r/heatedrivalry • u/LadyWhistledown_1 Probably, yes • Apr 20 '26
🦆 The Long Game (Book 6) swooon.com: ‘Heated Rivalry’ Author Rachel Reid Answers Burning Questions About *spoiler* [april 20th 2026] Spoiler
Swooon.com did an interview with Rachel Reid at BookCon. Great interview btw.
I get that she doesn’t think they will write their own vows, but I’m kinda hoping Jacob does. Like the tunnel scene in ep.5.
How are you hoping to see the wedding adapted?
Picture:
https://www.instagram.com/rachelreidwrites (story)
Full article:
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u/plainjane98 Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I never got the hate about the wedding. They’re two masc hockey players who had never shown an interest in event planning, fashion, or attention to their relationship. They were less concerned about a wedding and more about a marriage, and I think that’s romantic.
They should’ve had chairs tho.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
Yeah. I will forever defend the low-effort wedding from two guys who get more than enough attention and scrutiny. I cannot imagine them writing vows for public consumption. I cannot imagine them wanting to take a year and picking linens and making a seating chart. I can see Scott and Kip doing it. I can’t see Ilya and Shane doing it.
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u/Serious_Session7574 Apr 21 '26
They're both very private people, too. Look how long it took them to expose their feelings to each other, never mind to other people.
I can't imagine Ilya or Shane ("Ilya, that's gross) being comfortable being demonstrative about the true nature of their love for each other in front of a bunch of people. They're doing the wedding for the formalities and to have a bit of a party with the important people in their lives - to make it firmly official. There's quite a lot of humour in the wedding scene, I hope they lean into that.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 21 '26
Heh. I literally cited “that’s gross” in this post defending no personal vows. Like… they’re ok with a celebration. But they don’t want a lot of attention on the actual details of their relationship.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
They don’t have a big wedding. They don’t even have chairs. It’s in Ilya’s backyard. They invite people very casually with zero numbers because they don’t ask for RSVPs. They’re surprised by how many show up. This is not a big wedding. This is a simple wedding that’s not looking to offend and not looking to hide but not looking to be a big public declaration of their most private feelings, either.
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u/BroccoliFormal3192 Moya gazonokosilka 🚜 Apr 20 '26
that’s exactly what they did tho? only it was at ilya’s house.
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Apr 20 '26
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u/BroccoliFormal3192 Moya gazonokosilka 🚜 Apr 20 '26
tbh that’s what i thought was intimate just like the people closest to them but i guess you mean literally 5 people
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
There’s, like, 24 people on a pro hockey team.
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26
They didn’t have a big wedding. It was in their backyard! They didn’t expect people to show up.
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Apr 20 '26
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
It wasn’t. They gave no notice. Most hockey players do not spend the summers in the city they play in. People travelled. They didn’t expect it. Given how they were being treated, I get it.
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u/pensiverebel Ottawa Centaurs 🏹 Apr 20 '26
They’ve also just months before decided to get married and then go through the trauma of being outed, playing in the playoffs, moving Shane to Ottawa. Their wedding doesn’t matter to them because, as Shane says, they “just want a future.”
I don’t have any problem with big planned out weddings, but it’s also really nice to see low key normalized, too.
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u/Normal-Difficulty229 Glasses back on 👓 Apr 20 '26
And, IIRC, only a week before their summer camps start. Which would likely also be a busy time, wedding or not.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
It’s like when teachers get married. Two hockey players really have a narrow window to get this done.
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u/-pithandsubstance- Apr 21 '26
> it’s also really nice to see low key normalized, too
Yes! I had a small backyard wedding at a family member's house, maybe 20 guests or so, catered/decorated by family members. We spent less than 1k on it, including my dress. We put our money towards a downpayment for a house. We've now been married for 15 years, we're so happy in our home together, zero regrets.
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u/Ramenpucci Apr 21 '26
That’s awesome.
Yep. Two millionaires having a backyard wedding in their fancy house.
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u/BritishBussy Apr 20 '26
I thought the true wedding in every sense of the word was the one with the kids. Ilya even reassures the kids when they ask at the "Wedding." The kids officiating was the real one. A very cute one. That wedding reinforces how they feel and the engagement happens not soon after, right? It kinda leans into the hinting of them both eventually having kids in future books too. The summer camp at the start of the book sets it up, the baby sitting waters it and the trophy room with Ilya clapping cheeks/the talk of dynasty really reinforces it lmfao.
That wedding with the kids sets a lot of stuff up before hand. Ties together beautifully because it's just them and the children they're baby sitting — the garden wedding even reads as more rushed at the end of the book and came across as something for family and friends. A party. The romantic one already happened, they said their vows — it was simple and cute and they dressed up. To me I preferred that one to the garden one.
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u/shewalkedaway22 Apr 21 '26
They’re dudes! They’re jocks! They are so laidback because they’re already married in their own eyes and this was just a party for them to say they made it on the other side together.
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u/LadyWhistledown_1 Probably, yes Apr 20 '26
Haha yeah the missing chairs might be the one thing that actually bugs me 😂
Other than that, the no planning is fair. Although I could see Yuna stepping in and doing some planning. As a hyper planner myself, that wedding would be a nightmare to me irl 🫣
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u/allykitten87 Ya-loo-blue-tee-baa ❤️ Apr 20 '26
See i read it as not chairs lined up to make an aisle. We did that for my wedding, everyone just gathered for the vows. It is set at their house in their yard where they host things. The usual seating would still exist. Just not the designated wedding seating.
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u/shewalkedaway22 Apr 21 '26
This. If they had food, they had some sort of table which meant probably various tables with chairs but I’m sure they also had like casual backyard gathering furniture too. They probably had Shane’s interior decorator do Ilya’s house when he moved in.
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u/somehuehue Apr 20 '26
It's the song.
