A Wedding Wonderland

I love most Hallmark movies and I did enjoy watching this but not as much as I would have with different actors. The two main characters were not suited to each other at all. The male lead was far too handsome for Andrea Bowen who is a very pretty girl but no where near pretty enough to be matched with the male, I kept thinking, why is he with her and not with someone like her best friend. I also couldn't understand why anyone would think the two choices of wedding dress were nice in any way. They looked cheap- like a supermarket wedding dress. Definitely not a dress that someone who came from a rich family would wear. This was a big fail for the wardrobe department and they were also very on the lovely Andrea. I hated the mum character- she was horrible to everyone but loved the dance scene in the barn- it put a smile on my face. The other two parents had great chemistry and looked to be very much in love,

And the silly relationship between the best man and maid of honor is equally as ridiculous.

Total rewritten review after watching a second time: What was I thinking? Maybe because there have been so many of the same Hallmark-like movies that I'm tired of them.

This starts out as another wedding disaster movie. And it is a combination of slow same old stuff and being totally annoyed with Deidre, the bride's mom. I'm surprised Hallie wasn't locked in her room until she was 40 years old.

About 2/3rd there is what for me was a big surprise. (I had totally forgotten that I had already seen this and totally forgotten all about it.) This becomes totally a unique story.

This isn't exactly a romance story in that there is never any doubt about the main couple. But it is interesting how that handle the obstacles.

I'm going to leave the first review as a comparison. I was a little hard on the acting. That's another thing. With all the dilution of talent and stories in the past couple years due to Hallmark premiering 40 or so non-Christmas movies a year and two other networks showing similar movies, there has been a lot of poor acting and same old stories. These actors here are decent by comparison, even if not quite up to some of my favorite stars.

Original review: The story is both a little slow and at times a little sensationalized. But then wedding days are a cauldron of emotions, so maybe it's not so unrealistic. But a better question is why did this story need to be told? It's just not that interesting. There are highs and lows, but no surprises There are tender moments, but they don't save the movie.

The acting is not great either. Emotional scenes are overly dramatized and some sentimental moments are too stiff. Two things did come through well. Hallie and Quinn have a special friendship. And likewise Lucas really does love Hallie and she him.

Mom, Deidre, is so annoying, but that's one of the more effective things in the movie. It doesn't mean I enjoyed that aspect. Hallie is a bit timid as a real compromising person. Again, the bride in a wedding does have a difficult time and unless there is someone really standing up for the bride, she feels the need to please strongly. The alternative is Bridzilla. And compromise is a necessary part of life.

Perhaps there is a message here that the "dream wedding" is overrated.

This movie is not very good due to miscasting of the bride and groom. Also, the character of the bride's mother is awful. She needed to be put in her place much earlier in the story rather than continue to be a very negative and awful influence in the story line. Too much of the story line is take up by "making the mother happy" rather than what the couple's wishes are and what they want. I kept waiting for the daughter/bride to grow a spine but she never did before I turned it off. She was pathetic because she let her mother run over her and also for not supporting her fiance/. This movie was so bad I didn't finish watching it.

Giving one star for Nick Bateman. I only left this on because the remote was too far to reach and I was drinking baileys under a blanket. If you want to hate everyone and everything you should watch this film. Selfish horrible characters. Bad casting. Annoying and horrible. Someone give the brides mother a slap.