Top 10 Wedding Movies
You don’t have to be engaged or married to love a good wedding flick. What other life event contains more drama, angst, and unpredictability than a trip down the aisle? Like most of us, Hollywood just can’t get enough of brides, grooms, and their crazy families. So in the spirit of this special occasion, let’s raise a glass to toast slice.ca’s Top 10 Wedding Movies. And best of all, there’s no need to play bridesmaid, fend of the lecherous best man, or catch the bouquet. Result!
1. My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
The agony, the pain, of watching the guy you love embark on his way to happily ever after with SOMEONE ELSE! Julia Roberts, we feel your angst! In this romantic comedy, Julia portrays Julianne, the secretly-in-love BFF to the altar-bound Michael (Dermot Mulroney). Ages ago, Julianne and Michael vowed half-jokingly to marry one another if they found themselves unattached by age 28. Whoops. The problem with such a pledge is that one of the friends typically does find their other half. In this case, Michael falls for sweet, giggly Kim (Cameron Diaz). Michael calls upon dear Julianne to support him in the days before he gets hitched, but his love-struck best friend has other ideas. Ladies, if this movie teaches you just one thing, it is that you should be honest about your feelings with the man of your dreams before he gets engaged to someone else, especially when that someone else is Cameron Diaz.
2. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Ah, if it isn’t the Brit hit that had us swooning over floppy-haired Hugh Grant! This modern classic focuses on an eclectic English clique and an abundance of traditional yet hilarious weddings on their social calendars. Hugh’s character, Charles, becomes unexpectedly smitten with the American wedding guest Carrie (Andie McDowell). A snog and a tumble in the hotel sheets later and Charles is hooked―badly. Shamed Carrie rushes back to America, leaving Charles broken-hearted in ol’ Blighty. As luck would have it for Charles, another wedding rolls around and―surprise!―Carrie’s back, but this time she trots out her old and snarky Scottish fiancé! Gobsmacked and confused after sleeping together yet again, Charles vows to find his own true love, but disaster strikes as he runs into a cluster of girlfriends past. Can it get any worse for poor Charles? How many more weddings does Charles have to tux up for before he can have his own―and who will be his blushing bride? Four Weddings is hysterical but also quite touching (the funeral scene especially) and comes up trumps due to a stellar cast that includes John Hannah, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Rowan Atkinson.
3. Father of the Bride (1950 or 1991)
A wedding movie so nice they made it twice! Take your pick between the original black and white gem starring Spencer Tracey and Elizabeth Taylor or the modern-day remake with Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams-Paisley. Both versions are heartfelt and poignant as a father’s love for his only daughter brings all sorts of teary sentiments to the fore. If you prefer your wedding movies retro-tastic, Liz’s trip along the bridal path is an ideal nostalgic treat but, keep in mind, if you skip the remake you’ll miss the scene-stealing Martin Short moments as hilarious wedding coordinator, Franck!
4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
A list of top wedding movies would not be complete without this low-budget masterpiece. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, My Big Fat Greek Wedding made a star of its leading lady (and screenwriter) Canadian Nia Vardalos. Shot in Toronto with a paltry $5 million budget, this tale about culture-crossed lovers became an unexpected box office success. Nia plays Toula, a dowdy, 30-year-old stuck working in her father’s Greek restaurant with no prospects for love or a future. Like her perfect sister, she’s expected to marry a fellow Greek, have babies, and live happily ever after. Toula is about to give up when she catches a glimpse of Ian (Sex and the City’s John Corbett), a good-looking WASPy teacher at the restaurant one day. Ian’s arrival is just the impetus Toula needs to crawl out of her rut. She begins a complete life makeover, updating her appearance, learning computers, and starting a new job at her aunt’s travel agency, hoping that she’ll run into Ian again, and she does! Their newfound romance startles her family, especially her overprotective father, Gus, and propels Toula into a journey she never expected. A wonderful “love will conquer all” story.
5. 27 Dresses (2008)
Finally! A wedding flick made for the long-suffering bridesmaid! Hollywood’s freshest rom-com darling, Katherine Heigl, tosses the Grey’s Anatomy scrubs in exchange for silk, taffeta, and several walks down the aisle. Unfortunately, Jane is a serial bridesmaid, 27 times and counting! While most people have one wedding, maybe two per year, Jane has seven and, occasionally, two in one night. Juggling the expectations of her soon-to-be-wed friends, Jane selflessly rushes from wedding to wedding, changing dresses in the back of a taxi all the while struggling with her unrequited love for her oblivious boss, George (Ed Burns). When a pesky newspaper wedding columnist, Kevin Doyle (James Marsden) learns of her plight, Jane opens up her heart and her closet to explain why she’s always been a bridesmaid and never a bride.