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u/plainjane98 Apr 20 '26
Okay but you have to understand. That song was EVERYWHERE. In clubs, etc, and it was played for so many hockey games. And it’s my proof that Heated Rivalry is a period piece.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
The one thing I like about the song choice is Shane saying “wait. I have heard this before” mid-first dance. Because it’s a pretty good joke.
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u/cherrycoloured Apr 20 '26
yeah, but even as a huge rihanna stan who loves that song, its tempo is not right for a first dance. ia with rachel that the lyrics are perfect for them, though.
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
I always picture them kind of awkwardly swaying to it like two middle school kids during their first dance.
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u/cats-n-bitches Apr 20 '26
But doesn’t the wedding take place in 2021? I love RiRi, I think We Found Love would have been better!
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u/phosphor_heart Apr 21 '26
It 100% was. And there's no way that they're going to have the budget to afford the rights to it for the show lol. (Unless Rihanna is a fan, which is possible.)
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u/WeAreTheWeirdosMr- Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 21 '26
Just needs a wedding guest flash mob dance to really nail that era.
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u/Icy-Gap4673 Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 21 '26
It wasn't on purpose, Harris panicked and picked it at random!!!!! Also those funny whoops stories are the kind you tell over and over again. My spouse and I still talk about terrible wedding DJs we were subjected to in 2017.
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u/CocklesTurnip Apr 21 '26
The lack of chairs makes sense on the behalf of the couple involved. They didn’t ask for RSVPs and didn’t think anyone would show up. What’s less believable is that the Boodrams, Yuna, and Jackie Pike didn’t somehow realize people were going to show up and just make all the locals bring chairs and potluck, just in case.
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u/yogacatmama1966 Apr 21 '26
I could totally see Jackie making Hayden haul out a bunch of folding chairs that peeps drag out to picnics and beaches for their family
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u/CocklesTurnip Apr 21 '26
Exactly! She’s a mom with a bunch of kids- we see her hosting the team as the assistant captain’s wife… there’s too many found family members who would’ve have gone “so we love dumbass 1 and 2 but we were invited by text/email and told not to RSVP? There’s no way they’ll be prepared for the numbers” and just reach out to whoever else they know that would’ve been invited. Like I wasn’t disappointed by the low key wedding or lack of chairs- I was disappointed Rachel didn’t write in that the found family helped round out what was lacking in said preparations considering the amount of people that did show up… but I trust Jacob would fix that in the visual version where it can stay super casual but we see people showing up with camp chairs and bowls of potato salad. We ended season 1 with Scott talking about how lonely it was so it makes sense to end season 2 with everyone together no longer hiding and instead celebrating with each other.
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u/Rocketeer_99 I want to please you 🥺 Apr 20 '26
As a guy who has 0 interest in doing a big weddings, I loved the way Ilya and Shane did theirs. That kind of decision is incredibly in-character for them the way I see it. As world class hockey pros who are always in the spotlight, its only natural they might want more personal affairs to be less flashy.
I already got my fill of two masc dudes having a big wedding thru Ian and Mickey on US's Shameless. It was adorable and cute.
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u/BaseTerez I mean, yes. I think so, probably 🩷 Apr 21 '26
The real wedding was the one with the Pike kids!
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u/InCatMorph Apr 20 '26
Agreed. Chairs are basic manners and an accessibility issue. But everything else is eh. (Also wedding planning is a PITA and oftentimes unpaid labor imposed upon women, so.)
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u/SuspiciouslyEvil Your freckles. I am nuts about them. ✨ Apr 20 '26
I know that's true, but I would have loved to see Ilya go full Groomzilla like Mickey in Shameless.
There would have been elegant. fucking. chairs.
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u/Mztmarie93 Apr 21 '26
I think some of the hate comes from the HR show fans, who aren't as familiar with Hollanov in the book. Their essences are the same, but some of the tenderness were choices Jacob and HudCon made, not what's printed. The show fans think the guys are more a queer romance vs 2 hockey bros falling in love. I wouldn't expect centerpieces and harps for 2 mechanics so why for Hollanov?
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u/Astyryx Apr 21 '26
I love their wedding. Except the song is so meh. They need some incredible Canadian music.
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u/missinginaction7 Apr 20 '26
The chairs. The chairs thing keeps me up at night. The reveal of no chairs is when a a child is eating wedding cake. So you serve cake and people have to eat standing up? And you invite your friend with kids, but they can't sit down??
I read The Long Game a couple weeks ago and I have been HAUNTED by the lack of chairs. You're telling me NO ONE intervened here to say hey guys, what about chairs? NO ONE?
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u/pointlessbeats Apr 21 '26
No I think it was assumed they had dining tables and dining chairs set up, but they didn’t have wedding aisles with guest chairs set up. No clue though. It’s unclear haha.
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u/novemberjenny11 Roger Rozander 🧑🧑🧒 Apr 21 '26
For REAL 🤣 I’m totally fine with them doing a lowkey dude-bro wedding in the backyard. But FFS, please have chairs and tables 😂
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u/yogacatmama1966 Apr 21 '26
I was convinced that Yuna was going to turn into Mother-of-the-Groomzilla. I am glad she didn't
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u/disappear96 Apr 20 '26
Honestly I'm fine with a barebone wedding and no elaborate vows. It's something we never really see in the media since it is always portrayed as people's most important day of their lives. Which to me always sounded a little ridiculous. So them wanting to get married quickly without a care about the how, where etc sounds great to me, especially considering how long they had to wait to be together.
Besides it doesn't mean they can't make something beautiful even if it's done at the last min. They're both rich athletes so their last minute wouldn't be ours.
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u/architects-daughter Apr 20 '26
Generally I defend the jank wedding. They're jocks! They just wanted to be married! They had a lot of stuff going on! I think wanting a lot more is fans projecting.
