A British couple took their love for Monty Python to the next level when they centred their wedding theme around the popular surrealist comedy group.
Superfans John Wood and Gemma Harris from West Sussex wanted their wedding to honour the 50 year anniversary of Monty Python’s Flying Circus’s first broadcast. The extravaganza took two years to plan and cost over £15,000.
They invited their guests with this unique save-the-date video. In a Facebook post, Harris wrote, “As well as a Monty Python theme, we also had ‘The Wood Party’ as a consistent thread throughout the process which was based on a real Monty Python ‘Wood Party’ sketch and also the ‘Silly Elections.’ This was our Save The Date video.”
Their wedding, held on October 5, 2019, featured numerous references to the popular show. Harris walked down the aisle to the Python theme song and fart noises in lieu of the wedding march, and a hand of God pointed to the couple throughout the ceremony. They even recreated the ‘Buying a Bed’ sketch at their ceremony.
“There was a 9ft parrot, a handmade albatross, all sorts of things. We commissioned artists to make some of the props, but most things we did ourselves,” says Wood.
“Instead of saying ‘I do’, I said ‘perhaps’, to which Gemma replied: ‘Oh, say you do!’ To which I replied: ‘Oh, all right then.’”
As a starter, they served guests salmon mousse, which Wood explains to BBC was “a reference to the salmon mousse which kills everybody at the end of ‘The Meaning of Life.'”
The main course featured spam in reference to another popular sketch. Instead of cutting the cake, they smashed it with a prosthetic foot.
Carol Cleveland, an actress well known for her work with Monty Python, even made an appearance at the wedding.
The British surrealist group entertained viewers with their Monty Python’s Flying Circus TV show from 1969 to 1974, as well as several movies. Members of the group included John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, and Michael Palin.
Monty Python is incredibly important to Wood, who was once married to a woman that did not like the show.
“The way I look at the world, everything reminds me of it,” he told The Guardian UK. “I wanted a woman who likes and understands Monty Python. It was the most important thing in my search for a new partner.”
He took his search very seriously, even setting up a Monty Python themed Facebook group called Pythonesque Dating to help Python-heads find love with each other. It was here that he met his future wife, Gemma Harris.
The couple became engaged in front of Monty Python stars Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam at a fundraising event in London.
Picture: Facebook/Gemma Wood
