Father Of The Bride Movies

[andromeda331]

I agree. The wedding started off sounding fine. Church ceremony and reception in the backyard. Not only did Annie agree to keep the costs down so did Nina. For the first part of the movie Nina is reasonable. I guess she got caught up in planning the wedding with Annie. They both come off unreasonable. Swans? Why did they even need swans? We never see them during the reception. Only when George is trying to beat the crowd to see Annie throw her bouquet.

Also when did playing for the wedding include flying guests to the wedding? I've never heard of that. I had to miss a couple of my cousins' weddings in the 90s because my family couldn't afford to go.  George should have said no to the Danish cousins. If you can't afford to come that's on you. If Brian's family wanted them there that badly why didn't they pay for the tickets. 

[scarynikki12]

1 hour ago, andromeda331 said:

Not only did Annie agree to keep the costs down so did Nina. For the first part of the movie Nina is reasonable. I guess she got caught up in planning the wedding with Annie.

They both promise George they won’t go crazy in exchange for the $1200 wedding cake and then proceed to do exactly the opposite. I agree they just got caught up and Franck wasn’t helping by convincing them to add swans and tulip borders. Not even for wedding photos but for the guests to admire as they arrived at the house. Such a waste.

There is the scene where they discuss paring down the guest list and it does start with Nina giving George a nod of agreement when he says the reception will be limited to 150 people. Then they start arguing about who to cut, George gets mad Franck and Howard are on the list, makes his comment about asking guests not to eat, and Annie flounces from the room like an angry teenager instead of the mature woman she supposedly is.

After that the movie shifts into Nina and Annie going along with every extravagant suggestion Franck has while George is the tightwad villain. 

[Shannon L.]

Personally, while I understand pride, I've never understood being prideful to the extent of making yourself stressed out or miserable by turning down help, so if my husband told me that my future in-laws, who are exceedingly wealthy (the upstairs bathroom in their Bel Air home is the "seventh" door on the left) and from what I could tell, very kind and loving, offered to help, then I'd have said that maybe they could pay for....whatever....as well as flying their own Danish cousins in for the wedding. 

Edited February 24 by Shannon L.

[Spartan Girl]

I like swans—from a distance. Having them at a wedding is just stupid.

I could have forgiven everything if poor George wasn’t prevented from attending the reception. I didn’t find that part funny at all, it was just cruel and unfair and he didn’t deserve it.

[Snow Apple]

I remember doing the math for what they are paying per head and it was a crazy amount. And there's no reason to re-do the house with power tools for a reception. $1200.00 for a wedding cake in the 90's is nuts. I just googled and the average cost for 150 guests is only $300-800 today. 

But then in the sequel, George brought back the house by being able to write a check for $100k above what he originally sold it for so I guess they're not hurting for money. 

Edited February 24 by Snow Apple

[scarynikki12]

Oh yeah the Banks family is loaded. They aren’t as rich as Brian’s family but they are rich. That’s one reason George is considered so unreasonable as his objections aren’t about not being able to afford all the wedding nonsense but about not wanting to pay for the extravagance.

In the scene where they try to pare down the guest list I notice Brian and his family are nowhere to be seen. You know the bulk of those 500+ guests are from his part of the list yet he’s not helping make adjustments. Annie was right to later get upset with him about acting like a 1950s groom but because of things like this rather than the blender. Of course Annie also was acting like a 1950s bride so she’d have to yell at her mirror as well.

[andromeda331]

He's also absolutely right about the hot dogs and hot dog buns.

[Shannon L.]

15 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

He's also absolutely right about the hot dogs and hot dog buns.

I think of that scene every time I buy hot dogs and buns.  

[andromeda331]

7 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I think of that scene every time I buy hot dogs and buns.  

Me too.

[Giuseppe]

On 2/22/2025 at 11:10 PM, scarynikki12 said:

Also, I love how there's no indication Franck and his team were planning to clean up after the reception ended. There's little bits of trash and dirty dishes all over the living room and backyard.