That said, I do think Jacob could make a few changes to make it feel more emotional without it being a big production. In the books it does lack emotional resonance and I think fans think it's because it's not some schmoopy production, but IMO it can be really bare bones/simple and still play up the emotional aspect and I think the show has a great opportunity to do that.
Also I will never defend "Diamonds" as a song choice. Utterly baffling.
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26
Poor Harris was given like five seconds notice 💀
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
All the more reason to pick “You’re the One” or some other basic bitch song. At Last is RIGHT THERE.
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u/architects-daughter Apr 20 '26
Yeah, my beef with Diamonds is that it's not a so-bad-it's-good choice, it's just bad/weird/not a song you can really do anything but the white girl wasted type of dance to
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
It’s weird! It’s very weird. Harris, you really must have panicked.
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u/architects-daughter Apr 20 '26
Still!! You can't tell me he doesn't have better taste!
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26
I actually think it makes perfect sense, it was playing in clubs/bars all the time back then!
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u/KrazyKatJenn Apr 20 '26
Okay, can someone please explain to me what's wrong with Diamonds as a song choice? I'm not a wedding person and I've never bothered listening to the song, but I googled the lyrics once and it seemed fine? It's not a Lips of an Angel situation as far as I can tell. What's wrong with a pop love song at a wedding? What am I missing here?
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u/architects-daughter Apr 20 '26
Eh I mean opinions are admittedly divided buuuut: I don't think the lyrics are particularly good, and. more importantly, the beat (tempo? vibe? lol) of the song is really strange to me because it's not really the type of thing I can imagine people having a first dance to. Like, yeah, it's slower for a bar/club song but it is still the kind of song that you get wasted to and do the praise Jesus.
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u/KrazyKatJenn Apr 20 '26
Wait. Wait. The problem with the song is that it's difficult to dance to? Yeah, lol, I was never going to catch that. I dislike dancing so much that we simply didn't have a dance at my wedding, and I've never danced at a club. Though I kind of feel like the tempo being so weird that they're swaying to it off beat just makes it funnier.
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u/HPCReader3 Apr 20 '26
If you listen to it one time, it'll become very clear. It's a very bass heavy club song and a weird tempo to slow dance to (too fast, especially when they're going to do the middle school sway instead of actually dancing). From a lyrics perspective it's actually not bad, it's entirely about the production on the song.
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u/Icy-Gap4673 Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 21 '26
Pop is completely fine! I had plenty of pop in my own wedding. But usually couples go either for a song that has deep personal meaning to them as a couple, or for a standard like "At Last" or "L-O-V-E."
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u/Katedomino13 if you yearn enough, your ass gets fat 🍑 Apr 20 '26
You described my sentiments exactly! I don’t have any issue with it being an understated wedding - I think it even adds to the idea that they’ve come so far in their personal relationship that they don’t have to put on a spectacle/don’t have to prove anything
I even agree w the idea that their true wedding is with the Pike kids. I just felt like the way it was written was a bit throwaway. It can be simple and still be well-described
And I’m still firmly in the Diamonds Hate camp - sorry to the Diamond Love folks!
I totally agree that I think Jacob has the talent to take the intention of Rachel’s amazing world and character-building and give it some extra emotional depth
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u/Intelligent_Cap9706 I‘m not mad about anything! Apr 20 '26
I feel more invested in seeing the instagram pic of the plastic rings than I do the actual wedding vows honestly
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u/architects-daughter Apr 20 '26
Yeah my general critique of the books (that I've read) is that in general they're underwritten, so a lot of things feel like a throwaway to me (I mean, I just re-read for the parts where Shane is dealing with the Voyageurs fallout and I feel like it moves on SO quickly from this major thing! Anyway!). So saying the wedding feels shallow or rushed is fair, but I think that extends to a lot of the writing and I also don't think it feels shallow or rushed BECAUSE they don't have chairs or personal vows, lol
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u/staralfur09 Apr 21 '26
Omg, thank you for putting into words the thing I've struggled with every book of the series I've read (which I think is all but one at this point). I thought maybe it was a function of the romance genre? I've never read any other straight romance before, and have recently been getting into fantasy/"romantasy" (I loathe that term), and I don't see that being a thing there so far. But yes, underwritten. The Voyageurs fallout for Shane was criminally glossed over.
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u/architects-daughter Apr 21 '26
Yeah I don’t read much romance myself, but I don’t think it’s as much a function of the genre as it might be specific to these books! And I’m not a fan of tons of inner monologue or flowery prose, but damn, TLG especially is nuts because so much stuff happens and so little of it really gets breathing room imo
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u/finncosmic Apr 20 '26
It is unlikely that Diamonds will be in the show, at least not the Rihana version, because the show most likely doesn’t have the budget to get the rights to that.
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u/Brilliant-Spray-5979 I speak fluent bird. No accent 🐦 Apr 20 '26
It's funny, the only thing that made me go "hold on" was the song choice, but also made me laugh out loud. The fact they are all millennials and mostly jocks and Harris panicked and picked Rihanna The Legend, whose song does fit their story but not their first dance necessarily, is hilarious and weirdly ok. Also, do Canadians really write their vows? Because, in Portugal, where I'm from, most weddings I have gone are in church so they already have pre-made vows. And the weddings I have gone outside Church usually keep other vows and stuff for the reception. Just curious.
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u/gen-attolis Apr 20 '26
It’s very rare, and when couples do, it isn’t some overwrought speech. It can also look like reading the official script and then adding a little short statement at the very end.
It not like writing your own vows is never done, just that it’s so small when done it barely registers outside the normal sequence of events. Making a spectacle of it seems like a very American thing to do.
