The format for each episode goes like this:
- The brides introduce themselves and describe what their weddings will be like.
- Each description of the weddings include theme, budget, and a quick introduction of the fiancé(e).
- The brides attend each wedding, providing commentary through a Confession Cam.
- Each bride gives the wedding they attended a score out of 10 for overall experience.
- Afterwards, each bride privately ranks each's wedding's venue, food, and dress first, second, and third, which are converted into points and added to the overall experience score.
- 10 points for first, 6 points for second, and 3 points for third.
- The rankings also prevent brides from low scoring each other to improve their own chances of winning.
- After all four weddings are done, the brides gather one last time to toast some champagne and see who won.
- The spouse of the winning bride arrives in a white stretch limo with a bouquet of flowers for their wife. The bouquet comes with an envelope containing the mystery honeymoon destination.
- The scores are then all shown, from first to fourth place.
- The brides who don't win have last remarks about the bride who did win, ranging from very sportsmanlike and diplomatic to pissed that she was robbed.
After season 9, the show was retooled. All the brides involved were friends getting married around the same time, there were more categories to give points in, and the episodes delved more into the brides' lives and their shared friendship.
The show is available to stream on Discovery+.
This show provides examples of:
- Almighty Mom: A couple of brides have had their weddings planned by their mothers. One of them even won.
- Alpha Bitch: At least once in every episode, there's a bride that's so determined to win, she goes into every wedding expecting to hate it, just so she can give them low scores when her ridiculously high expectations aren't met.
- Anywhere but Their Lips: Some brides will come from more conservative cultures such as India or Pakistan, and will have fully traditional ceremonies where the bride and groom are not allowed to kiss on the lips. There will always be one bride who doesn't like it.
- Babies Ever After: Some brides announce their pregnancy at the end of the episode. One bride announced her pregnancy during her wedding reception via a video montage.
- The Bad Guy Wins: It's rare, but a few episodes have shown the Alpha Bitch winning the honeymoon, despite her picking apart the other weddings.
- Big Applesauce: A lot of weddings were held in New York City. A few weddings that did not take place there had a New York City theme.
- Bigger Is Better: Brides with a big budget have this mentality. Some brides apply this to their bridal party, and wind up with twenty to thirty people in it.
- Bilingual Backfire: If a bride has her ceremony in a language that's not English, there's a good chance the guest brides don't speak this language and will just be lost and bored the whole time. Bonus points if it's a Greek Orthodox ceremony.
- Bouquet Toss: Seen at most of the weddings. Some of the guest brides (who haven't had their wedding yet) even catch the bouquet.
- Bridezilla: Many of them. Not just about making sure their wedding is perfect, but also about winning the honeymoon.
- Brutal Honesty: Some brides are very proud of their brutal honesty, especially if it helps them win a honeymoon.
- Citizenship Marriage: Subverted with Kateryna in season 3. She was in the U.S. on a student visa while attending dance school, and her boyfriend proposed to her so she could stay.
- Confession Cam: Crops up during each wedding as the brides give their commentary and later their overall experience scores.
- Cool Crown: If the bride is having a princess or royal themed wedding, there will be a crown or tiara involved. Greek, Egyptian, and Assyrian weddings will have the bride and groom crowned in the ceremony.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Sometimes the food at a wedding will be a giant miss with the guest brides. It won't be cooked to their liking, it'll be too cold. One bride was served fish with bones in it, another bride found a hair in her pasta.
- The Diva: Some brides will refer to themselves as this. Shyremia in season 2 is the best example.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: Not just wedding dress, but wedding theme, too.
- Food Porn: If a bride really invests in the food, it shows.
- Four-Point Scale: Scores are out of 10 for each category, giving each bride a score out of 120 points.
- The lowest score a bride has given for overall experience is a 2, in season 1, season 3, and season 4.
- Conversely, two brides have earned a 10 from one guest bride for overall experience, one in season 4 and one in season 7.
- In terms of total scores, the lowest is 40 out of 120 (in season 1, episode 5), and the highest is 108 out of 120 (in season 9, episode 3).
