Ellen Albertini Dow

John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) are divorce mediators in Washington D.C. The two friends frequently "crash" wedding parties to meet women, working from a set of rules taught to them by a past Crasher, Chazz Reinhold. The duo always has cover stories for inquisitive guests and inevitably become the hit of every reception. Their goals are to enjoy the free food and drinks and ultimately to charm their way into bed with women from the wedding for a one-night stand. After a sequence of successful crashes, Jeremy takes John to a wedding for the daughter of the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, William Cleary (Christopher Walken). Once inside, the pair set their sights on Cleary's other daughters, Gloria (Isla Fisher) and Claire (Rachel McAdams). Jeremy ends up having sex with Gloria on a nearby beach while the reception is taking place. Gloria is possessive and quickly becomes obsessed with Jeremy. She claims to have been a virgin until the encounter, which shocks Jeremy, and he tries to get John to bail on the reception with him. Meanwhile, John is attempting to court Claire, the maid of honor, but he is interrupted by her hotheaded boyfriend, Sack Lodge (Bradley Cooper), who later turns out to want to date Claire only because of William's political power and is shown to openly mock and cheat on her behind her back. Later, John convinces Jeremy to accept the family's invitation to an extended weekend party at their family compound. Once there, Jeremy, John, and other members of the family play a game of touch football, which ends with Jeremy being badly hurt by an over-aggressive Sack. Gloria tends to him, while trying to engage him in sexual intercourse at the same time. At dinner later that evening, Gloria gives Jeremy a hand job under the dinner table, while John spikes Sack's wine with eye-drops. Sack becomes sick, which lets John further connect with Claire, and they agree to go for a walk together following dinner. John goes to his room to change his shoes, but William's wife, Kathleen (Jane Seymour), makes John fondle her surgically enhanced breasts, then rebuffs his actions, much to John's confusion. Later that night, Gloria ties up Jeremy and proceeds to sexually assault him, thinking she is being "adventurous" and is fulfilling fantasies. That same night, Gloria's gay brother, Todd (Keir O'Donnell), paints a provocative image of Jeremy and tries to seduce him, but is interrupted by his father. The next morning, Jeremy asks John if they can go home, but John convinces him to stay, which helps Jeremy realize that John is falling for Claire. That afternoon, the family (minus Sack) go sailing, where John and Claire continue to bond. Following the sailing trip, the family (with Sack now joining them) go on a hunting trip, where Sack intentionally shoots Jeremy in the buttocks (although it seems as if he was trying to shoot John, who fell down at the force of his gunfire at that point). After the hunting trip, John and Claire go on a bike ride through the country, and they end up at a secluded beach. Claire finally admits she isn't sure how she feels about Sack, and ends up kissing John passionately. Meanwhile, Gloria is tending to Jeremy's wounds, and reveals to Jeremy that she was not a virgin when they met, and that she only said that because that's what she thought he would like to hear. Jeremy realizes that he may be in love with Gloria. Later that day while eating lunch, Sack announces his engagement to Claire, leaving Claire at a loss for words, as she had not actually been proposed to. Outside, John is about to convince Claire to be with him, when they are interrupted by Jeremy being chased out of the house. Sack emerges and forces John and Jeremy to tell the truth about who they really are, as he had them privately investigated. John reluctantly reveals their true identities, and William kicks them out. While leaving, Todd wants his portrait back, but Jeremy tells him that he's keeping it as a gift; this gives Todd some relief knowing that someone took him seriously as an artist. Jeremy and Gloria briefly confess their love to each other. John and Jeremy return to their normal lives. During that time, Jeremy is trying to keep his relationship with Gloria a secret when John comes in to talk to him. He's found a new way to try and reconcile with Claire by trying to be a waiter at her engagement party. Jeremy tries to convince him that his attempts to reconcile with her were unsuccessful and he needs to let it go by coming to term that Claire doesn't want anything to do with him. While pretending to be a waiter, he is caught and brutally