History Main / WhyWasteAWedding

* ''Film/NannyMcPhee'' at the climax of the film as [[spoiler: Cedric and the children ultimately wreck the wedding to the wretched Mrs. Quickly...but Cedric still needs a wife to meet his former aunt-in-law's deadline to continue her much needed financial support. However, he and Evangeline decide to marry on the spot, thus satisfying the requirement set for Cedric (though he also has to quickly explain to Adelaide that Evangeline wasn't ''actually'' his daughter).]]

* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'': Will and Lisa decide not to get married, so Will's mother and Lisa's father get married instead. Which would have been ''very'' [[IncestIsRelative awkward]] if Will and Lisa had been married...

* There was a variation in an episode of the ''WesternAnimation/CareBears'' cartoon. Two of the villains were [[UnholyMatrimony supposed to get married]], but because they were villains, that didn't work out so well. Nonetheless, the Care Bears had agreed to host the wedding for them, and decided to just throw a party with the leftover food and decorations.

* There is a ballet about a young woman called Lisette whose mother wants her to marry the much younger son of a rich widower. Lisette already has a boyfriend and at the rehearsal dinner he hides in her room but the two of them get caught by the guests together with Lisette in her underwear (she was changing for the dinner) and the mother is humiliated, calling the wedding off (to the delight of the two children). It then ends with her chatting up the father, remembering he was a widower...

* At the end of ''Film/ThePrinceOfThieves'', the intended double wedding between Baron Tristan and Lady Christabel and Sir Phillip and Lady Marian instead becomes a triple wedding between Sir Allan and Christabel, Robin and Marian, and Will Scarlet and Maude after Robin and Allan have killed the previous grooms.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Papa's Wedding Day", the intended wedding of Papa Smurf and Flowerbell the woodnymph was called off because she was revealed to be the infiltrator intending to have Papa Smurf fall in love with her so he could be captured by Balthazar, only to soon have a HeelFaceTurn and help the Smurfs rescue Papa Smurf from Balthazar. With a big wedding cake going to waste, Papa Smurf decides that they should all enjoy it together.

* In ''La Sylphide'' on the day of his wedding to Effie, James chases after the mysterious Sylph. A WickedWitch tricks him into killing the Sylph and he wanders out of the forest to discover Effie leaving the Church married to another man.
* In ''Theatre/{{Zemsta}}'' the wedding cake has letters M and H (Maciej - Cześnik, and Hanna - Podstolina) on it. But after all the hijinks, it's [[spoiler: Waclaw and Klara]] who end up married.

* Kind of inversion in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': Harry Osborne interrupts the very happy wedding of Peter and MJ, and tries to force MJ to marry him. Liz shows up as a LastMinuteHookup, confessing that she's always loved Harry. This ends up neutralizing him as a threat, because it makes him harder to manipulate by his evil father (who's currently trapped in another dimension, [[spoiler: along with the ''real'' MJ]], [[ItMakesSenseInContext but that's a whole other story]]).

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/princessbelleetoile.html Princess Belle-Etoile]]'', the king had resolved to marry again, but his own children appeared at the wedding feast and told how he had been deceived about his first wife. He takes her back, and rather than waste the feast, marries his daughter off to her [[KissingCousins cousin]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'', Maria and Joaquin's wedding is [[spoiler:interrupted by the bandits. After the FinalBattle, it resumes with Manolo as the groom instead.]]

* ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaStory''. The female love interest (Creator/KatharineHepburn) and her DisposableFiancee call the wedding off, so she re-marries her ex husband (Creator/CaryGrant), instead.
* ''Film/HighSociety'' (which is TheMusical of ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaStory''), though the leads are Creator/GraceKelly and Music/BingCrosby.

