Take the top of your VCR off keeping mind of where the screws came from, by the front of the tape there will be a gear wheel called the elevator wheel. After you have carefully unlooped the tape from the head, turn the elevator wheel, and you will be able to remove the tape then. Simply spool the tape back up and replace the cover.

The other poster provided a good description of how to extract a tape from a malfunctioning machine. Attempting to remove the tape by manually operating the tape loading / unloading mechanism is an essential first step. This works in about 90% of the cases, because the failure is usually in the electronics, which do not cause the drive mechanisms to physically jam. I have done this several times over the years with various VCRs of one make or another. The 'incorrect' rating is not appropriate. If the mechanism is jammed and cannot be moved, do not force it. Doing so is almost guaranteed to break something in the transport and/or tape loading mechanism. A jammed mechanism could be a sign of several things: - The tape cartridge was damaged when it was inserted or has broken inside the VCR, physically jamming the transport / tape loading mechanism. - Something has been put into the recorder, through the front slot, that has physically jammed the transport / tape loading mechanism or caused it to become misaligned, which then caused a jam. - A drive motor has seized and is, therefore, unable to rotate. - The transport / tape loading mechanism has jammed because of misalignment. This can be caused by a shock, by dropping the unit, banging it down, or dropping something on top of it, while the unit is running or turned off. A VCR should never be moved while it is running. - The transport / tape loading mechanism has jammed because of gear wear. This can cause the gears in the mechanisms to move out of alignment with one another. - An electronic failure has caused the transport / tape loading mechanism to perform some function out of sequence, if this is mechanically possible with your VCR, causing it to jam. In any case, if you are unfamiliar with the internals of a recorder, particularly the mechanicals, it would be best to take the unit to a repair shop and have them extract the tape and determine what caused the problem and to repair it, if required. It is possible that the tape has been damaged and will be unusable after it is removed.

VCR's are generally throwaway items these days with DVD recorders. The other answers are helpful, however you can end up with a lot of pieces of your VCR spread over the living room floor. Pulling them apart is the easy part! If it's only a wiggles tape (sorry, I can't stand them) then saving the tape becomes less of a concern to just getting the tape out of the machine so you can record/play other tapes. If you have the wedding tape in the machine, I would take it to a repair shop. I've pulled two VCR's apart to try to save old movies, and although I got the tape out undamaged, it took ages and you do risk causing damage to the machine, which will effect the machines, warranty. "Is the tape is really important" is the key to what happens next.