beaten by Sack (who has his friends hold John while he beats him, so he can't fight back). Once he recovers, he goes to search for Jeremy (who was supposed to have helped him), but instead finds him still at his house and having sex with Gloria. When John learns the truth, he's very upset by it and it causes a rift between him and Jeremy. John crashes several more weddings alone, but behaves erratically due to his state of depression, and soon becomes nihilistic and suicidal. Meanwhile, Jeremy continues his relationship with Gloria, culminating in an accepted marriage proposal, and Claire begins to doubt her relationship with Sack. Jeremy attempts to reconcile with John, asking him to be his best man, but John refuses. John then goes to meet their mentor, Chazz Reinhold (an uncredited Will Ferrell), to reaffirm Jeremy's apparent stupidity in getting engaged. During the visit, Chaz talks him into crashing a funeral instead of going to Jeremy's wedding, as Chaz believes that grief is the best aphrodisiac. While there, John takes notice of a woman who is truly grieving for her husband because she loved him. He reconsiders his stance on love and marriage and rushes to Jeremy's wedding. John joins the wedding mid-ceremony to Jeremy's delight, but soon disrupts it by attempting to speak to Claire. Claire, in tears, leaves the altar, but John quickly professes his love to her and his feelings of regret of his past behavior towards women. Sack interrupts, asking Claire to return to the altar so the wedding can be finished. Claire finally tells Sack that she can't marry him. He turns to William for help, but instead William states his full support of his daughter's decision to reject Sack, after he admits he put up with him because he thought Claire was happy. Clearly angry, Sack begins aggressively demanding Claire to return to the altar. John states that everyone is getting a good preview of what it would be like to be married to Sack (who he refers to as Ike Turner, referencing his supposed abuse of his ex-wife Tina). Sack loses control of himself completely and rushes at John, but Jeremy intervenes and knocks him out. The film ends with Jeremy getting married to Gloria, John uniting with Claire, and the two couples driving away talking about crashing another wedding together.

Set in late 1979, Shane O'Shea (who narrates the story in flashback) is a 19-year-old gas jockey from Jersey City, New Jersey who lives with his widowed, conservative father Harlan and two younger sisters, Grace and Kelly, both of whom were named after Princess Grace by their late mother, who died when Shane was 12. An Irish-American kid tired of his working-class existence, Shane longs for a more exciting life across the river in New York, so he cuts his hair, dresses up, and and talks his two friends into going to Studio 54 one night. However, upon arrival, gay club owner Steve Rubell picks him to go inside (only after he takes off his shirt), and not his friends. Once inside, Shane is exposed to the glamorous, hedonistic playground that is 54, with plenty of drugs, alcohol, disco music, and sex to go around. Shane has such a good time at 54 that he makes plans to go back, much to his father's disapproval, so the next night, Shane borrows his father's car without permission and heads back to 54, where Steve hires him as a busboy. He quickly becomes friends with fellow busboy Greg Randazzo and his coat-check girl wife Anita, who, like Shane, aspire for bigger and better things: Greg wants to become one of the club's bartenders, since they make more money and have more "celebrity" status; and Anita wants to become a famous singer. Shane eventually moves out of his family's house after arguing with his father over his new job and moves in with Greg and Anita in New York, and they become a surrogate family to him. Shane even has sex in the club's infamous balcony with 54 regular Patti, a Southern starlet/model, on his first night as a busboy. Like Greg, Shane also wants to become a bartender, and after working at 54 for only a week, he gets that chance thanks in part to 54 regular Billie Auster, a decadent, sophisticated, cougar-like socialite/businesswoman who has a one-night stand with Shane while high on cocaine and marijuana (she passes out mid-intercourse as a result, but Shane continues to have sex with her anyway), and who Anita hopes can help jump-start her singing career since she knows everybody in the music business. While having sex with Billie in her penthouse bedroom, Shane mentions that he wants to be a bartender since one of the newer ones, Rhett, quit to become a model (presumably Billie had sex with Rhett too since she's upset