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Wedding Finale

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"...[It's] not like the telenovelas I grew up watching. The wedding isn't the end. Our story is just beginning."
Jane Villanueva, Jane the Virgin

For all the drama and mishaps associated with them in fiction, weddings are supposed to be a happy affair. So closing a story with a wedding is common — it's a fun celebration for the characters who have suffered through the show's twists. And since they do, it ties up the Romance Arc for the Official Couple and promises a new life chapter for the newlyweds, especially if children are on the horizon. Happily Ever After!

Though Wedding and Engagement Tropes will abound, the wedding will usually go well in the end, as this is likely an indicator of Happily Ever After, but not always — it may be someone other than the leads getting married, or the wedding may end unhappily. Ending a war story with a Wartime Wedding after all the fighting is usually a Bittersweet Ending. While this trope usually applies to entire standalone works, it can also be used to give closure to seasons (or installments analogous to them).

Supertrope to Weddings for Everyone and Wedding Bells... for Someone Else. A Wedding Finale may overlap with Wedding Episode if the entire final installment or episode is centered around a wedding. May be part of a Grand Finale. Overlaps very often with Sealed with a Kiss. Can also overlap with a Dance Party Ending if they show the characters dancing at the wedding. May overlap with Moving-Away Ending if it either requires moving away from the country or occurs just before the move.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • The final chapter of Boarding School Juliet ends with leads Romio Inadzuka and Juliet Perusia getting married. It also gives lances into everyone else's futures as well.
  • Citrus ends with Yuzu and Mei's wedding surrounded by their friends and family and with both girls decked out in full bridal gowns. There is also a final bonus chapter that takes the format of a wedding invitation that shows the ceremony and reception in more detail.
  • Domestic Girlfriend ends with Hina waking up from a years long coma and marrying Natsuo at Rui's insistence.
  • Dr. STONE has Taiju and Yuzuriha's wedding in the final chapter years after the rest of the final arc.
  • Dragon Ball: In the finale of the anime, protagonist Goku marries his love-interest Chi-Chi.
  • I Want Your Mother To Be With Me! ends with Ryo and Yuzuki finally getting married, with Asahi as the flower boy. It's a Foregone Conclusion for anyone who saw the cover of the fourth tankobon, which features Yuzuki in a wedding dress.
  • The last two chapters of Love Hina covered Keitaro and Naru finally getting married, seen from the perspective of Last Episode, New Character Ema. And since it's Love Hina, there was one last moment of accidental perversion as they were leaving for their honeymoon.
  • Naruto: The Last: Naruto the Movie, which is considered to be the Grand Finale of the manga (given that it's the first Canon movie of the franchise), ends with Naruto and Hinata's wedding during the ending credits. Konoha Hiden, an officially sanctioned light novel, deals with their wedding in more detail. The last arc of the Naruto anime adapted Konoha Hiden, with the finale ending on their wedding day.
  • Ranma ½: The Grand Finale involved Ranma being bribed with Jusenkyo water and forced to marry Akane, four fiancees, assorted would-be lovers, at least one ninja, many pounds of explosives disguised as Oriental fast food, assorted murder attempts not related to the rest of that, and a pre-adolescent school teacher eating the wedding cake. Among other things. And thanks to status quo, they still didn't tie the knot!
  • The last page of the Rave Master manga is a picture of Haru and Elie's wedding.
  • The Grand Finale of the manga version of Sailor Moon ends with Mamoru and Usagi's long awaited wedding, with all the main Sailor Senshi in attendance. It's implied that their Kid from the Future Chibi-Usa has been conceived.
  • Downplayed in Sand Chronicles: The final chapter in Volume 10 nearly ends with the wedding day of Fuji and Mariko. It's only shown briefly though, and more emphasis is put on Ann and Fuji's conversation and the gang happily walking together.
  • The finale of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has Simon and Nia's wedding day... which takes a sad turn when it's revealed as a result of the death of Anti-Spiral, Nia, formerly their messenger, must die with them. It takes all of her willpower to keep her body alive for her and Simon's special day before disappearing into light after they speak their vows.
  • The last few pages of Whispered Words show the wedding of Sumika's brother Norio and Kinuta-san. The main couple get to ring the wedding bell as a recognition of their relationship and in the hope that it will one day be legal for them to get married.