Several years ago I watched this movie with my cousin (her first time watching, my hundredth, more or less), and she brought that up as well. We both agreed to fan-wank that Franck and his crew were going to come back in the morning to break everything down and do clean-up. We thought it would make more sense than trying to do it all that night. That's basically what happened when I graduated HS and my parents held a reception at our house that included catered dishes...the caterers came back the next day to gather their trays, serving dishes, etc. Nowhere near as fancy as the Banks' wedding reception, but same idea.

I wasn't so much bothered by all the George is a tightwad scenarios, although I agreed with all of his issues. I always thought the point of the movie was the ever-increasing over the topness of the wedding, and George's reaction to it, lol.

One thing that never made sense to me though...when they make the announcement that Annie is going to toss the bouquet and then leave for the honeymoon, they show George watching her dancing with Brian, and she's clearly still in her wedding dress. George then makes his way through the crowd and up the back stairs so he doesn't miss it, but how long did that take??? In the next cut, Annie and Brian are at the top of the foyer steps and she and Brian have both changed into casual-ish clothes. Even with the crowd as large as it was, there's no way George would not have made it upstairs before Annie and Brian could change and throw the bouquet. I always wondered if a scene was cut that showed George getting delayed by something yet again.

Also, with the number of guests at the reception, there would have been WAY more cars on the street and no way they could have fit them all on the front lawn. Not to mention they appeared to be double parking and blocking people in. I can't imagine the traffic mess it would have been once everyone started leaving, lol. Those poor parking attendants.

Edited Yest. at 07:24 PM by Giuseppe

[scarynikki12]

2 hours ago, Giuseppe said:

George then makes his way through the crowd and up the back stairs so he doesn't miss it, but how long did that take??? In the next cut, Annie and Brian are at the top of the foyer steps and she and Brian have both changed into casual-ish clothes. Even with the crowd as large as it was, there's no way George would not have made it upstairs before Annie and Brian could change and throw the bouquet. I always wondered if a scene was cut that showed George getting delayed by something yet again.

He did have over 500 people to wade through don't forget. I agree there also may be a deleted/unfilmed scene where he gets delayed yet again. 

I also agree there's a good chance Franck and his team showed up bright and early the following morning to clean everything up. I just can't automatically assume that given all the shenanigans of the movie (a standard risk with comedies to be fair). It was more important for Franck to be present for the reveal of the wedding cake than George, the seemingly reasonable Nina didn't think to tell George "oh and we're hiring the recommended number of parking attendants" when she gave him her speech at the jail (we did later learn they went back and agreed for Hanck to cook the expensive seafood rather than the "chipper chicken" and Nina had heard Howard tell George the bare minimum number of attendants needed), and Annie and Nina made exactly zero effort to actually find George when they noticed his absence. 

Personally, and I may be alone on this island, if I hire someone to throw an event at my home, and not necessarily a wedding just an event, they better clean up as soon as the event is over unless explicitly told otherwise. It did make for a pretty closing scene, and we can always assume the cleanup had started in the kitchen, but Franck's own behavior in the movie was such I wouldn't be surprised if he left the cleanup to the Banks. And Nina still wouldn't see a problem with that. 

I have thought about it more and I've changed my mind on how my hypothetical Father of The Bride: Double Wedding movie should go. Instead of George reverting to form and freaking out the whole time I want him to have learned from the first movie. In the first movie he finally came around on Brian once he sat down and got to know him a bit and he had a hard time of seeing Annie as an adult. If we go by real time then Megan would be around thirty and unlikely to be living at home. Right away George would have gotten the "my little girl" stuff out of his system when she graduated from school and moved out. Also, I think the Netflix special said something about Megan having an existing boyfriend and, if I'm misremembering, they can just write her as having one the whole family knows well. George would have a harder time freaking out if he'd known Boyfriend for years, loved him, and maybe had been wondering when he was going to propose. The conflict comedy in such a movie doesn't even need to come from George himself exactly but can come from Megan and Georgie deciding to have the double wedding but then having wildly different expectations, ideas, and so on. When Megan and Georgie start clashing George and Annie could step in to play referee. I don't know exactly but I would like to see take a learned approach to any fiance and wedding of Megan. Hell that could be a source of conflict if Annie notices George has learned and is put out about him not being like this for her wedding.