PARKS AND RECREATION: Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, and Mike Schur Talk Leslie and Ben’s Wedding

Leave it to PARKS AND RECREATION to zig when they could zag: last week’s episode ended up Ben and Leslie deciding to move up their wedding to that night. And when the duo do get married in tonight’s episode, they have a bit of a time crunch on their hands.

“Part of the fun of the episode is that the wedding was originally planned for May and at this black tie gala that happened in last week’s episode they decide to do it that night,” PARKS AND RECREATION showrunner Mike Schur said during a recent conference call with reporters. “So they basically have two hours to throw it together. So everybody kind of has a role to play and Tom Haverford becomes the officiant and has to get like ordained online in like an hour and Donna plays a role and that we’re for the first time are going to feature beautiful and professionally trained singing voice on the show a couple times…We let her pick which aria she wanted to perform, so that was fun. And it just what’s really nice about it is basically in the opening moments of the episode in order to pull this thing off in sort of claustrophobic PARKS AND REC fashion everyone has to sort of chip in. So there’s a part for everybody to play.”

“Every character is so strong that they kind of suggest a certain task or role that they could play,” he continued. “And then watching those play out over the course of the  [episode]. Like there’s a moment earlier on where when they’re dividing up tasks, Ben says we need rings and Chris Traeger says, ‘Oh let me be on rings. I love what they symbolize,’ which was like a nice little Chris Traeger-y line.”

And because it’s Chris in charge of the rings, things get a little bit crazy.

“The quest for wedding rings is one of the things that has to be taken care of in this ‘can they pull it off, two-hour planning for the wedding event,'” Schur said. “And at one point, we did think about [including] that [pin] box [that Ben used to give Leslie her Knope 2012 pin and then housed her engagement ring]…which is a very special prop for us. But we came up with a different kind of delivery mechanism for the rings — which I think is extremely satisfying. And I would only say that everyone should be sure to watch all the way through the episode and through the tag that occurs at the very end of the episode because that sort of tells the story of the rings. So that’s kind of a key moment.”

While there will be funny moments in the episode, Adam Scott (Ben) admitted he loved how real the wedding felt.

“You know, it really felt like we were at a real wedding,” Scott said. “I mean I think all of us, the whole cast was there [feeling it]. We were all there and it just felt it’s really it was a very special evening, you know. It was at night and we were all there in this wedding and it’s make-believe, but it was all we were all very moved and it was really something.”

“There’s a moment in the wedding episode that’s so, to me, the perfect example of [the show] in a really beautiful and sweet moment [that turns to] just hard laughs,” Amy Poehler (Leslie) added. “And those sharp turns are so hard to do I think and I think Mike does them so well.”

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PARKS AND REC airs Thursdays at 8:30 PM on NBC.

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