I’m watching four weddings and a funeral

[Frynye]

I’m watching four weddings and a funeral for the first time since I was about 15 and I have questions. When did everyone stop wearing hats to weddings and why are so many people (Carrie mainly) wearing white to weddings

I was married in 96 and everyone wore a hat. DB married in 99 and it had gone more towards fascinators through the 2000s. Does nobody wear one now? I haven’t been to a wedding in a while.

How did Carrie get an invite to the first two weddings anyway? She didn’t know anyone did she? And she brings Hamish to the second one.

One of my favourites. The opening scene was hilarious although I think it aged my grandma with all the swearing!

I think it’s easy to forget how we’ve moved on and that gay relationships weren’t always as obvious, and there wasn’t gay marriage then. I’d like to watch it with teen family members for their take.

I’ve stayed in the hotel from the film- the ‘Dam fine filly’ part. It’s in Beaconsfield.

Obviously she did know someone!
I was married in 96 so this film inspired me to try to have a wedding like Carrie’s in that it was evening and straight into a party. At the time though I couldn’t get a venue to do that; they all wanted to charge me for the full day. These days there are more venues and it’s more flexible/ weekday weddings etc.

I watxched it again a few days ago. I recall loving it (although I never ever saw the point of Carrie- she was always ghastly). It is still funny, but not sure it has aged all that well. None of the characters have much to recommend them except for James Fleet as Tom. DH's closest friend is like a total mashup of Hugh Grant and the Tom character so that's always quite charming for me.

But I could never work out why Carrie was the 'heroine?'. Grasping (marrying for a title and money it seems) gratuitously cruel to Charles (the shopping for a wedding dress); greedy (that dreadful registry list scene with every item both revolting and mega bucks). Just did not see the appeal.

My favourite bit is at the end when everyone gets married, even Hen. Even all those years ago I hoped she got her happy ending.

Also TBH- I fail utterly to see the charm of the Julia Roberts character in Notting Hill. So she is an actress, big deal. She also uses High Grant, treats him badly and seems to expect to be treated like royalty just because she had a few Hollywood hits.

All but Fiona!

That final clip of Fiona made me laugh alot.

Agree with a PP- the opening scene is a total classic. Utter perfection.

As for Carrie not knowing many people, big weddings were a thing back then. A wedding with 50 guests was considered very small. Nowadays it’s more common to have 50 or less guests. Maybe it’s because a lot of people live together and already have children so it’s not quite the same.
This was an upper middle class wedding too, so far more likely to invite lots of guests, some of whom wouldn’t know that many people there.

I don't think we were meant to twig that Gareth and Michael were a couple until the funeral.

I just thought at the time she was American so she was more forward than British girls!

Wearing white even cream as a guest is a big NO these days seen as disrespectful yet strangely it never used to be so much.

It's been a no for well over 150 years!

"Wearing white to a wedding that's not your own has been frowned upon for more than a century, with the snowy hue (and all its closest relatives) reserved for the bride alone."

Since after 1840, when the fashion for a bride to wear white was begun by Queen Victoria.

Can Guests Wear White to a Wedding? Experts Weigh In

Aww I love Four weddings it is a great film, it is the only Richard Curtis film I enjoy,

I imagine some mother of the brides/grooms still wear hats, but you don't see them on regular guests i don't think.

I miss 90s style weddings. Big stupid hats and definitely more cheesy in terms of the day/evening.

It’s all a bit too ‘perfect’ and staged now.

I was slightly younger, but yes. Sooo many weddings, though only one quite as smart as theirs. And hats at every wedding.

It’s absolutely very understated

I suppose that reflects the time, people where expected to be discreet!
i also think the funeral scene was beautiful. We go from all these fancy venues and castles to a generic estate with a huge factory in tb background. Made me want to know Gareth’s story

They talk about each other at their party i do think we know they are a couple but it isn't too obvious. I am also sure some of the characters talk about how solid they are.

It always baffled me that Charles chose Carrie over Fi

Respectfully, I wouldn’t take a wedding website website as an authority on social history. Sure, Victoria made white for a wedding fashionable, but it took a long time for it to become any kind of norm when most women who weren’t wealthy would have just been wearing their best dress or having one made thst they would wear for best afterwards , and it certainly hasn’t been ‘taboo’ for much of that time — white for young women girls was a normal colour to wear in the 19thc apart from anything else, so wedding guests would have been wearing it.

And I do think Mn has a bee in its bonnet about white at weddings.

Fiona married Prince Charles (as was then)

love this film
i caught it recently and i had to stay and watch until the end!
the loss of Scarlett is so sad

mil of the groom worse a white dress at a wedding i went to in 1991

I thought it was hinting that she was his mistress

The mocked-up photo looked like a pretty public scene though to me. I thought it was meant to imply she was officially with him. Diana was still alive at the time but they were divorced.

I remember seeing Anna Chancellor (who played Hen) on Richard and Judy after the film and they asked her why everyone called her "Duckface" in the film. She answered, live on air on daytime tv, because they weren't allowed to say "F*ckface"... consternation all round and a quick change of subject. 🤣Hilarious.

Andi McDowell is a stunning woman then and now but she was the worst thing in both this and Groundhog Day. I’m never sure if it’s her acting or the bland underwritten characters but both stand out as totally dull. Her daughter seems to be having a much more interesting acting career.