Polka Dot Bride readers know I love a good wedding movie. I never expect them to change my life, to teach life lessons or to have a heavy moral ending. But I was apprehensive to see Bride Wars, I’d read one review which said the movie put women back 40 years!

The movie starts off with the two best friends (Emma and Liv played by Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway) getting married scenario. There’s a few laughs, a few dreamy moments as the girls fawn over Vera Wang, Tiffany & Co and the fairytale that is a New York wedding. The wedding planner (Candice Bergen) quips  “A wedding marks the first day of the rest of your life. You have been dead until now. Were you aware of that? You’re dead right now.”

The tide suddenly turns and the girls get nasty pulling all sorts of tricks and ploys to force the others decision and make life miserable. Of course like any romantic comedy, both brides end up sad and lonely and the stress eventually puts tension on already fragile engagements.

There is a moral undertone- albeit it a light one. The wedding planner summed it up.

“It was quite a wedding and as i stood there watching i realized something I’d  forgotten a long time ago. Sometimes in life there really are bonds formed that can never be broken. Sometimes you really can find that one person who will stand by you no matter what. Maybe you will find it in a spouse and celebrate it with your dream wedding. But there’s also the chance that the one person you can count on for a lifetime, the one person who knows you sometimes better than you know yourself is the same person who’s been standing beside you all along.”

This isn’t a movie to see if you’re looking for a movie about the marriage not the wedding. It isn’t going to break down any misconceptions and it probably isn’t going to change your life.

It is however the perfect movie to see with your girlfriends, bridesmaids or your fiance (if you can drag him there!) for a bit of light – hearted relief, a bit of poking fun at the huge elaborate do that is a wedding and a few little tears where your heart longs for the friendship to be rekindled.

In the end, it wasn’t nearly as fluffy as I expected- it had just the right mix of emotion and laughs. My favourite part? The childhood memento that makes a reappearance.  I rate the movie 3/5 dots!

Images from Bride Wars