Director Robert Altman admits that the whole production of the film came as a joke. A reporter had kept asking him during the middle of shooting 3 Women (1977) what he planned to do next and Altman jokingly replied that he was going to film someone's wedding seeing as that was becoming a more common thing to do at the time. Altman said: "I'm going to make a movie about a great big fancy wedding!" As Altman reflected on it, he decided it was actually quite a good idea, as he had never been to a wedding where something didn't go wrong. Altman's off-hand idea manifested itself in a drinking session with his 3 Women (1977) crew that evening after the meeting with the journalist. Within a couple of weeks, Altman had commissioned screenwriter John Considine to start developing a story and a guest list.
John Malkovich, Joan Allen, Gary Sinise, Moira Sinise, Terry Kinney, Alan Wilder, George Wendt, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Houston, and Hedda Lubin were extras.
Instead of using a typical boom mike to pick up dialogue, director Altman required all the actors wear portable microphones to assist in creating overlapping dialogue. He used this technique several times since first developing it for this film.
After discussing her role with director Altman, Lillian Gish was quoted as saying, " I've died in every way you can think of, but I've never died and tried to make it funny. I'll try to do this."
Robert Altman films are known for multiple plots, overlapping dialogue, black comedy and ensemble casts. In relation to the latter, there are 48 featured characters in this movie.