In my June Brides edition of Love’s Great Adventure (find it here), I looked at ten movies and songs about weddings. Here they are for you to enjoy now! What are your favourite songs and movies about weddings and marriage?
Movie: Father of the Bride
For our money, the 1950 version starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor beats the 1991 Steve Martin remake hands down. Sorry, Steve…
Following the wedding of his daughter, a successful suburban lawyer recalls her engagement. Her mother begins making preparations for the wedding, but father worries. His first meeting with his son in law to be’s parents is a disaster and the ensuing stages leading up to the wedding go from bad to worse.
Music: Beach Boys – Wouldn’t It Be Nice?
A change of mood for The Beach Boys – suddenly, instead of running around all summer long, how about settling down?
Oh, we could be married and then we’d be happy. Oh, wouldn’t it be nice?
Movie: Runaway Bride
A reporter is assigned to write a story about a woman who has left a string of fiances at the altar. What could possibly happen when the runaway bride is Julia Roberts and the reporter is Richard Gere?
Music: Billy Idol – White Wedding
Not about drugs. Actually about a former flame marrying another man. ‘Little sister’ was slang for girlfriend at the time. So there.
It’s a nice day to start again – It’s a nice day for a white wedding…
Movie: The Princess Bride
Westley pursues Buttercup; Inigo Montoya pursues a six-fingered swordsman. And Andre the Giant. What’s not to love? Possibly the best movie ever made.
Movie: The Corpse Bride
Weirdly sensitive as all Tim Burton movies are. And a fabulously engaging, frequently hilarious tale of devotion unto death and beyond told around a Victorian arranged marriage. If you have the DVD, check out of the ‘making of’ extra feature. Just wow!
Music: Frank Sinatra – Love And Marriage
You can’t hear it without thinking of the TV show Married With Children. Gooooo Bundys!
Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage…
Movie: Shrek
Yes, Shrek – because Princess Fiona chooses to remain an ogre because she loves the big green guy, and they get married. Yay!
Movie: Muriel’s Wedding
The smash hit 1994 Australian comedy that launched the careers of Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths.
Elizabeth: “It was filmed in and around the city I live in. As a working journalist at the time, I interviewed its writer-director, PJ Hogan, whose father was the mayor of a local shire council. PJ confirmed to me that the film was semi-autobiographical, and he was, in effect, Muriel.”
Even today, it’s said that Hogan family members bristle if people around them quote one particular line from the movie – the phrase “You’re terrible, Muriel.” which is widely used in Australia to express sly admiration for another person’s voicing of uncomfortable facts.
Movie: Four Weddings and a Funeral
Made in six weeks for under £3 million, this 1994 British romantic comedy
was an unexpected success and became the highest-grossing British
film in history at the time. No wonder – Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, James Fleet, John Hannah, Rowan Atkinson, and a bleeping fantastically hilarious script.
Music: The Avett Brothers – January Wedding
Country style, pure and simple, with The Avett Brothers here joined by Randy Travis.
True love is not the kind of thing you turn down
Movie: Royal Wedding
This 1951 musical comedy film starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell is set in London in 1947 at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten.
It entered the public domain because the studio failed to renew the copyright in the 28th year after its publication so you can watch the entire movie for free.
Music: Stanley Holloway – Get Me to the Church on Time
One of the songs from the film musical My Fair Lady. This amusing number is sung by Eliza Doolittle’s father who finds himself forced into respectability now his daughter is no longer a mere flower girl.
The original Broadway and London shows starred Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. The film version starred Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. Stanley Holloway was a giant of British comedy and entertainment in the day.
I’m getting married in the morning. Ding dong, the bells are going to chime!
Movie: The Wedding Singer
The 1998 romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore about a wedding singer who falls in love with a waitress.
White Wedding singer Billy Idol plays a part in the airborne climax of the film. The movie spawned a stage musical that debuted on Broadway and ran for nine months.
Music: Elvis Presley – Hawaiian Wedding Song
Ke Kali Nei Aua (Waiting There for Thee) was adapted from a 1926 love song written by Charles E. King and first recorded by Helen Desha Beamer in its original Hawaiian. Rewritten in English and renamed, it was recorded by Bing Crosby, Andy Williams and Elvis Presley.
I will love you longer than forever now that we are one
Music: Freda Payne – Band of Gold
When first offered the song, 30 year old Freda Payne thought it was more appropriate for a teenager or very young woman to sing. She only gave in after much persuasion. It was an instant smash hit.
Now that you’re gone, all that’s left is a band of gold…
Music: Nick Lowe – I Knew The Bride
A song written by Lowe and first popularized by Dave Edmunds. Hunter S. Thompson’s Songs of the Doomed, a 1990 anthology of essays and works of new journalism, has a chapter named after it.
I knew the bride when she used to wanna party… I knew the bride when she used to rock ‘n’ roll.
Music: Patti LaBelle – Down the Aisle
A doo-wop ballad recorded and released by girl group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles in 1963. Very different to the later funk and glam rock of the reinvented group Labelle.
Down the aisle I’ll walk with you, just to hear the words I do
Music: Love Affair – Everlasting Love
The original version of Everlasting Love was recorded in 1967 by Robert Knight in Nashville in a Motown style reminiscent of the Four Tops. This version from the following year is by the British pop band Love Affair with a standout vocal performance by Steve Ellis which went to number 1 in the UK charts. Everlasting Love is one of only two songs that entered the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, recorded by various artists.
Need you by my side, girl, to be my bride. You’ll never be denied everlasting love.