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 

    Fairy Tales 
  • Cinderella ends with Cinderella marrying the prince.

    Fan Works 
  • The Empath: The Luckiest Smurf novel ends with Empath and Smurfette's wedding in the final chapter.
  • Kara of Rokyn: In the final chapter of "Last Waltz with Luthor" story arc, the whole super-hero community -including their Earth-Two dopplegangers- attend the wedding of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Clark is so shocked that they finally got married after so long he fears at any time he'll wake up, or Lois will turn out to be a robot, or he'll turn out to be a robot...
    A week after that, Clark Kent and Lois Lane tied the knot in a ceremony attended by the Lane family, many relatives of the Kent family, Mr. and Mrs. Danvers, and a good number of super-heroes from three Earths, all in their civilian identities. The last category included a couple from Earth-Two, both of whom had changed their hair color to attend, both of whom were quite a bit older than the marrying couple, and both of whom were told, several times, that they looked a lot like the people getting married. Clark Kent of Earth-Two usually smiled and changed the subject.
  • The One I Love Is...: Shinji and Asuka get married in the epilogue. The whole episode covers their wedding until they go on a honeymoon.
  • Psychedelic Epiphany Series: The final chapter of Psychedelic, "Discord Inevitably Decides Green Equines Rate Indescribably Desirable On Occupation" is the wedding of the couple that the story has been building up, Discord and Tree Hugger.
  • The finale of The Road You Choose features Ash and Misty's impromptu elopement when the battle to determine whether Misty becomes a Water-type Master is postponed.
  • The Rock Farmer's Daughters: The epilogue is about Cheese and Pinkamena's wedding.
  • Shadow and Rose ends with the royal wedding.
  • You Are (Not) At Fault ends with Shinji and Asuka getting married.
  • Zootopia: A Tail of Two, and its sequel It Takes Three, both end with Flash and Pricilla’s wedding and Nick and Judy’s wedding respectively.

    Films — Animation 
  • Aladdin and the King of Thieves, which acts as the finale to Aladdin: The Series, starts with Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding being crashed by the Forty Thieves, who were specifically after an artifact that was being given as a wedding present. At the end of the movie, they do the ceremony over (mostly offscreen) and get married for real.
  • Anastasia ends with Anya and Dmitri eloping. However, as her grandmother says, it's not a perfect ending - "it's a perfect beginning."
  • Cinderella ends with Cinderella and the Prince leaving for their honeymoon immediately after the wedding.
  • Despicable Me 2 ends with Gru and Lucy getting married.
  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World ends with Hiccup and Astrid getting married.
  • The Little Mermaid (1989) ends at Ariel's and Eric's wedding.
  • Robin Hood (1973) ends with all of the title character's friends celebrating his wedding to Maid Marian, and their departure in a coach with a banner reading "Just Married."
  • Rugrats in Paris ends with a Time Skip to Chas and Kira's wedding reception. This doubles as Book Ends as the movie begins with a wedding reception as well, between Lou and Lulu.
  • The original Shrek ends with Shrek and Fiona's marriage ceremony, set to "I'm a Believer" being sung by Donkey as everyone else at the wedding dances.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Animal Inn: The series' Grand Finale in book 12 sees Doc and Mrs. Sparks marrying, holding a small ceremony in the Taylor family living room (despite the efforts of the mayor, who wants to turn the entire thing into a big to-do because of Doc being one of the family's most respected citizens) and the reception at Miss Maggie Rafferty's estate.
  • The Chronicles of Prydain ends on what turns out to be Taran and Eilonwy's wedding day. It being medieval fantasy, however, the wedding is a simple matter of them joining hands and pledging their troth in front of some witnesses. It takes up approximately three sentences of exposition on the next-to-last page.
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The climax of The Ugly Truth takes place during Uncle Gary's fourth wedding.
  • Discworld:
  • The Dr. Greta Helsing trilogy ends with Greta and Francis Varney tying the knot on a sunny autumn day, attended by their Family of Choice and all the friends they've made throughout the books.
  • The Ordinary Princess: Well, the wedding occurs at the end, but is followed after by the honeymoon before it "The End" is said.
  • The Shadowhunter Chronicles:
    • City of Heavenly Fire, the last book in The Mortal Instruments, ends with Luke and Jocelyn's wedding. They were supposed to get married in City of Fallen Angels , but the marriage got postponed due to Jace's possession by Lilith and subsequent disappearance.
    • The Dark Artifices ends with the marriage of Alec and Magnus. They had been engaged for several years at that point, but marriage between a Shadowhunter ad Downworlder was illegal, so they couldn't get married. However after the war with the Cohort Alec became the new Consul and he immediately made it legal.
  • The Ship That Sailed to Mars ends with the wedding of the Martian Princess and her beloved Prince, who has just been rescued from the clutches of Thunder City by the cunning Old Man who designed and built the titular ship.
    Then the Prince and the Princess were married, and the bells rang out afresh, and on the scene shone the Double Moons the Old Man had so longed to see.
  • The Three Sillies ends with the young man marrying his girlfriend Liza after he succeeds in finding three people sillier than her.
  • Averted by The Water-Babies, which explains why Tom and Ellie won't get married: "Don't you know that no one ever marries in a fairy tale, under the rank of a prince or a princess?"