6. Bride Wars (2009)
The fireworks and venom that encapsulates the female species commonly known as the “bridezilla” makes for addictive viewing so it’s really a no brainer that Hollywood scrambled to cash in on these soon-to-be betrothed babes behaving badly. The 2009 movie starring Kate Hudson (Liv) and Anne Hathaway (Emma) as two devoted lifelong besties is a case in point. These gals shared everything: hopes, aspirations even the same childhood dream of the perfect Manhattan wedding: all flowing white dresses, elegant flowers, and the iconic Plaza Hotel. Fast forward several years later and the girls’ long awaited fairy tales come true! Aw, both BFFs get engaged! Both have found their very own prince charming! Both want the very same day at the Plaza for their wedding! Er, what? Suddenly, the caring and sharing vanishes into a war of insults, dirty deeds, and hatred all because the Plaza Hotel has only one free day available on its social calendar and both brides DEMAND it. But what about the unbreakable bonds of a lifelong friendship? It’s now one-upmanship all the way, baby! She who grabs the precious Plaza wedding date for her sole enjoyment, wins! Nasty, but we love it! How refreshing to glimpse bitchy brides for a change―we can only take so much sugary bridal sweetness before we crash into glycemic shock―so this amped-up sampler of bridezilla maliciousness makes for a satisfying cinematic treat.
7. Meet the Parents (2000)
Male nurse Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) wants to propose to his girlfriend, Pam (Teri Polo) and would do anything to make the moment perfect, including asking her parents first for their daughter’s hand in marriage. Pretty simple. Well, not if your future father-in-law (Robert De Niro) is a former CIA agent with a penchant for lie detectors, his prized feline Jinxie, and Pam’s “perfect” ex-boyfriend (Owen Wilson). A run-of-the-mill weekend to meet the parents becomes an embarrassing disaster of epic proportions. Fire! Sewage! A broken nose! An AWOL Jinxie! Poor little Focker! Greg, welcome to every potential groom’s nightmare! Next time, skip the social niceties and elope instead.
8. The Wedding Singer (1998)
When we attend a wedding or plan our own, the last thing we want to ponder is what type of drama goes on behind the scenes with the hired vendors. They have a JOB to do―dramatics are for the wedding party, right? Think again! Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore lift the veil on such unthinkable craziness along with Steve Buscemi, a Boy George look-a-like, and Billy Idol (yep, for real). Engaged Robbie (Adam Sandler) is a wedding singer toiling his weekends away as the hottest entertainer on the party circuit. On the job, he meets Julia (Drew Barrymore), a waitress with her own nuptials on the horizon looking for a wedding singer to hire. Not only does Julia bag herself a singer for her own wedding but a blooming friendship with Robbie, who confides in the sympathetic waitress when his own love life turns sour. It’s clear as day that Robbie and Julia are meant to be together but The Wedding Singer in all its predictable silliness is still rather charming and a load of fun, plus it gets bonus points for unearthing Billy Idol. “White Wedding”, indeed.
9. Mamma Mia (2008)
Before there was Mamma Mia, the box office smash, there was a hugely successful musical woven together by the songs of ABBA. What began in a London theatre in 1999 quickly spawned stage versions in Toronto, New York, and elsewhere, with touring companies drawing record-breaking audiences around the globe. Once again, Hollywood knew a sure thing when they saw it and snapped up the rights for the big screen enlisting Tinsel Town heavy hitters Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, and Pierce Brosnan alongside relative newcomers Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper. Add in the romantic setting of Greece, plus a heart-warming story of a bride’s quest to find her real dad, and, to quote ABBA themselves, “Money, Money, Money” is “The Name of the Game” for this celluloid success story. It has to be said, watch this flick and you’re guaranteed to have many an ABBA tune stuck in your head for better or worse. Love this movie? Check out Muriel’s Wedding for more ABBA-style wedded bliss.
10. Wedding Crashers (2005)
Most wedding movies tell the tale from the female perspective so the release of the testosterone-driven Wedding Crashers was a breath of fresh manly air. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are divorce mediators by day, wedding reception crashers by night. Their goal: to hook up with as many hot women as possible. One-night stands with no collateral damage. But you know what they say about best laid plans. With co-stars Bradley Cooper, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, and Will Ferrell, this romp through the minutiae of wedding bell hell will have you snickering inappropriately well into the credits.
Written by: Jackie Middleton
For more, please check out Jackie’s blog at www.losethatgirl.com