How I Met Your Mother/The Wedding

The Wedding
Season 1, Episode 12
Airdate	January 9, 2006
Production Number	1ALH11
Written by	Kourtney Kang
Directed by	Pamela Fryman
Stream
← 1x11 The Limo	1x13 → Drumroll, Please
How I Met Your Mother — Season One

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The Wedding is the twelfth episode of the first season of How I Met Your Mother.

Starring: Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby), Jason Segel (Marshall Eriksen), Cobie Smulders (Robin Scherbatsky)

with Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson)

and Alyson Hannigan (Lily Aldrin)

Guest Starring: Ashley Williams (Victoria), Virginia Williams (Claudia), Matt Boren (Stuart)

Uncredited: Bob Saget (Ted of 2030 (voice))

Plot Overview

Ted's romantic hopes are dashed when he invites Robin to a fancy wedding, only to discover that the bride-to-be won't allow him to bring a date.

It's the week of the wedding of two of Ted's friends (not Lily and Marshall) and he is stuck with the ever perplexing question of whether or not to bring a date. He decides to, just in case he finds someone, but is still stuck with wondering who to bring. In a stroke of luck (for him, at least), Robin broke up with her boyfriend and has given Ted the opportunity to bring her.

Afterwards, Ted runs into Claudia on the street who tells him that he didn't check "plus 1" on the RSVP and freaks out when he asks if she could put Robin on the list anyway. Under threat of violence, Ted decides to tell Robin that it's off but can't do it after seeing how much she's looking forward to the wedding. In the cab ride home, Lily convinces Ted to ask Stuart instead and see if he can do anything. Stuart sides with Ted without hesitation and says that it's no problem.

Later, Claudia calls Ted's phone in order to threaten him again because, apparently, Stuart signing off on Ted bringing a date caused a chain reaction (shown in flashbacks) that ended with the wedding being called off. Lily tells Claudia to meet her at the bar while Ted and Marshall try to track down Stuart and get the show back on the road, lest Ted have to pay $400,000 to Claudia's father prior to being killed by him. However, the plan doesn't quite work out because Barney gets to the bar first and starts hitting on Claudia and Marshall isn't helping with convincing Stuart to marry Claudia. Through a twist of fate, though, it works out and the wedding is back on and they agreed to the plus one.

Unfortunately for Ted, Robin backs out at the last minute because she's offered a chance to anchor the news for the night. Ted selflessly tells her to go for it and attends the wedding alone, where he realizes that he is comfortable with being single and he shouldn't keep trying to force his relationships. At that moment, a woman at another table is shown, presumably either Ted's future wife or the next potential candidate.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Have You Met Ted?: Ted may or may not have met his future wife at the end of this episode.

Characters

• Ted: Ted finally realizes that being single isn't such a bad thing and gets settled in this role.
• Robin: Robin was asked to anchor the news for the night, possibly leading to a promotion.

Referbacks

• 1x01 - Pilot: Robin and Ted first met in the first episode. A flashback is shown of this moment.
• 1x02 - Purple Giraffe: Robin and Ted shared their first kiss on the roof of a party he was having in order to lure her out.
• 1x11 - The Limo: Robin and Ted kissed once again on New Years Eve.

Trivia

The Show

• Music: The song that plays at the end of the episode where Barney and Ted siting at the wedding is "Soul Meets Body" by Death Cab for Cutie.

Allusions and References

• Captain Marvel: Originally appearing in Fawcett Comics before the publisher was bought out by DC Comics, Captain Marvel (aka Billy Batson) was created by C.C. Beck and Bill Parker in 1939. The superhero was imbued with the powers of the gods and can change forms through a bolt of lighting after calling upon the wizard who granted him these powers, Shazam. Because of the nature of "Captain Marvel" (which has three different versions across three different publishers), DC was forced to title the various books he appears in as "Shazam" or "The Power of Shazam" for legal reasons.

Future Ted: ...And Shazam!

• Gremlins: Gremlins is a black comedy directed by Joe Dante about a pack of demonic looking little monsters who turn evil and multiply when the rules for caring for one (a significantly less repulsive version of the creatures) are broken. These rules include not getting them wet and never feeding them after midnight. The movie also spawned a sequel subtitled The New Batch.

Marshall: Oh, look, some Gremlins! Let me feed them after midnight.

Memorable Moments

• Claudia and Stuart's fast forward argument flashback.
• Barney getting Claudia drunk so he can take advantage of her being on the rebound.

Quotes

• Robin: How fancy are we talking about here?

Ted: Oh, you're going to want to bring your A game.

Robin: Oh, I'll bring it. I'll bring it so hard the bride's going to look like a big white bag of crap.

• Barney: Yeah, I don't think you did. You know why? Because deep down, you didn't want to show up at this thing with a date. See, for all your big talk about being "ready for a relationship," deep down you're single. It's your default setting. Ted, you know what's in the back of your brain?

Ted: Oh, great. Here comes "Little Barney" speech.

Barney: Behind a curtain in a dark little room secretly controlling your every move...

Ted and Marshall: A little Barney.

Barney: ...A little Barney. And you know what he said? [Imitating a Munchkin] "Ted, you will bring no dates to this wedding. You will hit on drunk bridesmaids with actual sized Barney!"

• Lily: We'll sneak her in.

Ted: We can't sneak her in, we're not ninjas!

Lily: We should be real ninjas.