    Live-Action TV 
  • The final episode of The Crown (2016) culminates in Prince Charles's wedding to Camilla in 2005.
  • The last episode of Dad's Army "Never Too Old" featured the wedding of Corporal Jones and Mrs. Fox.
  • Mixed with And the Adventure Continues in the final scene of Descendants of the Sun, which ends on the wedding of Daniel and Ye Hwa. The reception is interrupted by news of a volcanic eruption, which the main characters gear up to deal with.
  • The final episode of Desperate Housewives has the wedding of Renee Perry (who goes all Bridezilla) and Ben Faulkner.
  • The Flash (2014) uses Barry and Iris' wedding as the backdrop to the yearly Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Earth-X. Everything's going fine when suddenly all the superheroes in town for the occasion have to stop an invasion from the Nazi dimension. Once that's dealt with, they decide not to do the ceremony over and just exchange vows and rings with Diggle officiating. Oliver and Felicity decide to jump in at the last minute, and they elope as well.
  • The finale of the second season of The Flight Attendant ends with Annie Mouradian and Max Park getting married after Annie had spent most of the first season insisting that Max was not her boyfriend and most of the second insisting he was not her fiancee.
  • The finale of Happy Days had the wedding of Joanie and Chachi.
  • Hold The Sunset: The final episode of the series features the long-awaited marriage of Edith and Phil.
  • How I Met Your Mother:
    • The entire final season took place during the weekend that lead to Barney and Robin's wedding.
    • The alternate ending of the last episode ends with snippets of Ted's own, long-awaited, wedding.
  • Jane the Virgin:
    • Given that this is a show steeped in the drama and romance of telenovelas, every season finale involves one of the Villanueva women getting married. This includes the Grand Finale, which is Jane's own Happily Ever After.
    • Discussed in the finale episode, where many of Jane's childhood telenovelas ended with a wedding.
  • In the Grand Finale of The Latest Buzz, the stress of planning an enormous wedding (mostly to please D.J.'s mother) causes D.J. and Mr Shepherd to split up. When the kids at Teen Buzz find out, they arrange a private ceremony on the roof of the building and trick D.J. and Shepherd into turning up under false pretenses. They realize they really do love each other and go through with the ceremony.
  • Married... with Children: The final episode, two parter, "How to Marry A Moron"note , involved a wedding between Kelly and Lonnie, a former ex-con who's likewise the son of the makers of Weenie Tots, meaning he's rich. Al initially approves but ultimately calls it off when Lonnie appears unfaithful.
  • The Middle:
    • The third-season finale, "The Wedding," is built around Mike's brother Rusty's wedding at the Hecks' house.
    • The final episode shows Sue and Sean's wedding.
  • Mr. Belvedere: The Grand Finale has Mr. Belvedere getting married and preparing to accompany his new bride to Africa.
  • The second and fifth seasons of New Girl wrap up with episodes about Cece's weddings. The former ends with she and the Disposable Fiancé calling it off at the last minute, while the latter, to Schmidt, goes through after many mishaps.
  • Never Have I Ever: The show's penultimate setpiece is at Nirmala's wedding to her American boyfriend. It is attended by Devi's family, friends and members of the community. There is an added layer of sentimentality as she's also going off to college the next day; an auntie points out that it's emblematic of the end of her childhood.
  • 9-1-1: Lone Star: The last segment of the fourth season finale features the wedding of TK Strand and Carlos Reyes.
  • NUMB3RS: The sixth season (and series) finale had Charlie and Amita's wedding.
  • Our Miss Brooks: The Movie Grand Finale ends with Connie Brooks and Phil Boynton leaving to get married. This is Miss Brooks' Happily Ever After, as marrying the shy Mr. Boynton had been her Series Goal from the start.
  • Peep Show:
    • Season 2 ends with Jeremy and Nancy's wedding.
    • Season 4 arc is centered around Mark and Sophie's wedding. Naturally the actual ceremony happens in the last episode.
    • Season 6's finale is set at Gail and Elena's wedding.
    • The final season (not the final episode though) features Super Hans's wedding.
  • Pride and Prejudice (1995) ends on the double wedding day of Jane and Elizabeth.
  • Punky Brewster: The final episode of the series revolves around a wedding staged for Punky's dog Brandon and a neighbor's female golden retriever, Brenda.
  • The last segment of the last episode of The Red Green Show was of Red performing the wedding of long-time couple Harold and Bonnie.
  • Schitt's Creek: The Series Finale centers around David and Patrick's Wedding, which includes many mishaps. Patrick gifts David with a massage and inadvertently requests a happy ending for his fiance. Rain threatens to wash out the festivities. Alexis wears a wedding dress, which she insists is simply a full-length white gown that happened to come with a tulle headdress she chose not to wear. Thankfully, all of these are minor setbacks and the wedding comes off beautifully and everyone lives happily ever after.
  • Following the resolution of the case in "Bite Club" from Turner & Hooch (2021), Xavier and his fiancee Olivia get married on Cypress Beach.
  • Veronica Mars: The series finale ends with a wedding between Veronica and Logan, right off the heels of catching the Neptune Bomber and Logan almost being late due to a therapy appointment. And then the episode continues to the next day, where the location of the last bomb is finally discovered to be Logan's car. He's killed by it, ending the series on a much darker note than the wedding implied.
  • When Calls the Heart: Lee and Rosemary wed in the season three finale, "Prayers From The Heart".
  • Wynonna Earp: The series finale is built entirely around Waverly and Nicole's long-awaited wedding.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • On the season finale of Ring Ka King, Angelina Love was given the choice between marrying Romeo and Zoravor. She picked the latter and the wedding went off without a hitch.

