Meanwhile, Ben mulls whether to remain in Pawnee or return to his old job in Indianapolis, and Ann feels extremely uncomfortable while attending a singles mixer.
Series co-creator Michael Schur initially said the promo was meant to refer to Ron and his ex-wife Tammy, but later admitted it was an error.
"April and Andy's Fancy Party" featured several guest performances by actors who appeared in previous episodes, including Ben Schwartz as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein, Josh Duvendeck and Blake Lee as Derek and Ben, Minni Jo Mazzola as Natalie Ludgate, and Mark Rivers, Andrew Burlinson and Alan Yang as Andy's bandmates.
During a cold open scene, Ron horrifies the entire parks department by apparently pulling an aching tooth out of his own mouth with a pair of pliers.
Ben tells Leslie that his boss in Indianapolis wants him back on the road, but he has also been offered a job to work under Chris in Pawnee.
Taking Andy's advice, Leslie asks Ben to stay in Pawnee, and he surprises her by revealing that he has already accepted Chris' job offer.
They decided the two should get married after dating for only a short time because it was funny, it made sense with the characters' personalities, and it raised the stakes for future stories involving the two.
"[4] The cast and crew of Parks and Recreation made a conscious effort not to discuss the Andy and April wedding during media interviews with the hopes of keeping it a surprise.
[5] However, after the original broadcast of the third season episode "Ron & Tammy: Part Two", NBC ran a commercial advertising "April and Andy's wedding registry" on the official Parks and Recreation website.
[6][7] Shortly after the episode aired, HitFix television reviewer Alan Sepinwall wrote that the commercial mistakenly used the wrong names and was actually referring to Ron and Tammy's wedding registry.
[3][6][8] However, after "Andy and April's Fancy Party" aired, Schur admitted the commercial was intended to run with that episode, but ran with "Ron & Tammy: Part Two" due to an error by NBC employees:[9][10][11] "In an effort to undo the spoiler, we publicly stated, in a number of interviews, that NBC had just accidentally gotten the character names wrong, and that there was no upcoming Andy-April wedding.
""Andy and April's Fancy Party" featured several guest performances by actors who had appeared in previous Parks and Recreation episodes.
[9][14] While trying to understand why the wedding is happening so quickly, Leslie asks whether April is dying, like the lead character from the 2002 romance film A Walk to Remember.
[1][9] In one scene, Andy used the phrase "Xbox pancake", a reference to a video game console, while describing the idea of combining two great things.
"Andy and April's Fancy Party" also outperformed an original episode of the CW Network drama Nikita, which drew 2.14 million households.
There were no plans whatsoever to develop a romance between April and Andy—until writers noticed, and decided to pursue, the surprising, untapped chemistry between Pratt and Aubrey Plaza in season two's "Hunting Trip".
Alan Sepinwall of HitFix called it "one of the funniest, sweetest, just plain best episodes of this season of this great comedy", and that it embodied "intoxicating mix of laughs and sweetness that "Parks and Rec" consistently nails".
[3] TV Guide writer Matt Roush called "Andy and April's Fancy Wedding" the highlight of the night among NBC's Thursday comedy shows, and said he particularly loved the scene with Ron Swanson pulling out his tooth, and another later scene where Ron criticized Chris for bringing a vegetarian loaf to the party instead of cake.
Sundermann also praised the cold open with Ron ripping his tooth out, and said he enjoyed the way Ann Perkins' character has continued to develop through the season.
[16] Steve Kandell of New York magazine called April and Andy perhaps the "most convincingly matched and resoundingly sympathetic couple in sitcom history", and said their storylines have been handled much more effectively than those of Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly in the NBC comedy The Office.
Entertainment Weekly writer Hillary Busis said there were individual elements of the episode she enjoyed, but felt the wedding happened too quickly and the lack of buildup reduced the tension leading up to the event.