* ''Film/KuchKuchHotaHai'': This was relatively common in pre-90s Bollywood films; usually the rationale was that the local astrologer had gone to a lot of trouble to find the most auspicious possible date, and postponing the wedding [[UpToEleven could be even more disastrous]] than playing eeny-meeny-miney-moe in search of a replacement [[AlwaysMale groom]].
* In ''Film/MadeasFamilyReunion'', near the end,[[spoiler: Lisa decides to cancel her wedding to Carlos after he abused her. The wedding planner laments that her lavish Paris-themed wedding will not be used. Lisa's sister Vanessa's boyfriend decides to propose to her right then. She accepts and they get married.]]
* In ''Film/RunawayBride'' the decision (same bride, different groom) is made the night before, but the trope still fits. [[spoiler:Naturally, she ends up running.]]
* ''Film/FoolinAround'': when Annette O'Toole decides to marry the protagonist (Gary Busey), her mother (Chloris Leachman) 'saves face' by marrying her butler (Tony Randall).
* ''Film/NannyMcPhee'' at the climax of the film as [[spoiler: Cedric and the children ultimately wreck the wedding to the wretched Mrs. Quickly...but Cedric still needs a wife to meet his former aunt-in-law's deadline to continue her much needed financial support. However, he and Evangeline decide to marry on the spot, thus satisfying the requirement set for Cedric (though he also has to quickly explain to Adelaide that Evangeline wasn't ''actually'' his daughter).]]
* At the very end of ''Film/InAndOut'', [[spoiler: after Howard and Emily's wedding is called off, the venue is still used for a wedding and reception anyway - by Howard's parents, who renew their wedding vows.]]
* A rare example of the C-type, in TheMovie adaptation of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'', the con artists are thwarted at the end of the film and Jed's wedding to the female con artist is off. They just decide to throw a big party instead rather than waste the wedding.
%%* ''Film/ANightAtTheRoxbury''
* ''Series/LifeInPieces'' has a variant. Colleen's wedding was cancelled a while ago, but not soon enough to get a refund on her reception. She and Matt decide to take advantage of the empty ballroom, champagne tower, and DJ on their date.

* Semi-subverted by Literature/ThursdayNext, because even in her admittedly screwy reality you need to formally advertise a marriage in advance; however, they immediately book the same church for a month hence, and the festivities are repurposed as an engagement party.
* Possibly played straight in ''Literature/TheWestingGame''. [[spoiler:While it's uncertain how early Angela decides against marrying Doctor Deere, everyone still holds a wedding for Crow and Otis Amber instead]].
* In ''[[Literature/MegLangslowMysteries Murder With Peacocks]]'', after [[spoiler: Meg Langslow's mother Margaret's [[GuessWhoImMarrying groom]] is [[SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace exposed as the murderer during the wedding]]]], the bride marries [[spoiler: her original husband, Meg's father]]. Luckily a spare judge was in attendance to speed things up a bit!
** At another wedding in the book ([[WeddingsForEveryone there are three]]!), this is inverted -- after all that work arranging the wedding, the bride goes through with it, before [[spoiler: disappearing with a groomsman in a convertible blaring the Beach Boys' "I Get Around".]]

* Creator/DaveBarry mentions a friend of his who was in the mood to have a wedding, but all but one of her children were already taken. So she decided to have one between her son and [[CompanionCube an inflatable pool toy]]. The son got engaged somewhere along the line, but "you had to feel bad for the pool toy".

* On ''Series/{{ER}}'' in the first season finale, when Carol Hathaway's doctor fiance pulls out of the wedding at the last minute, her family goes through with the reception. As Carol put it, "What's a little humiliation when there's free food and drink?"
* On ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|1975}}'', Julie ends up marrying the best man.
* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'': Will and Lisa decide not to get married, so Will's mother and Lisa's father get married instead. Which would have been ''very'' [[IncestIsRelative awkward]] if Will and Lisa had been married...
* On ''Series/{{Felicity}}'', Elena and Tracy decide not to get married, realizing they're not ready yet. However, Meghan and Sean end up taking advantage of the ceremony all set up to get married instead. When the series does its infamous time travel storyline, the marriage was wiped out with Meghan telling Felicity (the only one who remembered the wedding) how crazy her and Sean getting married like that was.
* On ''Series/ADifferentWorld'', Dwayne and Whitley got married at her wedding to Byron. When Jaleesa and Walter decide not to get married at their wedding, they have a big party instead.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'', "The Runaway Bride": Donna mysteriously disappears from her own wedding. When the Doctor brings her back, she's furious to discover that the guests have decided to hold the reception without her.
* Brian and Andrea do this on ''Series/DirtySexyMoney'' after yet another failed wedding for Karen.