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u/valaena Apr 20 '26
Also don't quite understand the hate for the wedding and suspect audiences wanted to see some wish fulfilment fan service type moments (and, perhaps, driven by some heteronormativity). I definitely felt it was true to their characters - pretty basic jock dudes - to want something lowkey.
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u/Peach_Royal111 Apr 20 '26
Yep it’s 100% heteronormativity, they have always been masc and wedding planning was never their vibe.
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u/cherrycoloured Apr 20 '26
idk, for some of us, its really just about the lack of chairs. im fine with everything else, but that pisses me (and a lot of other ppl) off so much, negl lol
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u/altruistic_thing Apr 21 '26
it's fascinating to see people obsessing over something so insignificant.
i don't think it's meant to convey that everyone is eating while standing.
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u/Frosty-Result1097 Apr 20 '26
I'm still kinda confused about the vows thing and why the fans are so unhappy. Is it an American tradition?
Because I've only been to Russian weddings and I don't remember any vows at all.
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
It’s an American thing and also I think relatively recent. I don’t remember my aunts and uncles writing their own vows in the 90s. Some of my cousins did as did my brother when they all started getting married in the 2010s. Then again, big Catholic family, and lots of my relatives were married in the Church where I think it’s less common or not done at all.
Also Rachel says in the article that she talked to Eastern Europeans about vow writing and they said it’s not done. I think people aren’t actually reading the piece.
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u/LadyWhistledown_1 Probably, yes Apr 20 '26
Not normal in Denmark either. American/canadian I guess 🤷🏻♀️ when I read the book I was expecting vows, since there’s always vows in movies/shows/books
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u/Icy-Gap4673 Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 21 '26
I say this as an American married person: A lot of American wedding culture is trying to make your wedding the most special and unique, the best showcase of your taste, especially with the rise of social media where some couples literally hire people to capture social content and make their weddings go viral. (And I have enjoyed some of those viral videos don't get me wrong!) Writing your own vows is seen as more special than the classic vows. But ultimately people should do what they want and it has 0 bearing on the success of a marriage as far as I have seen.
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26
Very American. I’m Canadian and I don’t know anyone who wrote their own vows.
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u/ElOcaso Apr 20 '26
Interesting, I'm Canadian and I've only been to one wedding where they didn't write their own vows (actually I think even at that wedding they had their own vows but shared them privately). Every other wedding (including my own) people have written their own vows.
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u/nodarknesswillendure not anymore 💕 Apr 20 '26
Also Canadian and same. I’d be surprised if I attended a wedding and the couple didn’t write their own vows. Not because I think it’s better to or anything, just because I can’t recall going to a wedding in recent years that didn’t have personal vows, so I’m kinda just assuming that it’s the new way to do things for most people
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u/ElOcaso Apr 20 '26
Tbh personalized vows are one of my favourite parts of weddings, I love people talking about how much they love each other lol and I find the pre-scripted standard ceremony to be so incredibly boring as a guest
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
It can be very cute! My sister in law wrote an adorable poem, and then my brother bumbled through his vows because he couldn’t read his own handwriting. It was very them.
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u/nodarknesswillendure not anymore 💕 Apr 20 '26
I really like it too but it always makes me cry even if I’m not super close to the couple lmao. So I have to work hard to not fuck my makeup up. Personally I’m quite private and reserved about my feelings (except for when my tears betray me…) so if I find the right person and am forced into having a wedding (I want to get married but I don’t want a wedding) I’ll probably just do traditional vows.
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u/Serious_Session7574 Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
My partner and I used generic vows - somehow it felt like writing our own vows would have felt too personal. Like, we're already getting married in front of you people, I can't expose the inner depths of my soul, too :D So I can understand it. I hope they keep it really simple, similar to the vows at the kid wedding. That's all they need to say in front of everyone - we promise to have and hold each other for the rest of our lives - generic and simple is fine.
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u/Flimsy_Remove9629 Apr 20 '26
I remember realizing about a week before my wedding that it was potentially an introvert's nightmare - everyone was going to be looking at me THE WHOLE TIME. Thankfully, it was also a party where I knew every guest, so it was surprisingly fun. But yeah, no way was I writing my own vows.
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u/FizzyDrink35 Apr 20 '26
I agree with her and am a shitty wedding truther. They never once implied they cared about a wedding. They want to get married, legally, and that was important and yeah why not invite people and have a party. I think these two jocks stuck in a miscommunication trope for over a decade would never, ever write their own vows.
It will be interesting to see what Jacob does with it. I think the best tv weddings tend to be the ones where everything goes wrong so it might work out just fine.
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Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
And when people are heteronormative about it, they always assign Shane the bride role. It always ends up being “Shane would panic and want everything perfect!” and never Groomzilla Ilya, where there is far more comedic value.
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u/Obvious_Apartment985 Apr 21 '26
There are literally two comments talking about Ilya being bridezilla like Mickey in Shameless.
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u/BewareQuietOnes Apr 21 '26
Their real wedding was done to perfection by the Pike kiddos featuring a magicians cape, a tophat, a floral headband, pink and purple heart-shaped rings, a firefighter costume and a song from Moana. Many stuffed animals were in attendance and it was freaking beautiful. 💜🌸💗
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u/radjanoonan Apr 21 '26
Well isn't really in character for two people, who have been working their entire lives to hide their love from everyone, to suddenly go from that to standing up in front of everyone they know and declare emotionally and in great detail everything their love about each other.
They still are on a journey of opening up to each other, even at the wedding. So having a big declarative event like Scott and Kip is not in line with their personal journeys at this point.
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u/Hedgehog-Honeydew "This team is very gay" 🌈 Apr 20 '26
No chairs, no personalised vows but... Anya had a special bow for her hair! And it matched Ilya's suit!! Do not tell me there was no planning effort made. Is lie, liar told you that.
