If you saw the 2016 comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, you probably thought the whole thing was a fever dream concocted by a writers' room high on Red Bull and 2010s nostalgia. Two brothers, played by Zac Efron and Adam DeVine, post a Craigslist ad to find "respectable" dates for their sister’s wedding in Hawaii so they don't ruin the ceremony. Instead, they get hustled by two girls—Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza—who are actually more chaotic than they are.
It sounds like a standard R-rated romp. Except for one thing: the Stangle brothers are real.
The movie is actually based on a true story. Well, "based on" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It’s more like the movie took the skeleton of a viral internet moment and put a bunch of Hollywood muscle and spray-tan on it.
The Craigslist Ad That Changed Everything
Back in 2013, Mike and Dave Stangle were just two guys living in New York. Their cousin was getting married in Saratoga—not Hawaii— and the family was legitimately worried. You know the type. Every family has them. The guys who get a little too drunk, take their shirts off, and try to do backflips on a dance floor that is definitely not rated for backflips.
The Stangle family staged an intervention. They told the brothers they weren't allowed to come to the wedding solo. The theory was simple: if they had dates, they’d be too busy trying to impress the girls to burn the place down.
So, Mike and Dave did what any rational person in the early 2010s did. They went to Craigslist.
Their post was a masterpiece of "bro" literature. It featured a photo of the brothers photoshopped as centaurs in front of the Declaration of Independence. They promised a "royal" experience, including open bar access and the chance to be judged by their aunts. It went viral almost instantly. We're talking 600-plus responses from women who actually wanted to go to a stranger's wedding with these guys.
Real Life vs. The Zac Efron Version
Honestly, the movie changes a lot. In the film, the wedding is this high-stakes Hawaiian destination event at the Turtle Bay Resort. In real life? It was a backyard-style wedding in upstate New York.
Then there’s the cast. Adam DeVine and Zac Efron are great, but the real Mike and Dave are... well, they’re regular guys. DeVine actually joked in interviews that he had to work out like a maniac just to not look like a "garbage person" standing next to Zac Efron.
The biggest lie of the movie involves the dates themselves. In the film, Alice and Tatiana (Kendrick and Plaza) are secret disasters who trick the boys. They end up causing more damage than the brothers ever could.
The real-life dates were apparently much more normal. Mike and Dave went on dozens of "audition" dates before picking two girls who were actually quite nice and stayed well-behaved at the wedding. The "chaos" in the movie was mostly a compilation of the hundreds of weird Craigslist messages and disastrous first dates the brothers experienced leading up to the big day. One real-life date apparently bit Dave between the nipples like a "spider monkey." That's the kind of detail you can't make up, yet it didn't even make the final cut.
Production and The Hawaii Connection
Even though the real story happened in New York, the production moved to Oahu. If you’ve seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall, you’ll recognize the scenery. They filmed heavily at:
- Turtle Bay Resort: This is where the bulk of the resort antics happen.
- Kualoa Ranch: The famous "Jurassic Park" valley where they filmed the ATV scene.
The contrast between the real-life modest wedding and the $33 million movie production is hilarious. The Stangles basically turned a viral post into a book deal (Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates: and a Thousand Cocktails) and then a movie that grossed over $77 million worldwide.
Why the Movie Still Hits in 2026
It’s easy to dismiss this as a "dumb" comedy. Critics certainly did; the Rotten Tomatoes score isn't winning any awards. But there’s a reason people still stream it. It captures that specific mid-2010s era of "raunchy but sweet" humor.
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The chemistry between DeVine and Efron is actually surprisingly authentic. They feel like brothers who genuinely love each other but are also the worst influences on each other. It’s a dynamic that most siblings recognize—the "we should probably stop but we won't" energy.
Aubrey Plaza also carries the film on her back. While everyone else is playing broad comedy, her weird, deadpan performance as Tatiana makes the whole thing feel slightly more grounded in a strange way.
Actionable Tips for the "Real" Mike and Daves
If you find yourself needing to find a date for a high-pressure family event, maybe don't use Craigslist. It worked for the Stangles because they caught lightning in a bottle.
- Vetting is key. The real brothers went on dozens of dates before the wedding. If you're bringing a stranger to a family event, meet them at least three times in different environments first.
- Set boundaries. The Stangle family’s mistake was thinking a date would "fix" the brothers. If you're the family member, set clear expectations for behavior rather than relying on a plus-one to act as a babysitter.
- Know the venue. If you’re planning a destination wedding like the one in the movie, remember that logistics (and humidity) change everything. High-energy antics that work in a backyard in New York might get you kicked out of a luxury resort in Hawaii.
The real takeaway from the Stangle story isn't that you should post ads for dates. It’s that sometimes, your most annoying traits can be turned into a career if you’re funny enough about them. Mike and Dave are still around, living in New York, and probably still being told to behave by their mother.
Check out the original Craigslist ad if you can find archives of it. It’s a fascinating time capsule of internet culture before everything moved to TikTok and Tinder.