* In the third-season finale of ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'', Charlie and Mia travel to Las Vegas to get married. Just before the ceremony, Mia tells Charlie that he'll have to kick Alan out of his house after they are married. Charlie refuses to do so and the wedding is off. Then, Alan and Kandi get married instead... which leads to Alan moving out of Charlie's house.
* In ''Series/GreysAnatomy'', Meredith and Derek seem finally ready to tie the knot, but [[spoiler: opt out so the cancerous and dying Izzy can marry Alex before she becomes too weak to walk down the aisle.]]
* In ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', Turk misses his and Carla's wedding ceremony due to a mix up with directions. They end up going ahead with the reception, and stopping by the hospital later and getting a patient to officiate.
** The same thing happened in ''Series/SpinCity'' almost ten years earlier. Paul and Claudia don't get to have a wedding ceremony because Mike mistakenly booked their wedding for the following week, and the Priest only agrees to marry them in the short time before a funeral is to take place in the same church, which is impossible for them. As a result they hold their reception and the Mayor, who has the legal authority to do so, marries them there.
* in ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'', Arthur almost marries a 'famous' singer, Eva, but it turns out she only marries gay men, for companionship. Once she realized Arthur wasn't gay, she ran out on the wedding. Arthur, ever the penny-pincher, up and proposes to Spencer's mother. The marriage apparently lasts only a year.
* On ''Series/{{Glee}}'', after Emma flees from the alter from her wedding with Will, Santana urges him to let the reception happen anyway in the form of a giant party. It does, but Will understandably doesn't join the guests.

* ''Series/ThreesCompany'': After Larry's gold-digger bride runs off when she finds out he's not rich, the gang convinces Roper (who paid for the whole thing) to use it as an opportunity to renew his vows with his wife.
* ''Series/OurMissBrooks'': Subverted in the episode "June Bride". When the French Teacher's "proxy wedding" gets cancelled, Mr. Boynton tells everyone that he has no intention of wasting the opportunity or the minister. Naturally, everybody, especially Miss Brooks, believes that he's finally going to propose. Instead, Mr. Boynton sees this as the perfectly opportunity for a square dance as he's ObliviousToLove.

* In ''Series/WhiteCollar'' Peter went undercover and had to plan a wedding with a BlackWidow. After the arrest is made, he uses the decorations and things to give his wife the wedding she'd always wanted.
* ''Series/TheNanny'': In "Stop The Wedding, I Want To Get Off", Maxwell Sheffield's sister Jocelyn was going to marry Nigel, but Fran realizes that she is really in love with her chauffeur, Lester. Eventually, the two of them realize it on Jocelyn's wedding day - and Jocelyn marries Lester instead. Unfortunately, the marriage doesn't last.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] on ''Series/ShakeItUp'' when after Jeremy and Georgia broke up at the alter, [=CeCe=] and Rocky tried to make this an opportunity for [=CeCe=]'s parents back together after they kissed the night before the wedding. However, the parents refuse.
* On ''Series/{{Sisters}}'', the women's mother and her fiance abruptly decide that they don't want the lovely garden ceremony that has been planned for them and decide to go off to the courthouse. Oldest sister Alex reluctantly decides to accept her daughter's recent elopement and give the couple her blessing by allowing them to use the arrangements.
* ''Series/GeneralHospital''. As Mac and Felicia prepare to marry, psycho Ryan Chamberlain (who's been obsessed with Felicia for the past year) shows up to wreak havoc, planning to either kill everyone in attendance or kidnap Felicia. In the ensuing melee, Mac is badly injured and must be taken to the hospital. Not wanting to waste the arrangements, Felicia urges Jenny to trade dresses with her so that she and fiance Paul can marry.

* In ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' ReunionShow when Daisy and Enos call off their wedding, Bubba and Bertha Jo get married instead.
-->'''Daisy:''' Who wants a free wedding?
* On one episode of ''Series/{{Bridezillas}}'', one of the 'zillas got [[RunawayBride left at the altar]], but she still went through with the reception.