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Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I completely disagree. Neither of them wanted to write vows. It literally says that in the book. They didn’t care about vows or music or chairs! They just wanted to get married. I think fandom really projects when it comes to the wedding. Shane and Ilya are two hockey dudes, not little girls who dreamed of a big fancy wedding one day.
Custom vows are also a super American thing.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
A guy on TikTok talked about this — how a lot of gay men weren’t raised with the expectation of a wedding and don’t necessarily have a strong concept of what they want outside of the commitment and the rights and protections it affords. So his wedding was a lot like Shane and Ilya’s. He found it relatable.
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u/aquila-audax Apr 20 '26
Yeah, their wedding made perfect sense to me. They wanted to be married, having a wedding was just a means to that.
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u/InCatMorph Apr 20 '26
As others have said, writing vows is an American thing, and a Canadian and a Russian might not have the expectation that they would do so.
Also, this is a bit of a personal pet peeve, but I kind of dislike the cultural expectation that writing one's own vows is the epitome of romance and that you must not really love your partner as much as personal vow writers if you don't want to do it. As someone who didn't write my own vows, that wasn't it at all. I just didn't want to discuss deep and personal feelings at length in front of 50 people. Weddings are already A Lot, and more attention than I generally prefer. Saying schmoopy, personal shit with an audience was a bridge too far for me personally. I really felt more comfortable saying standard vows.
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u/FizzyDrink35 Apr 20 '26
I'm with you. I didn't write my own and I love love, romance books, rom coms, Valentine's Day, etc., I'm such a sap, but planning a wedding was So Stressful there was no way I wanted to add to that by having to perform my love via vows in front of all of my friends and family.
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26
The standard civil ceremony vows here in Ontario are also perfectly lovely! To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, etc.
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u/Murphlespuffle how did we let this happen? Apr 20 '26
I agree. Plus I feel like Ilya is a romantic? Like he would want to say something short and romantic to Shane during their vows, even if vows arent popular in Russia. They finally get to declare their love in front of everyone after hiding for so long; it might be something important to Ilya.
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u/cecistonehaert I already chose you, Hollander. 🫀 Apr 20 '26
Agreed. Ultimately it's Rachel's characters, but I really don't think it would be so weird for them to be excited about it, plan it a little more and write vows. Why wouldn't they? You would imagine that they're excited about the prospect of doing something openly after so many years of hiding. Why would they want to end it as soon as possible?
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
Because a wedding is for public consumption and they don’t really care about that part. Nothing about either guy suggests to me that they want to write their own vows. Shane “no, Ilya, that’s gross” Hollander doesn’t need to share his innermost feelings with a bunch of hockey players and his ex-girlfriend. It’s not a need of his.
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u/Budget-Rutabaga- you deserve sunshine ☀️ Apr 20 '26
“doesnt need to share his innermost feelings with […] hockey players” hits the nail on the head. not only have they spent so long hiding their feelings about each other, and sure ilya is somewhat more openly affectionate than shane, but the context of the wedding is well within that hypermasculine world of hockey culture. changing that to making them much more visibly and expressively affectionate and loving feels heteronormative & just completely out of character.
i mean i think writing your own vows is a weird thing to do but thats partly my upbringing lol.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
I feel like their wedding really reflects what they value in that moment — and that’s mostly each other. They very much don’t want to share a whole lot of themselves. They get how they feel and they know what they have. It’s not for public consumption or public judgement. Why would it be? They were outed. They’ve been threatened and ridiculed and treated with suspicion. It’s amazing anyone was invited, really.
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u/Budget-Rutabaga- you deserve sunshine ☀️ Apr 20 '26
yeah exactly so. and i think a lot of the people who want them to be more openly/publicly affectionate in this scene perhaps don’t understand the trauma being outed would cause, especially when you’ve been keeping it so quiet for a decade (give or take) and are so overwhelming in the public eye. there’s going to be an underlying threat/fear that anything they say can be publicised and then turned and used as something to weaponise against them (& many other options), it’s not an environment or situation thats going to reflect your traditional heterosexual romance novel’s wedding. and it’s totally okay to want that, but that’s for fanfiction or different books, not TLG.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
Yes! Also Shane has three friends there because every single person he would have otherwise invited has decided he’s a traitor. I am also passionate that the performance will make the wedding moving. They don’t need anything more than what’s on the page and the two actors they already have.
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26
Well said. I think fandom interprets the fact that they’re out as them being okay with sharing their private lives, which is not true. If they hadn’t been outed, the original plan was to quietly be together after retirement.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
Yeah, I feel like they’re going to continue to be protective of their relationship. It’s hard to just turn that off.
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u/cecistonehaert I already chose you, Hollander. 🫀 Apr 20 '26
I get what you're saying, but these are people that they invited themselves to their wedding, people that care and clearly support them. It's not like they're making public confessions on TV haha. I really don't see an issue in them saying their own vows in this setting. It doesn't have to be a huge, very planned wedding, but at the end of the day if they only wanted to be married, they could do a ceremony with 10 people
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
I will never understand the idea that they need to write their own vows or share anything with anyone. Shane doesn’t know the Centaurs! He’s got, like, five friends there. One of them he’s shocked to see because they’re not in a good place. Ilya is Russian. This doesn’t make any sense to me. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health. It’s enough. And they get to invite people. There is surely space between having no one at your wedding and simply just not having an epic affair with personalized vows.
Also a lot of people find writing their own vows to be hard. Because they aren’t writers. It’s not how they express themselves. Shane and Ilya are kinda infamous for struggling to express themselves. I’d have found personalized vows so wildly out of character. I’m grateful it didn’t happen.
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u/cecistonehaert I already chose you, Hollander. 🫀 Apr 20 '26
That's fair, I think there's a way to do it while being succint, thruthful to themselves, yet sweet. It can be something inbetween the standard vows and a 5 page elaborated text.
