Stephen Colbert Wedding: Shutdown Can’t Shut Down Couple’s Marriage Plans (Video)

Stephen Colbert refused to let the government shutdown stop one couple from getting married.

Hundreds of couples have had to cancel wedding ceremonies planned at national parks and monuments that are now closed. But Colbert was having none of that.

“Do you believe that love is bigger than this shutdown?” he asked, announcing the 2013 Government Shutdown Wedding of the Century.

An ordained minister in the church of American Marriage Ministries, he officiated the wedding of Mike Cassesso and MaiLien Le on Thursday’s “Colbert Report.” The couple had planned to wed at the Jefferson Memorial, site of their first date.

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Colbert also hosted a bachelor party featuring a stripper for whom the show didn’t have time, as well as a stand-in best man: Smokey the Bear. He was available because of the closed parks. For the bachelorette party, Colbert did the stripping himself.

All was going well, until a man in panda suit — are China’s national parks shut down, too? — ran in to announce the bride wasn’t coming.

Also read: Stephen Colbert Is Our New Government Shutdown Overlord (Video)

How did the cliffhanger resolve? With Democrats and Republicans hammering out a sensible deal to get our nation running again? Ha, no, of course not.

We don’t want to reveal too much, but Mandy Patinkin and Audra McDonald were on hand to save the day.

Watch the videos:

Part 1:

Part 2: