The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress

"The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress" is the seventeenth episode of the seventh season of Friends, which aired on March 15, 2001.
==Plot==
Monica is getting ready to buy her wedding dress. At a dress store, she meets a woman, Megan Bailey, who is getting married. Monica tells her about a discount store, Kleinman's, in Brooklyn that is having a 50% off sale soon and is simply deciding which dress she wants before she heads to the sale. Megan thanks her for the tip. Later, while at Kleinman's, Monica sees Megan again, only this time she is clutching the same wedding dress that Monica planned on buying. After wrestling her to the ground, Monica manages to escape with the dress.
Meanwhile, Chandler wants the Swing Kings to play at his and Monica's wedding. Monica promises to book them for him. When she met Megan, she told her the date of her wedding and that Chandler wanted the Swing Kings, not knowing they would have a quarrel later on. Monica learns that Megan has booked the Swing Kings on the day of Chandler and Monica's wedding and can't have them unless she gives her the dress.
After trying to dissuade Chandler from wanting the Swing Kings, he reveals that when he was dancing with Monica to their music, it was the first time that he knew that Monica was who he "wanted to dance all [his] dances with". Monica decides that making Chandler happy is more important than the dress and calls Megan, agreeing to hand it over in exchange for letting her have the Swing Kings. Before returning the dress, she tries it on and asks Chandler not to like it since she is returning it. He "hates" the dress so much that he wants to rip it off... Monica is reluctant, but lets him do it a little to spite Megan.
Meanwhile, a black girl, Kristen, moves in across the street from Central Perk. Ross and Joey both go on dates with her without knowing about the other one. Eventually they find out and decide that only one of them can keep dating her. They resolve to each take her on one more date and let her decide who she likes better. They set a spending limit of $100. On the night of Ross' date, Joey comes over to wish him good luck. He sees that Ross sent Kristen flowers that cost $100. He smiles at Ross, telling him "That's the limit. You're screwed!". But Ross says that he technically didn't break any rules because he sent the flowers before the actual date.
Ross takes Kristen to a restaurant, but Joey appears as an attempt to sabotage his chances with her. Ross and Joey pretend to not know each other, but get into a verbal fight that reveals very embarrassing personal information about each other (ranging from Ross' three divorces, to the VD poster Joey appeared on, to Marcel). Kristen leaves in the middle of the fight, and Ross and Joey don't notice until she is gone, but don't seem terribly fazed and decide to eat dinner anyway.
==Cast and Crew==
===Main Cast===
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
===Supporting Cast===
Andrea Bendewald - Megan Bailey
Gabrielle Union - Kristen Leigh
Kim Harris - The store owner
===Crew===
Directed By: 
Kevin S. Bright
Written By: 
Brian Buckner, Sebastian Jones, Andrew Reich & Ted Cohen
==Trivia==
===General===
*It is shown again Ross' inability to flirt with girls: this was previously shown in The One Where Ross Can't Flirt. Quite the opposite, Chandler in this episode can't even speak to Kristen whereas with Caitlin he was a smooth talker. 
*Kristen probably left after Ross said 'Leave Marcel out of this!' as she can partially be seen wringing her hands in defeat and getting up from her seat.
*Andrea Bendewald (Megan) is one of Jennifer Aniston's real-life best friends, and was a bridesmaid at her wedding to Brad Pitt.
*Kim Harris, who appeared as the store owner also appears in "The One With The Donor" as a cologne spritzer.
**She also appeared in "The One Where Emma Cries" among other episodes.
*Matt LeBlanc improvised his last line in the Ross and Joey story, "does a bear s*** in the woods?", but it was cut out in the TV episode.
*Although a big deal is made of Chandler loving swing music and wanting the Swing Kings to play at the wedding, the band that actually plays at the wedding is called Dave Anthony Jungle Swing, and they never play any swing music. In fact this is the same band who played at Barry and Mindy's wedding.
**Despite Monica saying she has booked the Swing Kings for their wedding at the end of the episode, it is possible that the Swing Kings later had to cancel on them, forcing the couple to find a replacement band at the last minute.
*Megan mentions that her husband wants the heavy metal band Carcass to play at their wedding. Carcass is actually a real death metal band; they were on hiatus when this episode first aired.
*This is the second time Monica wears somebody else's wedding dress onscreen. The last time was that of Ross' second wife, Emily. However on that occasion Chandler didn't see it until the wedding day.
===Goofs===
* In this episode, Rachel is sitting in Chandler's Barcalounger, the one that was broken a couple of episodes ago. This episode was supposed to air before "The One Where Rosita Dies".
* When Ross is walking over to Kristen's car to introduce himself, you can see the microphone moving out of the shot at the top of the screen for a second.
* When Joey and Ross are arguing in the restaurant, in the shot where Ross when he mentions Joey's VD poster, his right arm is at his side but in the next shot it's instantly on Kristen's chair.
* Monica chooses a wedding dress at an expensive boutique, then later goes to a discount store to buy the same-style dress at a half-off sale. The dress she buys is different from the one in the boutique, having wider and frillier straps, and a completely different neckline and bodice. When she tries it on later at the apartment, it is now the same style as the one at the boutique.
** In the interview with the clothes dresser, Debra McGuire, she explained that the dress originally designed for the episode wouldn't fit (the one seen in the boutique shop). Therefore dresses from Warner Bros' wardrobe stock were used instead.
* Monica says her wedding is May 15th, but if Rachel's birthday is May 5th and was three episodes ago, then the wedding would have passed already. If this episode had been screened in the original sequence before The One Where Rosita Dies then Rachel's birthday would be in two weeks time. 
* Even though Phoebe doesn't leave the apartment, she goes from not wearing any rings to having her normal rings on her hands.
*Joey not having enough funds does not make sense because he is on Days of our Lives and should be paid enough per week.
== External links ==
* Transcript of the episode including the deleted scenes
* "The One with the Cheap Wedding Dress" at the Internet Movie Database
==Episode Navigation==
Category:Friends Episodes
Category:Season 7
Category:Episodes
Category:Season 7 Episodes
Category:Episodes with wedding in the title