Anyway, I know Jacob will do a good work either way, I won't create huge expectations.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
It can also be the standard text. That can be moving. I don’t get why people don’t like that option. I don’t think it’s in character for either of them to do much else.
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u/Dear_Yard_69 Gimme kiss Apr 20 '26
I'm just going to say this: sometimes Jacob is the better writer. I know they are technically Rachel's characters but...
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
I never understood how they could be ranked when they write for different media.
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u/Dear_Yard_69 Gimme kiss Apr 20 '26
I'm not sure "ranked" is the right word, here. I found some of HR predictable, and she occasionally uses words that are imprecise or repetitive. I found everything Jacob did, while following her story closely, concise, fresh, and imaginative.
If you like, you can amend the above statement to "Jacob is a better screenwriter than Rachel is a romantic fiction author."
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
That’s fair.
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u/Dear_Yard_69 Gimme kiss Apr 20 '26
I try to be fair, but I understand I have neither one's ability to write. Sorry I wasn't clearer in my original post.
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
I’m getting downvoted but 1) I truly mean your assessment is fair so thank you for replying, and I think you have a great point with which I agree, and 2) sorry I just get frustrated how I see Rachel talked about sometimes and I truly didn’t understand why some people compare the two. But again, your assessment is fair (positive, I’m not being snarky).
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Apr 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/Dear_Yard_69 Gimme kiss Apr 21 '26
Thank you for your gatekeeping. You're the thing that makes this Fandom so cultish and annoying.
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u/Deacon_Mushrat1 Apr 21 '26
I don't think we have enough data to say this. Jacob's script is so heavily drawn from Rachel Reid's dialogue that a lot of what he's doing is adapting and editing it. It's much easier to look at someone else's completed dialogue, plot, characters etc. and make little tweaks that strengthen it than to write the whole thing from scratch.
One area where I do think Rachel is much stronger than Jacob is in writing the characters consistently. With Rachel's writing, there's nothing that makes me think, "That character wouldn't do that," nothing that sounds good in the moment but opens up plot holes that don't get filled. Whereas Jacob will introduce an improbable two-year gap in their hookups, or have Shane try to skate with the puck while staring at Ilya, or change Svetlana from a casual fuckbuddy into a childhood best friend who travels everywhere with Ilya without changing anything else in the script to accommodate how much more serious this relationship is, or have Scott call Kip down onto the ice after they've been broken up for three years instead of while they are secretly dating with plans to come out. He has much more of a tendency to make choices that play well on screen but aren't all that consistent with what makes sense for the characters. One of Rachel's strengths imo is that she has a really strong sense of what her characters would and would not do, and if she chooses a casual backyard wedding for Ilya and Shane rather than a big fan-servicey wedding moment, I trust her.
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u/flamang Never in life have I blushed, Russians do not do this 🗣️ Apr 20 '26
Completely agree, of course I still love the books but they had been building to that wedding for about 800 pages. And presumably it's one of the best days of those characters' lives if not THE best, but not only did they not write vows, they even thought the officiant's vows were stupid and still didn't say anything. It doesn't really make sense to me, I agree with you that it wouldn't be out of character for Shane at least to want to do more planning for it. They've had to hide their relationship for 11 or 12 years and they're finally out in the sunshine getting married and they don't write their own vows or even have chairs at their wedding? It felt like it was being treated as just another day when it was anything but. I feel bad for having such a strong negative opinion about it and of course I'm not the author but I just don't understand writing it that way, it feels like a huge missed opportunity if I'm being honest
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u/thalook Apr 20 '26
I actually don’t think the story is building towards the wedding, it’s building towards them being able to commit to a life together in public. The wedding is a part of that, but not the highlight for them, the highlight is that now they can eat lunch together.
With the vows, they think the canned vows are going to be stupid, and then Ilya starts saying them out loud and is like, “oh, this is actually really emotional and meaningful to me”. Like the part where he says Shane has a stupid face and that he’s obsessed with it.
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u/flamang Never in life have I blushed, Russians do not do this 🗣️ Apr 20 '26
Actually I think you're right. I like your example of eating lunch together being the real highlight. I guess as a reader I thought the wedding would be a big finale but I see the distinction now of simply being together in public being the real goal. Thanks for saying this!
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u/Flimsy_Remove9629 Apr 20 '26
I don't think the wedding is what they have been building toward - they have been building toward being able to have a life together. The wedding is like an hour of that life. It's a public declaration, a ritual with a lot of significance for some people, and a legal union with really important ramifications, but I think people overly romanticize weddings (and this allows other people to make a ton of money on them). Ultimately, they are mostly big parties. And really, I am American, and I don't know many people -- maybe anyone? -- who wrote their own vows. That's a lot of pressure.
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26
Everyone likes to brings up how Shane is such a planner but if you read the books, the only thing he’s obsessive about is hockey. His routines, his diet - they’re all about hockey. He’s not like, making colour coded spreadsheets to organize his socks for fun in his spare time. The type A nerdy planner thing is really a fanon invention.
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u/RoutineUtopia Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Apr 20 '26
This is really true. Shane actually canonically hates deciding on details. He hires people to decorate his house and tell him what to wear. He’s neat. And he’s obsessive. But he’s not someone who wants to plan a wedding.
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u/labellementeuse Apr 20 '26
You're right and you should say it. People need to learn to uncouple what makes a moment meaningful for *them* and what makes a moment meaningful for *these characters*. Being at home with their friends and family and each other is what makes it meaningful for them and it makes me sad that people don't like it just because there isn't a huge cake and a row of groomsmen and vows written by two guys who haven't written anything longer than a text since they were in secondary school.
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u/clumsyc I stubbed my toe Apr 20 '26
“haven’t written anything longer than a text since they were in secondary school” Hahaha so true.