    Theatre 
  • Cirque du Soleil
    • ends with not just one but three weddings, on top of a coronation. At the coronation of The Twins, Twin Brother marries the Chief Archer's Daughter, joining the Archer's Village to the Empire, Twin Sister marries the Firefly Boy joining the Forest Tribe to the Empire and the Nursemaid Marries the Chief of the Mountain Tribe, adding his people to the Empire as well.
    • La Nouba ends with the Cleaning Lady's wedding to the Frog Prince.
    • Varekai ends with Icarus marrying The Betrothed.
  • While not the last song in the actual musical (which has more of a Bittersweet Ending), the in-universe musical in The Drowsy Chaperone, which centers around a wedding, ends with three different weddings all happening at once in the song "I Do, I Do In The Sky."
  • At the end of Guys and Dolls, Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown have just been married and Nathan Detroit is about to marry Miss Adelaide.
  • William Shakespeare likes this trope:
    • As You Like It ends with a quadruple wedding, uniting the four couples who have come together during the course of the play.
    • Played with in Measure for Measure. In theory, the long final scene has Angelo and Mariana get married, but in most productions, they exit for the ceremony. (It also ends with the Duke proposing marriage to Isabella, and it's possible to stage the marriage in Isabella's silence, but this is by no means clear.)
    • Much Ado About Nothing: The final scene takes place over Claudio and Hero's wedding, culminating in their marriage and Claudio realizing that Hero didn't die when she collapsed upon being abandoned at their first wedding.
  • Para Handy: A Voyage Round the Stories of Neil Munro, which Arc Welds several of Munro's stories into a single plot, ends with the adaptation of "Para Handy's Wedding".

