Weddings

We have a wedding coming up this weekend and it got me thinking about why weddings are so common in storytelling. Beyond the fact they’re a major life event, of course. Examples abound of weddings in storytelling.

For example, The Godfather starts with a wedding celebration. In the movie it seems to take up the whole first hour, although it’s probably not that long. But it does serve as the vehicle for an introduction into the world of the Corleone family. We meet the family, we meet the people who want favors from Don Corleone, we see the security team shooing away the police, and we get a sense of the conflicts among the people at the wedding. The other reason the wedding’s important is because it serves as a bookend to the finale of the story when Michael stands in a church at a baby dedication while his men seize power by gunning down all his rivals. The wedding at the beginning gives a glimpse into the culture and conflicts we’ll experience until the payoff at the end.

Weddings are also devices in comedies, not just dramas. I won’t even go into all of them, but suffice it to say, the wedding itself is not always the main piece, but rather, it’s the idea of a wedding. It’s oftentimes a goal or destination. Why? Because it resonates with the reader or viewer, depending on the medium. Is putting a wedding into a story original? Not at all. Is it a useful device? You betcha.