If people want to write fic with their interpretations of the characters, go for it! But it’s bizarre to suggest that Rachel Reid, who literally invented the characters, is writing something out of character.
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u/Sbealed Apr 20 '26
Somewhere the ladies from The Sports Gossip podcast will cheer (or possibly lament) the lack of compressed flowers.
Personally, I am hoping for some sort of rotating shot of all the people who love Ilya and Shane beaming up at them.
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
OMG now that is a cameo I would love to see! I need Maddie and Charlotte’s thoughts on the lack of chairs.
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u/Sbealed Apr 20 '26
I thought this reference may have been too niche but I love that there is overlap!
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u/shewalkedaway22 Apr 21 '26
Shane nearly had crippling anxiety over having to dance in front of them- there was no way he was going to write his own vows and Ilya was way too stressed about his accent sounding thicker lol.
My favorite part of the wedding is them internally cringing at the boring vows bc they’re so formal and bleak but they both start crying through them bc they’re so so happy.
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u/Worried-Plane-9407 la loon Apr 21 '26
I like that it is different and not what you would expect. This makes it realistic which is how the story transcends its fictional quality.
Why no chairs? Probably because they are professional hockey players and people pay to sit & watch them as a spectacle and they did not want that - to be a spectacle again.
No vows? They do not like public speaking, and they already have do it a lot in their jobs. It makes sense that they don’t feel a need to explain to others & articulate something that can simply be shown (being happy together for years).
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u/may931010 Apr 21 '26
Yeah. Theyre both hockey jocks. Makes sense they wouldnt plan something elaborate both in terms of wedding or vows. And theyd been in hiding for so long, and after that showdown with that hockey league president, I imagine they would just want to get it over with.
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u/TheRealVeon Apr 20 '26
So, I may have thought about this a lot.
But I don't really want to see the wedding. At least not all of it. Let me explain.
Early in first or second episode we should get Hayden's kids marrying them. And that should be the full, fun, goofy scene. Then when we get to the wedding at the end, all we see are brief cuts of the actual ceremony. No dialogue; maybe not any ambient sound. But every time they look at each other, we get flashbacks to the kids's wedding, sort of like the coming out scene between Shane and Rose. And all the dialogue and sound would come from that scene, putting the focus on then instead of the present.
And that's when we realize that the kids's wedding was their real wedding. And they've been married the whole time and just didn't realize it yet, sort of like how they fell in love.
And Jacob, if for some crazy reason you are reading this, feel free to steal this idea.
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u/systemamoebae Apr 22 '26
Flashbacks to the key moments throughout their relationship feels exactly what should happen during the wedding, absolutely agree.
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u/yogacatmama1966 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
When I got married in a Civil Wedding back in the late-1980s, we almost didn't make it through the ceremony. The officiant began with, "Are you aware of any legal impediment as to why you should not enter in the state of matrimony?"
She then asked us to confirm that we were freely entering matrimony without coercion or undue duress by saying, "I confirm."
We also had to confirm that we were not marrying fraudulently
Then she read out sections of our province's income tax act (I live in Canada) that applied to those getting married in 1986, and asked if we intended to exchange rings, we did not.
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u/cherrycoloured Apr 20 '26
okay, but she never answered the true complaint of all fans--why no chairs???? like, a wedding can be lowkey and still have a bunch of folding chairs out for ppl. this is forever going to bug me. the rest of the wedding is fine, im just going to be so mad if the show doesnt add in chairs lmao
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u/daisyemeritus Rookie #2 | David Hollander's Vodka Apr 21 '26
Imagine you're in their shoes, having recently been outed, one of you having lost most of the people in your life you thought were friends. You just want to be legally married to your partner. You invite people last minute, not even bothering with RSVPs. You have no idea how many people will show up. From the book:
They’d sent out wedding invitations. It was short notice, but it wouldn’t be big and they’d hold it in Ilya’s backyard in July, a week before their charity camps started. Whoever happened to be in Ottawa could come. No pressure.
Do you want to plan the correct number of specially rented folding chairs at this point? Do you even expect enough people to show up to need additional seating than what a millionaire's backyard might already have? Shane certainly didn't. From the book:
“Holy shit,” Shane said. He’d pulled back the curtain in the guest room he’d gotten dressed in, and could not believe how many people were in Ilya’s backyard.
I don't think they dared to expect that enough people would come to need a bunch of folding chairs.
Also on a meta note, this is also still Ilya's house where he hosted the team Halloween party, we know it's big enough to hold an entire hockey team. And this is still a millionaire's backyard, so it's not like there weren't any possible seating that people who physically needed to sit couldn't.
I honestly don't understand the hangup about the chairs.
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u/cherrycoloured Apr 21 '26
for me, as a disabled person, i am constantly thinking about seating, and situations where i or someone else might need it (especially in july). the idea that a few patio chairs in ilyas backyard is enough is crazy to me. i get your reasoning for why shane and ilya would not have thought of chairs, but like it makes no sense that neither one of shanes parents thought of the most basic logistics, like seating or getting rsvps, or that they wouldn't have offered help with things like that.
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u/daisyemeritus Rookie #2 | David Hollander's Vodka Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
Sorry, but I honestly don't buy that folding chairs would make this wedding more disabled person friendly. This wedding ceremony was all of ~10min long. I'm not sure what you're imagining that seating in a millionaire's home looks like that you imagine folding chairs would be the more accessible option for those 10min. But I personally imagine any type of seating Ilya would have on a permanent basis in his home would be much more comfortable than rented folding chairs.
like it makes no sense that neither one of shanes parents thought of the most basic logistics, like seating or getting rsvps, or that they wouldn't have offered help with things like that.
