Monica Geller privileged, inexperienced childhood best friend Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), with whom she had long lost contact, suddenly arrives in her neighborhood unannounced as a runaway bride after abandoning her own wedding, Monica allows her to move in with her while she attempts to reorganize her life, and the two reconnect. Monica begins dating Dr. Richard Burke (Tom Selleck), an older man who is also one of her father's best friends and 21 years her senior. However, the couple mutually agrees to end their long-running relationship after realizing that Richard does not want children, while Monica aspires to eventually raise a family
Monica Geller "can't simply rest on this one [Ross and Rachel] relationship", while believing that Monica and Chandler's would ultimately provide a fun opportunity for the writers to explore brand new storylines. Silveri and Goldberg-Meehan deliberately intended to keep Monica and Chandler's union "low-key" in order to further differentiate it from Ross and Rachel's, which had been very public. In order to get an idea how audiences would react to Monica and Chandler hooking up at Ross and Emily's wedding in London, the scene in which a clearly nude Monica suddenly emerges from under the sheets of Chandler's hotel bed was filmed