‘Grey’s Anatomy’: A Brief History Of The Show’s Disastrous Weddings

This Thursday night, Grey’s Anatomy wraps up its 14th season (and still going strong!) with the planned nuptials between Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and Dr. Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington). I say “planned” not because I doubt Alex and Jo’s love for each other — though, honestly, after all she’s been through with the abusive ex-husband and having lived out of her car and sleeping with the intern everybody calls “Glasses,” she deserves better — but because weddings in and around Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital have a bad habit of going disastrously wrong. Not all of them, of course. Just … enough to make you wonder. From proposals that end in near-death experiences to getting left at the altar to mid-ceremony surgeries, a Grey’s wedding isn’t a Grey’s wedding, seemingly, without some kind of drama. It’s almost like they’re filming it for TV or something.

So in the interests of getting Jo and Alex off on the right matrimonial foot, we present our Field Guide to averting disaster at a Grey’s Anatomy wedding.

The Traumatic Proposals

Even though Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) and Callie (Sara Ramirez) ended up with Grey’s Anatomy‘s most picture-perfect pastoral wedding ceremony, the road getting there was … fraught. There was the complication of Callie getting pregnant by Mark Sloan while she and Arizona were on a break. And then there was Arizona’s proposal, delivered during a road trip, which ended in a massive accident, Callie nearly dying, delivering the baby prematurely, and enduring a mental break where it seemed like all the doctors treating her kept breaking into song.
Wedding Episode: Season 7, Episode 20, “White Wedding”
Current Status: Divorced, though Arizona is moving back to New York, so hope springs eternal

The Relatively Chill Weddings

Not every wedding on Grey’s Anatomy goes pear-shaped. Weirdly, the ones that take place in or around Meredith’s home tend to go the most okay. Cristina (Sandra Oh) and Owen (Kevin McKidd) got quietly married in the aftermath of the hospital shooting in a rather muted affair that — as primetime soap marriages go — lasted a good long while, until Sandra Oh left the show a few years ago.
Wedding Episode: Season 7, Episode 1, “With You I’m Born Again”
Current Status: Divorced

Meanwhile, Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) and Catherine Avery (Debbie Allen) had the classy and celebratory wedding that they deserved, starting with a ceremony in the hospital’s chapel and ending with one of Grey’s Anatomy‘s better dance parties back at Meredith’s later on to close out Season 11.
Wedding Episode: Season 11, Episode 25, “You’re My Home”
Current Status: Married

Owen and Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) also got married in Meredith’s home, in yet another understated wedding. Amelia and Owen were never quite the right match — and, oh right, she had a BRAIN TUMOR the whole time which affected her personality — but even though Owen is pretty much a romantic disaster, his weddings still manage to turn out okay.
Wedding Episode: Season 12, Episode 24, “Family Affair”
Current Status: Divorced but friendly

The Bride Who Can’t Leave Work at the Office

Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Ben’s (Jason George) wedding was almost drama-free, except that Bailey had to bail midway through in order to go operate on Richard’s wife, Adele. It was pretty appropriate, actually, considering the whole mission statement of Grey’s Anatomy is that the doctors can never manage to separate their personal and professional lives.
Wedding Episode: Season 9, Episode 10, “Things We Said Today”
Current Status: Married

The Tumor-Plagued Dream Wedding

Easily the best and most memorable wedding occurred towards the end of season 5, when Izzie (Katherine Heigl) and Alex’s longstanding back-and-forth love/hate relationship ended with them on the altar. Of course, it could never be that simple. Izzie had been undergoing cancer treatments and had just discovered a new tumor, which was probably going to kill her. So Meredith and Derek gifted the wedding Izzie had been planning for them to her and Alex, and amid soft lighting and smiling friends and the strains of a pretty Ingrid Michaelson ballad, Izzie and Alex got married. George even walked Izzie down the aisle when she got weak and faltered. Of course, George got killed by a bus a couple episodes later, Izzie nearly died, then didn’t, then left Alex and Seattle and the show forever. And now Alex is marrying Izzie 2.0 in Jo.
Wedding Episode: Season 5, Episode 2, “What a Difference a Day Makes”
Current Status: Divorced

The ‘Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace’ Loophole

We all should have known April’s (Sarah Drew) wedding to Matthew (Justin Breuning) wasn’t going to go well. He wasn’t even a series regular! Those relationships never work out  — see also Teddy (Kim Raver) marrying that terminally ill Scott Foley character. But of particular concern for this marriage was how much April and Jackson (Jesse Williams) would keep staring longingly at each other. That Jackson waited until the absolute last possible second was not the best look, nor was the fact that he was dating Stephanie Edwards at the time, but if nothing else, this abandoned-wedding fiasco gave us some great reaction shots.
Wedding Episode: Season 10, Episode 12, “Get Up, Stand Up”
Current Status: Never married, though currently reconciled

The Surprise Walk-Out

But April and Matthew’s wedding was not the first Grey’s nuptials to stall out on the altar. Everything that happened after Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington) left Cristina at their wedding pales in comparison. It’s probably Sandra Oh’s peak acting moment in her long time on the show, and that’s saying something. The combination of relief, rage, and unbearable sadness in Cristina (“I’m free! Damn it!”)  was a powerful moment, and a hugely bonding one for her and Meredith, who, no matter who got married, would always remain her person.
Wedding Episode: Season 3, Episode 25, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All?”
Current Status: never married

The Sacred Stationery

Still, the best wedding on Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t a wedding at all. After Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith gave their dream wedding away to Izzie and Alex, they decided to promise themselves to each other their own way. So Meredith and Derek pulled out some Post-It notes and put it in writing: that they’d love each other even when they were old and senile and smelly, that no one would leave, and that it would last forever. And it did. Or at least until Derek died.
Wedding Episode: Season 5, Episode 24, “Now or Never”
Current Status: Meredith is widowed but single

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