The song playing at the wedding reception, "All My Only Dreams", first appeared in That Thing You Do! (1996) which was written, directed, and produced by Tom Hanks, who also produced this film.
Tom Hanks's wife, Rita Wilson, saw the play and recommended that her husband produce a movie version. In an interview with the German magazine "Cinema", Nia Vardalos mentioned that she hung up when Hanks called, because she didn't believe it was really him.