Singaporebrides | The Groom Room

July 2011

What Rom-Coms Tell You About Weddings

By Maxime Richer

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Recently, we ran a survey on SingaporeBrides’ Facebook Page in which we asked for our readers’ favourite romantic comedies that involve at least one wedding. My intention was to watch the Top 5 movies and note down the things we can learn about weddings from each of them. And what an unexpected result we got!

I still can’t believe I did it. Me, a guy, married and not desperate, watched five romantic comedies in a row for this article! No, I wasn’t coerced into it nor did I lose a bet, and no, I wasn’t being nice to my wife. I was alone (although surrounded by many people, mostly in a cafe and in a restaurant).

Nearly everybody voted for Love Actually, which turns out, in my opinion, to be the least “wedding-y” in the whole list! Because seriously, apart from that short wedding scene at the beginning, there’s really nothing else in there on the topic. It’s more about budding new loves and rocky older ones. Is that why it’s so good? Anyway, I’ve seen that movie quite a few times already, so I went for the next five most-voted-for movies in our poll. Two of these I had not seen before, and two I had seen only once. Yes, I have seen some of them. I AM married after all, am I not? Sometimes I just can’t avoid these flicks.

So I watched these five movies in a day, not with the intention of, say, crying my heart out, or gouging my eyes out or any such thing, but rather of noting down any sort of good wedding advice from these movies. Kind of like a list of what’s good, what’s bad and what’s not so cute about weddings.

Here are the results-

#1: The Wedding Planner (2007), with JLo and Matthew McCon… McCona… McSomething

Rating: Bad!

What happened in this show?! Such an unprofessional wedding planner! I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned a few brides away from hiring planners in the following years. One good piece of advice here is that you should always marry a girl whose dad is willing to cover all the expenses, as long as his little girl is happy! No seriously, if you can plan without having to scrape at every cent you have, you’ll probably have it easier, right? Now I didn’t say better, just easier.

#2: My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), with Julia Roberts and a young Cameron Diaz

Rating: Not So Cute

I’ll say it right away: don’t invite your lifelong unappeased love crush to your wedding. Clear and simple. But man, on another note, some movies don’t age well, and this movie sure falls into that category. I had never seen it before this, so maybe it’s because my memory’s perspective didn’t click in. I just found it really strange and bad. And the hairstyles! Horrible. As for the good thing in this show, well, I really only just liked that big garden party they had on the morning of the wedding. That was nice. Of course, most couples here are busy with gate-crashing and tea ceremonies, but Singapore sure is a nice place for garden parties – if you don’t mind the heat.

#3: 27 Dresses (2008), with the blonde girl from Grey’s Anatomy

Rating: Not So Cute

One thing in this movie that made both my wife and I go: “Hey! I do that too!” is when they talked about looking at the groom’s face instead of at the bride’s when she walks down the aisle. That smile is just unbeatable, and even if you don’t like the guy (hey, some guys still hope for a shot at the girl walking down the aisle), you can’t help but feel emotional. Ah, I like weddings. And I like movies. But sometimes I’m glad somebody invented the fast-forward function, for a fashion show with 27 weird-looking dresses, well, that’s a bit too “chick flick” for me.

#4: The Wedding Singer (1998), with Adam and Drew

Rating: Good!

This one got old too, but at least, being a parody of the 80s, it keeps some charm. Anyhow, do consider a band and dances, or just a DJ and dances. Or a tape and dances, or just one dance! They’re so much fun, and don’t you worry about what you’ll look like dancing; just make it a joke if you’re lousy. Actually, if you’re really shy and nervous, it will at least have the advantage of moving some of the focus away from you! But don’t go all the way and hire an attention-seeker like we see in that show, because it would ruin your evening.

#5: Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), with Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell

Rating: Not So Cute

Any girl reading this? If so, I have to tell you this: don’t bring your girl friends along when shopping for a gown. It’s a waste of time, and they’ll just smile and tell you what you want to hear. Instead, bring a guy who’s got the hots for you! From his reactions you’ll know just how good you look in the dress. And of course, if you want to play it traditional, that guy can’t be your groom, because he shouldn’t see your gown before the wedding. Well, that’s a tradition in the West, anyway; we think it would jinx the marriage somehow. Any ugly stuff in here? Oh yes. Don’t get Mr Bean to officiate the wedding!

Special Mention: Love Actually (2003), with Colin, Keira, Hugh, Liam and Rowan!

Rating: Good!

I wasn’t really going to leave this one out. Yes, there’s a wedding at the beginning, in a nice chapel, and full of surprises prepared by the Best Man. It’s all wonderful. But my advice here: don’t let your best man prepare something like that for you! It never works out like in the movies, and you might end up with a cacophony of separate acts trying to pull something together. If you’re lucky it’ll be funny, but the margin of error is just too high. Better play it safe. At the very least, be in on it, help with the preparations, and keep your hand on the plug, because you might need to pull it.

Wedding movies: source of inspiration or source of fear? What you want above all is a wedding that is unique to yourself and your bride, and for which no one can say: “Hey! It’s like in that show!” So watch them, enjoy them, absorb them if you can, but in the end you just got to leave them out of the picture and go with your own ideas.

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