about his sudden departure), and Billie asks him if he wants her to recommend him to Steve, which she later does offscreen. Shane's promotion angers Greg, since he wanted to become a bartender, and feels that he didn't because he wouldn't let Steve perform oral sex on him in exchange for said promotion (quid pro quo). Shane, now nicknamed "Shane 54" by his fellow bartenders, soon becomes a highly-paid quasi-celebrity at 54 and gets sucked into the club's decadent lifestyle: he mingles with New York's upper crust, he uses drugs, and has sex with random women (which leads to him getting gonorrhea) as he "raises his profile" and advances his "celebrity" status. However, Shane's new stardom doesn't protect him from being insulted when a guest at a Park Avenue dinner party he and Anita attend with Billie calls him a "gorgeous troglodyte" because he doesn't know who Errol Flynn is; nor does it protect Shane from being exploited when he does a Christmas beefcake photo shoot/interview with Interview Magazine and he discovers that the interview portion he did has been left out of the magazine, leaving him feeling sad and used because he wants to be taken seriously and valued for more than just his good looks and sex appeal. Shane's fame also causes problems with his friends and family, especially during the Christmas holidays. Greg, who now moonlights as a drug dealer, accuses Shane of being conceited and also accuses him of trying to have sex with Anita, since he caught Shane making a pass at her once before at their apartment . And Shane's father Harlan, whom Shane hasn't seen or spoken to since he moved out of the house, rejects Shane when he returns home to visit on Christmas Day because a family friend that got into 54 one night told him that she saw Shane doing drugs there. Shane does however experience some brief happiness during the holidays when he strikes up a romance with his dream girl (and fellow Jerseyite) Julie Black, a soap opera starlet determined to break into the movie industry. However, Shane's stardom, his relationship with Julie, and 54's life all come to an end on New Year's Eve. Shane discovers Julie at 54 with Roland Sachs, a casting agent who she plans to sleep with in order to advance her career, and Shane blows her off in disgust (ironically, since he basically did the same thing with Billie and others in order to become a bartender and advance his job/celebrity status). Elderly 54 regular Mona (aka Disco Dottie), a feisty, foul-mouthed, drug-using grandmother, dies of a cocaine overdose during Anita's debut performance. Shane is beside himself with grief, but Steve wants Shane to continue working as if nothing has happened. Shane refuses and gets into a near-physical altercation with Steve, forcing Steve to fire him. At the same time, the FBI raids 54 and arrests Steve for tax evasion, as he's been skimming money from the club's nightly take each night. Steve's bouncers find Shane and physically throw him out of the club, and Shane is then forced to leave 54 the same way he entered at the beginning of the film: shirtless, and now forced to use an old garbage bag to cover himself since he's not allowed back inside the club to get his wallet and other belongings. Julie passes by in a limousine, and after having a brief heart-to-heart with a now disgraced and humbled Shane, they part ways but agree to remain friends. In the film's epilogue, Shane reveals that Steve is eventually convicted and sentenced to eighteen months in prison for tax evasion (he is forced to sell 54 after being released, but the new owners let him stay on as a consultant). During that time, Shane continues to keep in touch with Julie, who moves to Hollywood and gets a small part in a movie. He takes business classes at NYU during the day and works nights managing a restaurant in Greenwich Village. His relationship with his father is improved, as he visits him and his sisters once a week. Shane, Anita and Greg, however, drift apart. Anita and Greg are still married and doing well; Anita finally manages to record and release an album with Casablanca Records to moderate success (some critics refer to Anita's album as "too disco"), and Greg gets a job in construction (after getting six months' probation for dealing drugs). The three of them reunite at the recently reopened 54, where Steve is hosting a one-night welcome-back party for all of his old friends and employees after his release from prison. In the end, 54 closes for good in 1986, and Steve dies of AIDS in 1989 at age 45. Shane notes that although everybody assembled at 54 that night pretended that nothing had changed, they all realized that "the party was over".