    Video Games 
  • Catherine:
    • If you decide to have Vincent stay faithful to Katherine, he manages to reconcile their relationship and eventually propose to her. The two wed at the Stray Sheep with Boss supervising the whole proceedings.
    • If the player can achieve Rin's true ending in Full Body, Rin and Vincent will also have a wedding in the Stray Sheep, officiated by Rin's Big Brother. Given that Rin is both a man and an Angelic Alien, their legal status is open to interpretation.
  • Chrono Trigger: The finale cutscene shows Crono and Marle getting married, as well as Ayla putting a ring on Kino's hand and giving him a look that says he'd better do the same if he knows what's good for him.
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (NES): The good ending shows Dr. Jekyll and Miss Millicent getting married, and getting to the occasion on time was the former's goal. The normal ending only shows the church.
  • Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: Mai Shiranui's ending involves her finally getting married to her longtime crush Andy Bogard. It turns out to be All Just a Dream.
  • Final Fantasy IV ends with Cecil's and Rosa's wedding which also serves as their ascension to the throne of Baron.
  • Galaxy Angel: The third game of the trilogy, Eternal Lovers, ends every route with a post-credits image for each Angel. For Milfeulle, it's shows her and Tact's wedding at the church they'd previously visited during their vacation.
  • The 20th and final installment of the Haunted Hotel series, A Past Redeemed, is about James Blackthorne's wedding.
  • King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow ends with the wedding between Alexander and Cassima. Depending on the ending the player gets, the amount of guests will change, with the long ending having all of the islands united again and their representatives in attendance, along with the resurrected King and Queen of the Green Isles.
  • Knight Bewitched: The game ends with Ruth and Gwen's wedding.
  • The Creative Closing Credits of the true ending of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is artwork of the cast attending the wedding of Prince Olivert Reise Arnor and Scherazard Harvey.
  • Momoko 120%: The game's final level has the now 20-year-old Momoko collect wedding trinkets in a church within 30 seconds. Afterwards, she gets married to an unknown and it is revealed they'll have a baby later on. The game (or at least, one cycle of it) ends.
  • The final story quest in New Style Boutique 2: Fashion Forward is to design Adelaide's wedding dress. This is followed by a cutscene of her wedding, and then the second credits.
  • The Secret of Monkey Island ends with Le Chuck trying to forcibly wed Elaine.
  • Story of Seasons (2014) technically "ends" with the player marrying the bachelor/bachelorette of their choice, as the game's credits roll following the ceremony. However, the gameplay can continue as long as the player wishes, including Babies Ever After.
  • The Creative Closing Credits of Tales of Arise depict the wedding of Alphen and Shionne, the game's two lead characters.

    Visual Novels 
  • Dies Irae does an interesting dual variation of the trope. After endless trials and tribulations, the main cast finally gets their well deserved happy ending, closing out with a marriage. And depending on the choices made, it will either show the marriage of Ren and Rea at the present time or the marriage of Lotus and Anna in the past.
  • The Perfect Ending of Melody finishes with the wedding of the protagonist and title character.
  • In Our Life: Beginnings & Always, if the MC was engaged to Cove by the end of Step 4, and the Wedding DLC was purchased, the final act is setting up and then holding their wedding.
  • Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II does a far more disturbing variant. The final chapter, titled “The Departed's Wedding”, concerns both a horrific Human Sacrifice ritual disguised as a double-wedding that created the Departed and the “wedding” that the Departed wants to force Kazuo into. The final boss takes place in a dark; twisted wedding altar, and Kazuo needs to propose to them according to the customs of the village to pacify them.

