Hallmark For All Seasons

“Beverly Hills Wedding” aired February 6, on Hallmark Channel as the first Love Ever After movie for 2021. It starred the Brooke D’Orsay and Brendan Penny. The trio of writers for this movie included Joie Botkin, Mark Hefti and Emily Schmitt.  Paul Ziller served as director, having previously directed Good Morning, Christmas! and Just My Type, just to name two.  It was filmed in British Columbia, Canada.

Music: The song that played when they arrived in Beverly Hills was Beverly Hills (affiliate link) by Neon Dreams.

In a nutshell

It was another week with another unlikeable character, but this time instead of being neurotic to the point of annoyance, this one was incredibly overbearing under the guise of helpfulness.  That overshadowed most of the movie and resulted in frustration on my part.

Plot of “Beverly Hills Wedding”

When small-town wedding photographer Molly’s baby sister gets engaged, she enters the budget-conscious couple in a contest and wins a dream wedding – an all-expenses-paid, celeb-worthy event at a historic Beverly Hills hotel, thrown by “planner to the stars,” Terrence Roquefort. It all seems perfect but when the engaged couple seems uneasy with the new plans, and maid of honor duties bring Molly closer to the best man, her ex-boyfriend Cory, she reconsiders whose dreams she is trying to fulfill.

Actors & Chemistry

This was an interesting movie from a cast perspective.  I would argue that there was no way to determine the chemistry between our “lead” couple because I was so focused on the other dynamics. Brendan Penny and Ben Sullivan, who played his brother Jordan, were really well cast together.  I liked the little unspoken moments where Cory supported Jordan’s frustration – a hand on the shoulder, a joke to lighten the situation.

Brooke D’Orsay and Emma Johnson were also well cast to be sisters and I believed that dynamic, but I was frustrated that bride-to-be Sophia kept deferring everything to Molly.  Look, I love my sister, but if she tried to manhandle and take over my wedding, we’d have some serious words.

As for our lead characters, I’m not quite sure WHY Cory fell back in love with Molly, considering her unlikeability through the first 2/3 of the movie.  Sure, he was able to share why he didn’t ask her to go with him when he decided to travel, and his reasons absolutely made sense, but even after he shared that information with her, she was still awful to her sister and the fiancé.  Cory’s interest in Molly made NO SENSE.

Tropes

The house had an adorable front porch.  I think the dad had hot cocoa in his mug when Molly’s family was looking at some of her photos on the laptop in the kitchen.  It sure did look like whipped cream or marshmallows at the top of his mug. Sophia drank some coffee with two hands. We saw one of the worst almost kisses I think I’ve ever seen.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

I thought Molly’s reaction to seeing Cory for the first time in years was a bit overblown.  I remember when my now-husband and I were dating, we ran into a guy I had dated a few years prior.  I did consider him my first love and I was DEVASTATED when we broke up (in this instance he broke up with me).  But seeing him again a few years later – I felt nothing.  Because I had moved on – and had years to do it.  Surely Molly would have moved on and would not have such an overreaction to seeing him again.

Exactly WHY was Molly so overinvolved with planning her sister’s wedding?  Surely the bride should be the one leading the way on what she wants to do?  I’m glad when she talked about picking the venue that the sister’s fiancé called her out on her overreach.  But that overreach continued just from the fact that she entered that contest without telling anyone.  And when she created the guest list.  And then the flowers.  And the champagne.  And so many other things.

“Invitations set the tone for your entire marriage.”  Um…what?  The ENTIRE MARRIAGE?  Step off, Terrence.  If I won a free wedding in Bev Hills and the planner said that to me, I’d have immediately left the room and gone back home.  A wedding planner’s job is to hear what the bride and groom both want and make it come to fruition.  Their job is not to tell the bride and groom what they should have.  Free wedding means nothing if it’s not the wedding the bride and groom envision for themselves.

In my case, my fiance was a few states away when planning our wedding, so he did defer most decisions to me, BUT I ran everything by him to make sure he was okay with it and he had the freedom to say yay or nay to anything I suggested.

We all agree the almost kiss was the very worst version we’ve ever seen, right?  She’s clearly moving in on him, he’s clearly moving in on her, they are talking about something mildly romantic and within an inch of their lips touching she suddenly says she needs to do the seating chart?  Ugh.  Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy writing.

I’ll end my gripes about this movie by saying that while I appreciated that Terrence brought Beverly Hills to Oregon, I still feel as though the wedding wasn’t entirely Sophia’s and Jordan’s.  I’d have liked to see someone taking a glass of champagne and then panning over to see someone getting a bottle of IPA beer.  I’d like to have seen the salted caramel cake as a 3-tier cake instead of 6 tiers.  The bride carrying a bouquet of daisies, or having daisies in her hair.  That would have showed that the bride and groom FINALLY got to have their say with the wedding.

Feelgoods

I LOVED that house’s kitchen.  The extra long island, the huge vent hood, the glass cabinetry, the windows – it was all divine.  I’d take the time to learn how to cook if I had that kitchen. *lol*

I know this next one is COMPLETE random and I doubt anyone would have even noticed this, but I loved when Terrence Roquefort spun his pen when he called Molly to give her the news that she won the contest.  Back in college I had a friend name John who knew how to pen flip and I was fascinated by it.  I managed to learn one trick, which I still do occasionally just to see if I still am able. Most times I mess it up, but it’s fun attempting it nonetheless.  The actor in this movie spun it so effortlessly – I watched it multiple times.  Then I picked up a nearby pen and tried the trick I know, and after a couple flubs was able to do it 4-5 times in a row with no mistakes.  WOO!!

 Re-watchability

“Beverly Hills Wedding” is not one I’d check out again.

The Ranking

It’s no surprise that “Beverly Hills Wedding” is near the bottom of the list. Given how one of my feelgoods was about a character spinning his pen, that doesn’t bode well for any movie.

1. Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
2. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
3. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
4. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
5. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
6. Snowkissed (air date: Jan 31) – 402 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “Beverly Hills Wedding”?  Comment below and let me know!