The Bachelor Recap: Jason & Molly's Wedding
Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney became the first couple from The Bachelor to walk down the aisle February 27. ABC aired a two-hour special about it last night.
In keeping with our tradition, THG endured the two-freaking-hour extravaganza to recap every bit of the action in our exclusive, highly scientific plus/minus index:
Updates on past stars: Trista and Ryan are going strong; Ed Swiderski and Jillian Harris are doing well; a bunch of peeps we don't remember are there too. Plus 5.
DeAnna Pappas, who Jason once proposed to, is dating Stephen Stagliano, ... the twin of Michael Stagliano from Jillian's season. This is just incestuous. Minus 3.
The stirring Chris Harrison commentary begins with the venerable host-pimp calling this "one of the most anticipated weddings of all time." Of all time! Plus 11.
The Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney nuptials took place in the driving rain. Minus 4 for missed Alanis Morissette "Ironic" musical tie-in ... okay, maybe Plus 4.
Not even a monsoon could dampen the spirits of Jason and Molly.
In all seriousness, the event was quite romantic. Jason Castro's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was a nice touch, and the setting made for great wedding photos. Plus 10.
Molly's dress gets an additional Plus 7 too. Look how beautiful she is.
By the end of the ceremony, they are totally soaked, but Jason and Molly don't seem to care one bit. Those Bachelor hot tub scenes prepared them so well. Plus 4.
Minus 9 for Chris' "Jason and Molly weathered the storm" eye-roller. do they sit around thinking these up, or is the master of ceremonies that good on the fly?
Gavin DeGraw performs "Follow Through." Fitting. wonder if Jason and Molly had heard of Gavin DeGraw prior to ABC setting this up? Either way, Plus 3. Good song!
It was a fairy tale moment ... engineered by Mike Fleiss.
The Bachelor is not about love. It is all about ratings. That being said, genuine feelings definitely came out of Jason and Molly's season, and the wedding special did a nice job of showcasing them as a couple in addition to the obligatory filler. Plus 11.
The franchise is still 2-for-19 though. 2-for-19! Minus 10.
Jason and Molly now embark on a South African safari honeymoon, which sounds like an absolute blast, provided Chris is cool crashing on the couch. Plus 7.
Odds of Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi taking part in a similar wedding special next season ... or any season? somewhere around 500:1. Minus 12, Jake.
TOTAL: +24. Congratulations to a happy couple we wish all the best to!
'The Bachelor: Jason and Molly's Wedding': The Top 10 Moments
Image Credit: Robert Voets/ABC Last night, ABC gave us front-row seats to the Feb. 27 nuptials of Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney, which host Chris Harrison referred to as "one of the most anticipated weddings of all time" with a totally straight face. That's not rice you're seeing in the photo, it's rain. Which brings us to...
1. For some reason (the Bachelor producers are evil?), their wedding planner wasn't able to give them a plan B for their outdoor ceremony. They began the service during a break in the clouds — with Molly walking down the aisle to Jason Castro singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" — but midway through Molly's self-penned vows, there was a downpour. All the guests had clear umbrellas, but no one thought to hand a couple to the best man and maid of honor to keep the bride and groom dry? Or, you know, maybe someone could've erected a large, elegant canopy over the wedding party area earlier in the day? Jason and Molly didn't seem to mind — it just made the day all the more memorable. But I would've been pissed to have gotten my new green Manolo Blahniks soaked.
2. That moment when Molly's uncle officiating the ceremony told the guests to be seated and the camera panned back to Chris Harrison, who threw it to commercial.
3. the look on Molly's face when her uncle asked if anyone objected to the wedding. Actually, a lot of people were looking around as though Bachelor producers might have arranged for a Melissa Rycroft cameo. She's married, she's over it! And the only thing Nikki, one of Jason's former suitors, should've objected to was the furry pink coat single mom Stephanie was wearing.
4. Jason Castro was left standing in the rain by himself singing "That's What I'm here For" as the wedding party and guests moved inside for the reception.
5. Gavin DeGraw, Molly's favorite singer, performed her favorite song, "Follow Through" for the couple's first dance. Amazingly, with 300 guests and a camera crew around them, they made that moment theirs. very sweet.
6. Of course, we got updates on past Bachelors. Charlie O'Connell and Sarah Brice didn't mention that they're developing a reality show with Oxygen, but we got the premise: He wants to buy a home and move back in together, she won't live with him again until he puts a ring on it.
7. Ryan Sutter spoke (!) and recalled his televised wedding with Trista: "Some would say it was a little bit overboard on the pink." Trista denied this and claimed they had white flowers along with the pink ones. Then she awkwardly wished the couple a baby boy — in addition to Mesnick's son, Ty, of course. (Ty, by the way, was at the wedding but wasn't allowed to be filmed because his mother and Jason decided together — yeah, right — that he shouldn't be on-camera anymore.)
8. Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski are planning a wedding, but considering the only thing I remember about their screentime was Ed's ill-advised heavage, I hope it's not turned into a two-hour event. I would, however, watch a half-hour special should DeAnna Pappas end up marrying her boyfriend, Stephen Stagliano, whose twin brother Michael courted Jillian during her season. (Also, I would not be surprised if someday we saw a sex tape of Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi leaked. we already saw the foreplay as he rolled her around on the bed trying to prevent her from watching him kiss another woman on an episode of The Bachelor.)
9. Jason and Molly had the tamest Vegas Bachelor and Bachelorette parties ever. Naturally, the women went to a spa, then got an in-room stripper lesson, while the men gambled. But kudos to the unidentified guy who toasted Jason by saying, "Of all the women Jason's proposed to, I think Molly's the best." (Also, props to Jason's brother Larry, who later outed Jason at the rehearsal dinner for having a doll collection when he was young. Jason looked genuinely mortified.)
10. It's a tie between the paparazzo being put in a headlock and taken to the ground at the wedding location (because no one is going to shoot this wedding, except for ABC), and Molly's sister-in-law pretending to use an outfit-coordinating web site (I refuse to name it) to dress herself for the rehearsal dinner.
Your turn. What did you think of the ceremony? Weren't the vows a bit anticlimactic after we heard Molly and Jason describe their love and struggle to get through the last year for an hour beforehand?
'the Bachelor: Jason and Molly's Wedding': the Top 10 Moments