    Webcomics 
  • The epilogue of Archipelago follows Alice and Riley's wedding day from the moment Credenza (The Protagonist, and a guide/bridesmaid to Alice) wakes up in the morning to around midnight when she steals a moment with her boyfriend.
  • The last few strips of Dominic Deegan cover the wedding ceremony of Dominic and Luna.
  • Volume 6 of Ennui GO! (and Part 1 as a whole) ends with the wedding of Izzy, Darcy, and Tanya.
  • The credits sequence of Homestuck includes Rose and Kanaya's wedding, complete with several characters going Trickster Mode.
  • In The Order of the Stick, Elan's Happy Ending culminates in his mother and father marrying each other again. This turns out to be a Victory Fakeout, as the whole thing was a fantasy generated by a Lotus-Eater Machine.
  • Princess Princess (2012): Amira and Sadie marry in the epilogue, after they had been shown falling in love throughout the story.

    Western Animation 
  • The finale TV-movie of As Told by Ginger involves Lois and Dave marrying each other.
  • The final episode of BoJack Horseman takes place at Princess Carolyn's wedding to Judah...or rather, her industry wedding shortly after her smaller, more personal wedding.
  • The final episode of Brand Spanking New Doug sees Mr. Mayonnaise wedding Ms. Krystal.
  • Futurama: "Meanwhile," intended as the series finale before the second revival, focuses on Fry trying to propose marriage to Leela. They do get married, but only after accidentally freezing the rest of the world in time, leaving them alone to travel the globe and grow old together in what Leela calls a "very, very, very long honeymoon." However, the professor's arrival in the final scene retcons most of the episode, including the wedding.
  • The Legend of Korra: The Grand Finale includes the wedding of Varrick and Zhu Li as its penultimate scene.
  • The second season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ends with "A Canterlot Wedding", a two-part episode focusing on the wedding between Twilight's brother Shining Armor and her former foal sitter, Princess Cadance. Things take a turn when Queen Chrysallis, the queen of changelings, traps Cadance and disguises as her, hypnotizes Shining Armor, and infests Canterlot with her swarm of changelings. The queen is defeated with Shining and Cadance's Power of Love and the second part ends with their official wedding.
  • The series finale of OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes has three weddings back-to-back in the ending montage:
    • Carol (K.O.'s mom) and Gar (K.O.'s boss/mentor/father figure), who have been an Official Couple since Season 2, formally tie the knot.
    • Nick and Joff, minor characters who have been Those Two Guys (who were also dating) throughout the show's run, also get hitched.
    • The third one is a parody; best friends Potato and Colewort are shown having a wedding, but are too young at that point (the same age as K.O.) to actually get married.
  • Samurai Jack: The Series Finale ends with Jack and Ashi getting married after Aku's defeat. However, it becomes a Bittersweet Ending as Ashi ends up Ret-Gone since she is Aku's Half-Human Hybrid daughter from the future, and as a result is never conceived due to the past Aku's destruction.
  • Solar Opposites: The final scene of the standalone Valentine's Day special takes place at Korvo and Terry's wedding.
  • The 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series does this in the series finale "Wedding Bells and Bytes." The Ninja Turtles have finally retrieved Master Splinter from Cyberspace, just in time to attend the wedding of April O'Neil and Casey Jones. Also at the wedding (openly and secretly) are various friends and allies of the Turtles from the past several seasons. However, the Cyber Shredder and his goons manage to hitch a ride on Splinter, manifesting during the wedding. The Turtles get rid of Cyber Shredder for good and April and Casey are officially married.
  • The last episode of the sixth season of Winx Club ends with Daphne and Thoren getting married.
  • Young Justice: The last scene and credits (discounting The Stinger) of the season 4 finale has several characters from across the show arrive at Happy Harbor for the long-awaited and much anticipated wedding of Conner Kent and M'gann M'orzz.

 
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Ian marries Butt-Massage Girl after the end credits.

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