and both respond defensively later when Joey — seeking a partner to help him look for Rachel — asks one where the other is.

Rachel is stymied at the ticket counter when she discovers she's forgotten her passport. On the plane flight, her nervous energy proves highly distracting to the Englishman seated next to her. He straps on his earphones to tune out an hours-long monologue about her relationship with Ross, but eventually breaks in to agree with "[her] friend 'Pheebs'" that Rachel is going to cause Ross nothing but trouble because he loves Emily. "And by the way," he concludes, "it seems to be perfectly clear that you were on a break."

All these threads come to a close on the night of the wedding. Ross finally gets the payment issue resolved by threatening both sets of parents: "No grandchildren! That's right!" Emily, drawn by the commotion and already dressed for the wedding, panics: it's a superstition that if the groom (Ross) sees the bride (Emily) in her wedding dress, there will be bad luck in the marriage. Rachel charges into the hall, but finds Ross and Emily kissing, and realizes what everyone has been telling her: that she can't ruin Ross's big day. Ross, at least, is overjoyed to see her, and she stays for the ceremony. Phoebe, calling Mrs. Waltham's cellular phone, double-checks with Joey about Rachel, and manages to be present by proxy for the rest of the ceremony. Monica and Chandler, walking down the aisle, arrange to meet again that night. Finally, Emily arrives and the vows are exchanged. However, Ross accidentally says "I take thee Rachel." The episode and season ends when the vicar asks "Should I continue?"

Production

Shots not involving Monica's flat in this and the following two episodes are all filmed in London. As well as many external shots filmed at various landmark locations the internal shots of the hotel rooms, the function room, the hall and the Waltham's home were filmed on purpose built sets in the The Fountain Studios in Wembley, North London.

For this episode and part 2 of the story, an exclusive Title sequence would be used, featuring only 1 shot from the usual fountain intro & all the other footage from these 2 episodes. It is also used for "The One After Ross Says Rachel".

Additional Cast

• Emily - Helen Baxendale
• Sarah, Duchess of York as herself
• The hat vendor - Richard Branson
• Jack Geller - Elliot Gould
• Judy Geller - Christina Pickles
• Steven Waltham - Tom Conti
• Andrea Waltham - Jennifer Saunders
• The Housekeeper - June Whitfield
• Felicity - Olivia Williams
• The Ticket Agent - Jane Carr
• The Gentleman On The Plane - Hugh Laurie

Trivia

• On the day this episode aired, Lisa Kudrow gave birth to her son.
• Coincidently, the piper playing on the show is Steafan Hannigan (the same surname as Phoebe would later have on the show) who, along with piper Michael McGoldrick worked on the music for the episode.
• On the 2002 ITV documentary Being Victoria Beckham, Victoria stated that the chapel Ross and Emily were married in inspired the location of her and David's wedding in 1999.
• Channel 4 commissioned Princess Productions to film a behind-the-scenes featurette of the filming of these episodes entitled The one where Johnny Makes Friends. Maintaining a tongue-in-cheek comedic style, Johnny Vaughan interviewed all six cast members including Lisa Kudrow, who he contacted using a nearby payphone claiming he couldn't make international calls from his dressing room.