Compare/contrast WeddingBellsForSomeoneElse.

!!Examples

* ''Bollywood/KuchKuchHotaHai'': This was relatively common in pre-90s Bollywood films; usually the rationale was that the local astrologer had gone to a lot of trouble to find the most auspicious possible date, and postponing the wedding [[UpToEleven could be even more disastrous]] than playing eeny-meeny-miney-moe in search of a replacement [[AlwaysMale groom]].

* Kind of inversion in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': Harry Osborne interrupts the very happy wedding of Peter and MJ, and tries to force MJ to marry him. Liz shows up as a LastMinuteHookup, confessing that she's always loved Harry. This ends up neutralizing him as a threat, because it makes him harder to manipulate by his evil father (who's currently trapped in another dimension, [[spoiler: along with the ''real'' MJ,]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext but that's a whole other story]]).

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] on ''Series/ShakeIt Up'' when after Jeremy and Georgia broke up at the alter, [=CeCe=] and Rocky tried to make this an opportunity for [=CeCe=]'s parents back together after they kissed the night before the wedding. However, the parents refuse.

* Miss Flitworth's backstory in ''Discworld/ReaperMan'': When her bridegroom disappeared just before the wedding, she thought "what life expects me to do now is [[Literature/GreatExpectations moon around the place in the wedding dress for years and go completely doolally]]", but instead she buckled down and got on with things, including having the reception anyway because it's a crime to waste good food. [[spoiler: They're reunited in the end.]]

* Creator/DaveBarry mentions a friend of his who was in the mood to have a wedding, but all but one of her children were already taken. So she decided to have one between her son and an inflatable pool toy. The son got engaged somewhere along the line, but "you had to feel bad for the pool toy".

* ''Series/TheNanny'': In "Stop The Wedding, I Want To Get Off, Maxwell Sheffield's sister Jocelyn was going to marry Nigel, but Fran realizes that she is really in love with her chauffeur, Lester. Eventually, the two of them realize it on Jocelyn's wedding day - and Jocelyn marries Lester instead. Unfortunately, the marriage doesn't last.

* In ''Series/TheNanny'' Jocelyn was going to marry Nigel, but Fran realizes that she is really in love with her chauffeur, Lester. Eventually, the two of them realize it on Jocelyn's wedding day - and Jocelyn marries Lester instead. Unfortunately, the marriage doesn't last.

* Kind of inversion in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': Harry Osborne interrupts the very happy wedding of Peter and MJ, and tries to force MJ to marry him. Liz shows up as a LastMinuteHookup, confessing that she's always loved Harry. This ends up neutralizing him as a threat, because it makes him harder to manipulate by his evil father (who's currently trapped in another dimension, along with the ''real'' MJ, [[ItMakesSenseInContext but that's a whole other story]]).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Zapp Dingbat", Zapp Brannigan falls in love with Leela's recently divorced mother, Munda, and they nearly get married. The ceremony is interrupted by hostile aliens, who were supposed to sign a peace treaty on that very day. The wedding is canceled when Munda discovers that Zapp was tricking the aliens, who then attack. Luckily, her husband Morris arrives to save the day, and in the end they decide to remarry, taking advantage of all the preparations already in place.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Zapp Dingbat", Zapp Brannigan falls in love with Leela's recently divorced mother, Munda, and get married. The ceremony is interrupted by hostlile aliens, who were supposed to sign a peace treaty on that very day. The wedding is canceled when Munda discovers that Zapp was tricking the aliens, who then attack. Luckily, her husband Morris arrives to save the day, and in the end decide to remarry, taking advantage of all the preparations already in place.

#everyone just has a big party

** At another wedding in the book ([[WeddingsForEveryone there are three]]!), this is inverted -- after all that work arranging the wedding, the bride goes through with it, before [[spoiler: disappearing with a groomsman in a convertible [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome blaring the Beach Boys' "I Get Around".]]]]

* Implied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}},'' since the final two scenes skip from Fiona and Farquaad's ruined wedding to her and Shrek leaving on their honeymoon.