- Friendly Rivalry: Not every episode, but sometimes the four brides do become friends, even holding hands as they wait for the limo to pull up at the end of the episode. The most competitive brides are definitely not here to make friends.
- Subverted in season 10, as all the brides involved were actually friends.
- Gem-Encrusted: Not just the dresses, but some of the weddings are themed around diamonds.
- Goth: Marie from season 7 is the best example. Her wedding theme was "An Opulent Dracula's Castle".
- Hide Your Lesbians: Played straight in the beginning, as same-sex marriage was not legal in every state yet. Finally averted in season 5. There have since been three more same-sex weddings on the show.
- It's All About Me: Many brides have this attitude about their wedding. However, some brides take it a step further, being quick to criticize anything in the other weddings that's not to their taste.Danielle: I don't think I'm hard to please, just do it my way.
- Malaproper: Occasionally, a bride will mistakenly refer to the Viennese table or Viennese hour as "Venetian" or even "Vietnamese".
- Mrs. Robinson: At least three brides are shown marrying much younger men. An officiant in one of those weddings lampshades it in the ceremony, since the bride and groom have referred to themselves as "cougar and cub".
- Not Like Other Girls: A lot of the brides say their wedding is "different", but not a lot of them really show it. Some do truly unique things in their ceremony, which end up counting against them if one of the guest brides doesn't like things "outside the norm".
- Special mention goes to Kari in season 9. She's a trapeze artist, and instead of walking down the aisle to the altar (at the trapeze school where she worked), she descended from the ceiling.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted in a couple episodes.
- season 1, episode 1 had Nic and Nicole
- season 5, episode 7 had Britten and Brittany
- season 7, episode 11 had Kristin and Chrissy
- Picky Eater: Outside of food allergies or dietary restrictions, some brides can be like this, not liking seafood, or not wanting to eat an animal with its face showing.
- Pink Is Feminine: Some brides have pink all over their wedding.
- Pretty in Mink: If the bride is having a winter-themed wedding.
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Recycled Set: In a way. The Angel Orensanz Center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan has been used as a wedding venue on the show three different times. - Runaway Bride: In season 3, one bride appeared to do this, when she whispered something to the officiant during the ceremony, and then promptly left, with her fiancé following her out. Turns out it was a Bait-and-Switch, as she and her fiancé instead left to get dressed in scuba gear and get married in a shark tank.
- Serious Business: A bride and groom may put a funny, comical twist to their vows in their ceremony. Not every guest bride likes that, believing that a wedding ceremony is supposed to be serious, not funny.
- Shout-Out: Some brides have had pop culture themed weddings, such as The Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, and The Phantom of the Opera.
- Also, pretty much every Greek bride calls their wedding some variation of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".
- Shrinking Violet: A few of the brides fit this. They almost dread being the center of attention and are fairly shy and reserved. Their respective fiancés are the only one who can really bring them out of their shell.
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Done at a few weddings. In one episode, one person pretends to object, then says, "Never mind."
- Stripperiffic: Some of the brides' party dresses come off as this.
- Then, in season 2, one bride married an ex-Chippendales dancer. Yes, he performed at the reception. No, he did not get naked, but the jacket and suspenders did come off.
- Sweet Tooth: Candy stations are frequently done at the wedding reception, either in place of or in addition to the traditional cake cutting. A couple of brides take this up to eleven and have a full-blown dessert reception.
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Tear Jerker: This happens a lot during the ceremonies, especially if the bride and groom have written their own vows. - Tempting Fate: Happens a lot when an episode has brides with very different tastes and opinions. In one episode, during the bride intros, one bride proudly claimed to be a carnivore, saying there will be no vegetarian options at her wedding. The next bride introduced was a vegetarian, and naturally did not like the food options at the former bride's wedding.
- Themed Wedding: SO. MANY. Though, a few brides avert this trope, believing that, "A wedding already has a theme. It's a wedding."
- Trailers Always Spoil: Sometimes the honeymoon destination is spoiled in the episode's teasers before each wedding.
- Unconventional Wedding Dress: Once in a while, a bride will have a red, blue, or even black wedding dress.
- Waxing Lyrical: Some of the wedding vows veer into this territory.