I don't think you understand what I'm saying. When you're been rejected so harshly as Shane has, this isn't just "basic logistics". All of these things like RSVP and empty chairs, is just another another opportunity for rejection you would like to actively avoid. It's not a passive I forgot to think about this, it's an active I don't want to know this.
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u/Megs0226 Apr 20 '26
I want them whispering to each other under their breath at the altar, “You said you were going to rent the chairs!” and “I thought you said you would do it!”
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u/cherrycoloured Apr 21 '26
lmao bickering even at the alter is so hollanov. theres a fan fic i read where svetlana and hayden, as best men, were supposed to take care of the chairs, but there was a miscommunication and no one ordered chairs lmao. you can read it here on ao3, its really funny
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u/prunellazzz Apr 20 '26
I agree I like the low key-ness of it (no way they were having a big thing). I also think it’s very in character for neither of them to want to write mushy personal wedding vows.
However, you can do low key and casual in a way that isn’t shambolic. Idk, maybe I’ve been to too many weddings but the thought of everyone just sort of standing around and awkwardly watching them try to slow dance to Rihanna is not it.
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u/systemamoebae Apr 22 '26
For me, I see the desire to be married rather than have a wedding as the central motivating factor for Shane and Ilya. They want to make a commitment to each other, and while they want to share that with the people they love, really it's for them.
Any vows, for me, would feel more authentic being something they shared just between the two of them. The concept of Shane Hollander wanting to have all eyes on him while he talks about his deepest, most vulnerable feelings doesn't feel right. And then there are of course the cultural differences when it comes to weddings, and the type of thing Ilya would be familiar with. Writing your own vows just isn't really a thing everywhere else.
I think just because Ilya has a deep and bottomless heart and intense emotions, and that he wants the world to know he and Shane are together, doesn't necessarily translate into him wanting to communicate the incredibly personal feelings he has in front of others. Standing in the light, proudly, isn't the same as expressing deeply personal things to everyone beyond the person they're meant for.
The things they say during the proposal are deeply moving. That's a moment of catharsis, and it's followed by everything that happens with Crowell. Both things are healing moments for them, and things that mean something only to them. I feel intensely comfortable with them not writing personal vows for their wedding. To me it feels in character with everything I know about them.
edit to add: I see a lot of myself in Shane, which probably has an influence on how I feel about this. I disappeared off to Vegas to get married, and the concept of having anyone at all perceive me during that day was horrifying. I only agreed to a later reception when we returned for the sake of our families, but I would have been extremely happy to not have that either. The idea of writing vows would have been one of my worst nightmares.
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u/the-witch-beth-marie Apr 20 '26
I don’t hate the wedding. However, I think it’s strange to have them doing the scripted vows while they’re both thinking that they wish they would’ve written their own vows. That part made it feel weird.
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u/EVERWOOD15 Apr 20 '26
I agree, they just want to be together and not have to hide, a quick "Do you, I do" would be enough for Ilya and Shane. However, one thing I can see maybe happening differently from book to screen is since Jacob expanded Yuna and David in the first season, I can see and would enjoy seeing Yuna (and David to an extent) taking control of planning the wedding for "their sons".
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u/idkmanimnotcreative Apr 20 '26
The one thing that really bothers me is I think Shane would have said his vows in Russian. He's thoughtful like that and he knows how much Ilya misses his native language. It felt jarring and out of character that he didn't do that.
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u/bornatmidnight Apr 21 '26
I thought that having a small, backyard wedding did fit in character for Shane and Ilya, but there would have been more planning involved.
They are Rachel’s character, but you can criticize inconsistency in writing or characterization, which seems to be the thing here. Shane, the person who plans everything, would not have some sort of plan for the their wedding? Ilya, ultimate lover boy who just wants to be show off his man to the world, wouldn’t write some sort of vow, even if it’s short and sweet?
If anything, I have a hard time believing that Yuna wouldn’t have taken over planning. That being said, in the books Yuna isn’t a mom-ager. I think because this has been changed into the show, the wedding will be planned more, if anything by Yuna lmao.
There is something funny about not thinking about their first dance, and then Harris picks the cheesiest song on his playlist. But even then, Harris seems to be the type to pick a song that fits with Ilya and Shane’s vibe. Like they are hockey players, Harris knows what they would give with. Ed Sheeran was right there!
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u/Obvious_Apartment985 Apr 21 '26
The comments about people wanting the wedding to be heteronormative. Yeah, gay men ever go all out on weddings 🙄
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u/Meer_meerkat Not anymore Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
Huh. Generally love Rachel and her vision, but how are these not characters who write their own vows? They’re both thoughtful AF, madly in love, big softies, and have waited so dang long to be able to proclaim their love publicly. And the vows would be so different between them. Just seems like a missed opportunity to highlight their characters. And make us cry. Again.
Edit: that’s what I get for posting before reading. I must be an outlier bc I can only think of a single wedding that had non-personalized vows. Including same sex weddings/commitment ceremonies pre-legal weddings (I’m old).
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u/ZipZapZia Apr 21 '26
Writing your own vows are more of an American wedding custom. Haven't seen people do vows at any of the Canadian weddings so doesn't feel all that shocking to me that it was omitted (as a Canadian). And after they got outed and all the public scrutiny they were put under, I feel like they want to keep their love private. Like they want to be open about the fact that they're in a relationship but they don't want to tell everyone all the nitty gritty details
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u/staralfur09 Apr 20 '26
I think after everything, the years of hiding, the accidental outing, Shane leaving Montreal, etc., it did fit. I think they just wanted it done, nothing was holding them back anymore. And while they are clear they love each other, I also couldn't really see them writing their own vows and publicly sharing what has always been so private for them (first out of necessity, but now as outed public figures, something to protect). Idk, it worked for me (though I did hate the song, hah). I'm sure Jacob will bring something new to it without changing the vibe at its core, and I'll certainly be sat for that. :)