Weddingtainment: Marshall and Lily, "How I Met Your Mother"

I'm not really one for wedding shows. That's partly because I don't get cable, but also partly because the wedding shows I have seen, like "Bulging Brides" or "Bridezillas," seem designed to humiliate the couples they portray. That doesn't exactly fill me with the warm fuzzies. I also stood fast and refused to see "Bride Wars," despite my girl-crush on the gorgeous Anne Hathaway, because the "brides are totally crazy and irrational and really, barely even human" thing annoys me to no end.

But that doesn't mean I don't love seeing weddings on TV! One of my favorites is the wedding of Marshall and Lily on Season 2 of "How I Met Your Mother."

Image from www.marshallandlilywedding.com. Yes, the creators actually created a wedding website for their characters, because they're just that cool.

This clever, sweet-natured sitcom is one of my favorite TV "comfort foods," and I especially enjoy the relationship between Lily and Marshall. Instead of bickering incessantly like most TV couples, they're madly in love and see each other through everything from Marshall losing his job to Lily coming clean about her credit card debt to both of them nearly losing their new apartment after they've taken on a mortgage they can barely afford.

But back to the wedding epsiode. Since it's a sitcom, you won't be surprised to learn that everything possible goes wrong prior to Lily and Marshall tying the knot. (The story of why Marshall is wearing that hat is particularly entertaining.) But underneath the sitcom hilarity is a reassuring message -- if things go horribly wrong, at the end of the day, what matters is that you love each other and you're married. Cheesy, but true, and it's always nice to have a reminder!

(Another good lesson from Lily and Marshall's wedding: drinking 5 glasses of champagne because you're starving and you want the strawberries in the glasses = very drunk bride.)

Also, I noticed something funny the last time I re-watched the wedding episodes. The bridesmaids, including mega-babe and regular cast member Robin, are wearing the dreaded Amsale bubble dress! It does look better in lavender than it did in screaming pinky-orange, but I'm still not a big fan -- butt bows just aren't my thing I guess.

What are your favorite fictional weddings?