Marry Me At Christmas
Listen to the Podcast Episode about this movie!
Stars: Rachel Skarsten (50 shades of Grey & The Vow), Trevor Donovan (New 90210)
Synopsis (via Hallmark)
Organizing a Christmas wedding is a true treat for bridal boutique owner Madeline Krug. She loves the challenge of finding the perfect dress for the bride and orchestrating an exquisite event. What Madeline didn’t expect was to be swept off her feet by the bride’s gorgeous brother, movie star Johnny Blaze. Jonny came to the quirky town of Fool’s Gold to support his sister — not to fall in love. Yet Madeline is the most extraordinary woman he’s ever met. Planning the perfect wedding leads to candlelit dinners and strolls through snow-covered streets. Madeline finds the real Johnny even more captivating than her celebrity crush. Will the action star be brave enough to take on the role of a lifetime?
Thoughts
Maddie is a wedding boutique owner with Shirley-Temple blonde curls (maybe a perm). The town, Fools Gold, is the example of perfect small town USA (and a place where it snows a lot, apparently). Maddie is struggling to keep her store open, and everyone has suggestions on how to make her business better: using social media, selling jewelry, more decorations. But she doesn’t even have the budget for blinking Christmas lights.
While visiting her parents for extra FREE decorations for the shop, we find out from her pushy mom that Maddie hasn’t dated in three years since Ted left. Hopefully, she will still have time to find “her adorable,” (which is her term for husband?). The business will work itself out but not finding a man!
Then we meet Johnny, an LA actor. He is a famous actor in The Fire’s Edge series, who mysteriously needs to leave town for a bit, much to the disappointment of his manager, Barb (who types on her phone with her two index fingers, like a psychopath!!!).
Ginger, Maddie’s new client is looking to get married quick. Her fiance (Oliver) has a job in London to be a cardiothoracic surgeon; he’s a “heart guy” (WINK). She doesn’t have a reception, color scheme, or bridesmaids, and she is clueless about weddings… Like, has she never left the house or seen a movie? Maddie gets pressured into expanding her business to wedding planning, like JLo!!!!
Turns out Johnny Blake is Ginger’s brother, and he will be fronting the bill for her wedding.
“The sky’s the limit,” Blake tells Maddie, who he mistakenly calls Maggie—much to her annoyance. He is skeptical of Maddie because people, usually, exploit him for his fame and notoriety for their own personal gain. She agrees to not use his name and claims she wants nothing from him.
While tying a ribbon to the town gazebo, Maddie and Johnny strike a deal for wedding planning fee. Maddie is terrible at negotiating, and Johnny basically begs her to take more money. Maddie refuses and instead shows him the slowed down life of non-city living. They don’t walk, they stroll; they say hi to their second grade teachers on the street, and they don’t have gyms.
Back at the shop, Maddie’s co-worker, Isabel, suggests she date Johnny Blake as a way to get around the agreement of using his name for publicity. Instead, she would just create buzz for their shop by dating him. It is something Maddie considers before we go to commercial.
We begin to see a spark ignite between Maddie and Johnny. They have a snowball fight and carry Christmas trees around town. Johnny even meets Maddie’s parents while watching Santa parade through the town. After the drunk looking Santa arrives, Maddie’s pushy Mom invites Johnny over for the annual family dessert potluck, which sounds horrible. Their conversations culminates in a romantic chat about snowflakes and how each one is like art. (Just like the art Johnny has been sketching mysteriously in his sketch pad.)
Back in town at the Christmas tree lighting, things get hot and heavy when Maddie and Johnny get carried away in the romance of it all and HOLD HANDS. Then they ALMOST KISS! The two discuss it over an appetizer-tasting meeting. That “meeting” looks more like a romantic date to me. They decide a romance between them wouldn’t be possible be cause he is a nomad and she is a hometown girl.
After avoiding each other for two whole days, Johnny steps up and fills in when the town Santa gets “The Flu.” He wins her over with his suburb Santa skillz and they go on an outing, NOT A DATE, to get candy cane martinis. Maddie has apparently purchased a new curling iron and has less severe curls. After throwing some shade on Martini’s not being manly, Johnny steps away for a phone call, and Ted shows up with his new girlfriend, Marigold. Johnny returns and is unimpressed with Ted. He makes his move on Maddie, but she stops him again! They are on two different paths.
Somehow they end up alone together again! Maddie helps Johnny decorate his Christmas Tree and finds out the reason he doesn’t care about Christmas is because his dead parents loved the holiday, so he stopped celebrating it. Now, with his sister getting married on Christmas eve he realizes he does care about Christmas, and a lot of other things… Maddie discovers some drawings and tells Johnny he is an artist. They begin to trust each other.
Things come crashing down when photos surface online of the two together (thanks to Isabel!!!). Maddie and johnny’s trust is broken as quickly as it was built. It also puts a rift between Maddie and her “friend” Isabel. Turns out they didn’t need the Johnny Blake publicity! The decorations are “Amazing” and social media is “threw the roof” with interest in Maddie’s designs. (Which consist of garland, white flowers, and icicle lights.)
At the wedding, Maddie has totally straight hair! It works, I guess. Johnny finally kisses her and tells her he has bought a house in Fools Gold. She should have bought a straightening iron at the beginning of the movie!
Side Note
Ginger is a real weirdo. She is happy that all her friends came to the wedding in the end, but none of them could be her maid of honor? Maddie, A STRANGER and her WEDDING PLANNER, had to do it?
As a martini aficionado, the candy cane martini was a MESS. They just hooked a candy cane onto the martini glass… and not even a peppermint one.
Are you an Orphan, if you have a sibling? Asking for a friend…
POC Alert: Mayor Marsha. She has no lines and is seen mostly waving like a princess at Disney World.
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Overall rating
🎄🎄 (2 Christmas Trees)
🍷🍷🍷(3 glasses of wine required)
*Photo Credit: © 2017 Crown Media United States, LLC
Don’t forget about Emily Tennant (Ginger), star of many a Lifetime movie and the 2010 teen classic “Triple Dog” with Janel Parrish, Britt Robertson and Scout Taylor-Compton.