Robbie (Adam Sandler) dreamed of one day becoming a big rock-star. But instead, he has become one of the most entertaining wedding singers in the town of Ridgefield, New Jersey in 1985. Robbie's band includes George Stitzer (Alexis Arquette) keyboardist and singer, Randy Razz (Teddy Castellucci) and John Vana (Teddy Castellucci). At Robbie's latest wedding gig, he saves the wedding toast from being ruined by the groom's alcoholic brother David Veltri (Steve Buscemi) and catches the eye of a waitress at the function, named Julia (Drew Barrymore). Afterwards, they both tell how they are engaged: Robbie to his girlfriend Linda (Angela Featherstone), and Julia to her boyfriend, Glenn (Matthew Glave). Noting Robbie's handling of the situation inside the wedding, Julia wants him to sing at her wedding, to which Robbie happily agrees to. Linda's fiance, businessman and bond investor Glenn Gulia, has yet to set a date. They have been engaged for 2 years and now Linda is starting to doubt Glenn's intentions. She even moved to Ridgefield so she could be closer to him. Angie (Christina Pickles) is Julia's mother and asks her to fake a pregnancy to pressure Glenn into marrying her quickly. Eventually, Robbie and Linda's wedding day arrives, and everyone is there, except for Linda. It soon becomes apparent that Linda has decided not to go through with the wedding, leaving Robbie heartbroken and despondent. After the wedding is called off, Linda meets with Robbie and reveals that she fell in love with him for his ambitions of being a rock star with his band called "Final Warning", which was 6 years ago. She reveals her concerns of ending up being stuck in Richfield, married to Robbie, and raising kids in his sister Kate's (Jodi Thelen) basement. Kate is married to Andy (Frank Sivero) and has 2 kids Tyler (Patrick McTavish) and Petey (Gemini Barnett). Robbie sinks into depression, causing his friends and family to be concerned. Robbie's brother Sammy (Allen Covert) attempts to get him to snap out of his misery and play another wedding gig. However, Robbie's sour mood disrupts the wedding toast, in which he insults the bride's father, and breaks into a dour rendition of the song, "Love Stinks." Julia meets with Robbie afterwards, hoping that he'll still play for her and Glenn's wedding. However, he now expresses doubt about participating. Eventually, Robbie's spirits start to perk up, and he ends up doing a Bat Mitzvah with Julia acting as a waitress. After the festivities, Julia asks Robbie if he'll help her plan her wedding. Robbie agrees, and along with his brother Sammy, and Julia's cousin Holly (Christine Taylor). They do everything from trying wedding cakes, to hiring a limo driver (of which Sammy is the only one in town). Robbie eventually goes out for a party with Holly, Julia, and Julia's fiance, Glenn. At the party, Robbie gets to see that Glenn is anything but a nice guy, as he notices Glenn has no problems ogling other women on the dance floor. Robbie learns from Glenn that he cheats on Julia frequently and plans to continue after they are married. After everyone leaves, Holly tries to hook up with Robbie, but soon sees that he likes Julia. Julia and Robbie are increasingly confused by their deepening feelings for each other. When Holly tells Robbie that Julia is marrying Glenn for his money, he unsuccessfully pursues a job at a bank. Julia is dismayed at his materialism, and when he accuses her of the same, she becomes angry with him. Depressed, he decides to follow Sammy's example of only having shallow relationships with women, in response to which Sammy confides that he is unhappy and encourages Robbie to tell Julia how he feels. Robbie grapples with his feelings, and eventually decides to tell Julia his true feelings. Meanwhile, Julia confides in her mother that she has fallen out of love with Glenn and has developed feelings for Robbie, and bursts into tears thinking about becoming "Mrs. Julia Gulia". However, upon arriving at her place, Robbie sees her in a window, in her wedding dress, speaking into a mirror (unheard to Robbie, she is saying his name, practicing saying she's 'Mrs Robbie Hart'). Heartbroken, Robbie leaves to get drunk and finds Glenn in the midst of his Pre-wedding bachelor party, arm in arm with another woman. After a heated exchange, Glenn punches Robbie and mocks him. Robbie stumbles home to find Linda waiting for him wanting to reconcile and passes out. The following morning, Linda answers the door and introduces herself as his fiance to a crestfallen Julia. She runs to Glenn, who is sleeping off the events of the previous night and tells him she wants to be married immediately. He offers to take her to Las Vegas reluctantly. Robbie awakens and, after shaking off his hangover from the previous night, rejects Linda's reconciliation, having realized how shallow she is during his time with Julia, and kicks her out. At the 50th wedding anniversary party of his neighbor Rosie, to whom he has been giving singing lessons, he realizes he wants to grow old with Julia and, with Rosie's encouragement, he decides to pursue her. Just then, Holly arrives and informs him of Julia's encounter with Linda, so Robbie rushes to the airport and gets a first-class ticket to Las Vegas. After telling his story to his empathetic fellow passengers, which include Billy Idol, Robbie learns that Glenn and Julia are on the same flight. With the help of Billy and the flight crew, over the loudspeaker, he sings a song he has written called "Grow Old with You", dedicated to Julia. As Robbie enters the main cabin singing, Glenn tries to assault him only to be thwarted and shoved into a lavatory by the flight attendants with assistance from Billy and a large fan. Robbie and Julia admit their love for each other and share a kiss. Billy, impressed by Robbie's song, offers to tell his record company executives about him. Later, Robbie and Julia are married, and a band led by Robbie's friend David performs at their wedding.