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The guys on the left and the right? They're not invited.
Bachelors and lifelong best friends, John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) are partners at a law firm in Washington D.C. who frequently "crash" wedding parties to meet women; working from a set of rules taught to them by a past "crasher", the duo always have cover stories for inquisitive guests and inevitably become the hit of every reception — all so they can charm their way into bed with ladies at the wedding for a one night stand.
After a sequence of successful "crashes," Jeremy spots the wedding of the daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury William Cleary (Christopher Walken) and his wife, Kathleen. After infiltrating the lavish event as brothers, John and Jeremy set their sights on two bridesmaids, also daughters of Secretary Cleary: Claire (Rachel McAdams) and Gloria Cleary (Isla Fisher). This 2005 film is the very definition of...you know.
(For the otherwise unrelated trope formerly named after this movie, see Wedding Smashers.)
- Actor Allusion: "I've just had my tits done."
- Bastard Girlfriend: Gloria has the perfect way of getting her man: first scare the shit out of him by acting crazy, then tie him up against his will and rape him. Of course he eventually learns to like it, and their relationship seamlessly develops into normal roleplaying.
- Big Bad: Sack Lodge.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sack Lodge, at least to Claire and her family. He makes no secret of being a Complete Monster around John and Jeremy.
- Bitter Wedding Speech: John does one during a montage.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The Cleary sisters
- Blue Blood: Oh so much, but see the archetypical WASP-y looking Bradley Cooper as "Sack" Lodge for your best example.
- The Brute: Sack Lodge practically embodies this trope.
- The Cameo: Will Ferrell as Chazz.
- Also a One-Scene Wonder.
- Also John McCain As Himself.
- Same with James Carville.
- Casting Gag: Christopher Walken and Jane Seymour were the Bond villain and Bond girl from Roger Moore's last and first James Bond films, respectively.
- Depraved Homosexual: Todd.
- Disposable Fiancé: The Evil All Along category. A better use of the trope than in some other romantic comedies, in that while Sack is a Jerkass, he is also charming and charismatic enough that it isn't a complete mystery that Claire is dating him in the first place.
- Double Standard Rape (Female on Male) : Gloria ties Jeremy to the bed and forces herself on him. The morning after, he tells John that he "...felt like Jodie Foster in The Accused. He ultimately falls in love and marries her.
- Double Standard Rape (Male on Male): Immediately after the incident above, Gloria's gay brother attempts to force himself on the still-restrained Jeremy.
- Fanservice Extra: The absurdly beautiful Diora Baird and all the other actresses that flop down on beds with Vince and Owen in the sex montage.
- Isla Fisher's body double. That scene is also an example of Black Comedy Rape.
- The Fun in Funeral: The protagonists' mentor, Chazz, (played by Will Ferrell) eventually replaced "getting women at weddings" with "getting women at funerals". And he brings John along for a demonstration. It is this practice that qualifies as his Moral Event Horizon.
- Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Jeremy's girlfriend, Gloria, asks if he wants to watch her do it with a Brazilian girl. He proposes. To be fair, he was planning on proposing anyway, but that certainly helped seal the deal.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: The lead Illinois Nazi is now a priest.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Claire and her family when it comes to Sack.
- Hot Mom: Kathleen Cleary. Holy moley...
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Jeremy and Gloria, as with any actress who gets paired with Vince Vaughn as a romantic lead.
- Jerkass/Jerk Jock: Sack, big time.
- Laxative Prank: John does this to Sack.
- Loners Are Freaks: Todd.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Sack Lodge repeatedly tackling Jeremy very hard during a casual game of football (it is clearly stated to be a game of touch football, where such tackles are not meant to be used), without second thoughts of how badly hurt the latter may be. Sack's followers even rub it in Jeremy's face, saying "That's what we call a sack lunch!"
- Naughty Under the Table: Gloria gropes Jeremy under the dinner table.
- The Public Domain Channel: What Will Ferrell's character is watching in his first scene.
- Psychotic Lover: Gloria.
- Racist Grandma: The grandmother loves saying inappropriate things about Eleanor Roosevelt.
- Romantic Comedy
- Seven Minute Lull: When Jeremy is talking about his "first Asian".
- Sex Montage
- Sexual Karma
- Shadow Archetype: Chazz is basically this for John and Jeremy; unlike them, he doesn't change his ways and he also lives with his mother. The fact that he mentored Jeremy in the art of "wedding crashing" furthers this.
- Sibling Rivalry / Unknown Rival: Gloria and Todd are basically competing for Jeremy's affections, but neither of them is aware of the other's attraction to Jeremy.
- Slut Shaming: Whenever Jeremy and John are outed, they get nothing but contempt from those around them.
- Smug Snake: Sack Lodge
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: John does this.
- Stalker with a Crush: Gloria.
- Testing the Love Interest: Claire does this later in the film.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Jack and Jeremy, oddly enough. A lot of the humor in this movie would be very uncomfortable, except for one thing: the main characters are philandering serial liars until they get a little Character Development forced on them, so who cares what happens to them?
- What Does She See in Him?: Claire and Zachary. Sure, he's played by the muscular Bradley Cooper, but he is one of the most over the top assholes in cinematic history.
- As Roger Ebert put it in his review, "in a comedy the villain is supposed to be funny, and not a hateful, sadistic, egotistical monster".
- It's implied to be just a relationship of convenience more than anything else.