Doctor Who: 14 Cool Details Revealed In Steven Moffat's Wedding Of River Song Commentary
2. The Wedding Scene Was Filmed In Front Of A Painted Backdrop
Spoilers! The Wedding Of River Song does in fact include a wedding. A wedding between River Song and the Doctor. Absolute shocker.
Jokes aside, the scene itself is beautifully acted by Smith and Kingston, with intimacy and heart galore. It also looks really stunning too, and that's mainly because of a key creative decision that Webb made about how to film it.
Rather than using a green screen background (like the Lake Silencio scene) the wedding scene was actually filmed in front of a painted backdrop. That starry sky you see here? That's a real painting, which is probably why it looks so damn good.
Webb notes that they simply lacked the budget to afford a green screen shot, but because the wedding scene looks undeniably better than the lakeside scene, this is proof that you don't always need tons of cash to produce a great result.