The Wrong Wedding Planner (2020 Lifetime)

The Wrong Wedding Planner (2020 Lifetime)

Stars: Vivica A. Fox, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Kristin Booth, Jackée Harry

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

Detective Jones arrives at the house of a young couple, Ashley and Brad, blissfully engaged and preparing for their upcoming marriage. They had a mysterious break-in at their home. While Det. Jones discovers nothing at the scene; we later find out it is their wedding planner, Mandy, who starts stalking them. She goes as far as sabotaging Brad at work. Ms. Johnson, his boss, has no choice and places him on permanent leave as this Wrong Wedding Planner will stop at nothing to exact revenge.

Thoughts

The movie starts with someone being dragged by the arms and tied up in slippers by a hooded figure. Ms. Vivica A. Fox plays a detective and walks into the house. She is not playing around today!

Ashley and her fiance, Brad, hear a noise downstairs in a beautiful mansion. It is the hooded figure!!! Brad gets a golf club, and they walk around slowly. Ms. Vivica A. Fox arrives on the scene and tells them that they just left a door open and did not worry. (When Ms. Vivica A. Fox says not to worry, you don’t worry.)

The next day the couple is dragging. Brad is very busy with a merger at work. His boss is Jackée Harry, and she is SERIOUS about the merger. Ashley helps her BFF Clarissa try on her wedding dressing. Then the friends go to a cocktail, and Ashley meets Mandy, the wedding planner. Mandy talks about poisonous flowers and lowers her rates for Ashley. (Ashley is on a budget despite her beautiful house.) Both red flags.

Mandy stops by for a meeting with Ashley (Brad is at work with Jackee!) and stares at a photo of Brad as if in a trance. Then Mandy goes to the bathroom and convulses in the mirror and down pills while holding back tears. After pulling herself together, Mandy asks Ashley to come questions and accidentally says, “I didn’t know Brad was so religious.” Then she catches her self and corrects. “He doesn’t seem so religious.” Then Mandy goes home and crops her head on Ashley’s body while humming here comes the bride and holding a wedding dress up to her body.

Ms. Vivica A. Fox is BACK. She is following on the break-in and is suddenly very interested in Ashley’s wedding plans. Ms. Vivica A. Fox is divorced and not sad about it.

Another meeting with Mandy happens. Mandy takes a photo of a laptop with a post-it with passwords written on it. Ashley is trusting of Mandy and even gives her a house key. Her direct quote is, “I’m trusting you with my wedding. I’m trusting you with my life.” Big mistake. Huge! Mandy lets herself into the house and copies files from Ashley’s laptop. Then she makes her way up to the bedroom and hides nanny cams in front of the TV. Brad almost catches her, but he just forgot his phone and rushes to work to complete the merger for Jackée Harry. The nanny cam pays off quickly, Mandy watches Brad and Ashley have S.E.X. (Yikes)

Brad goes out for a jog and comes home to find Ashley meeting with Mandy. He stops dead in his tracks and goes to take a shower. Brad acts strangely. Ashley suddenly gets a migraine and goes to bed and asks Mandy to let herself out. (Mandy lets herself out and looks through the window.) Once Ashley is recovered, she asks Brad why he is acting weird, and he gets snippy. She asks him if he is keeping something from her, which he absolutely is.

Instead of working on the merger, Brad is looking at Mandy’s address on google maps. Jackée Harry is onto him, but let him take a lunch break against her better judgment. He breaks into Mandy’s house, and an old roommate of Mandy’s catches him. The woman tells Brad that she knows all about him, and Mandy was obsessed with Brad and talked about him all the time. Mandy told the roommate that she was engaged to Brad. The roommate learned that Mandy’s job is fake, and when she kicked her out, Mandy said she would kill her.

Cake tasting happens, and Brad doesn’t show up. Ashley asks Mandy if it is weird for her fiance not to be so involved. Mandy promises that it will all work out. Then they argue about centerpieces. Little do they know, Brad is there but watching from around the corner. When the tasting is done and Ashley leaves, Mandy aggressively destroys a wedding cake while Brad watches from around the corner. Gemma (the pastry chef) walks in, and Mandy turns around and licks icing off her finger.

Brad follows Mandy to her apartment and confronts her. She invites him in and demands to know what she is up to and what she wants from him. Mandy and Brad were a couple; she lied to him and told him she was pregnant with his baby to keep him. Mandy cries and asks him why he left her for Ashley.

On a double date with Clarissa and her hot fiance, Ashley thanks Clarissa for such a great wedding planner. Clarissa is confused because Mandy isn’t her wedding planner. Brad finally comes clean and admits to dating Mandy in college who lied about being pregnant. He didn’t say anything because “he didn’t think it was relevant.” Ashley is hurt that Brad lied to her and sleeps in the guest room. Brad follows her, apologizes, and then Ashley forgives him.

Ms. Vivica A. Fox is BACK AGAIN. This time she is looking into multiple calls and messages coming from Mandy. Mandy leaves a voicemail calling Ashley a “bitch.” The TV froze so I missed a lot of this. (Send me screeners, any time Lifetime/LMN!)

The hooded figure murders gemma because she tells Ashley about the cake incident.

Racy pictures of Ashley leak online and are sent to the priest and every worker in Brad’s company. Brad gets suspended from work, and he threatens to sue Jackée Harry. (Which is a BIG nono in a TV movie.)

Ashley and Brad go to Ms. Vivica A. Fox. She determines that they were hacked and brings in a tech specialist to explains everything to them. We know that he is an expert because he has glasses. There is nothing they can do, but Ms. Vivica A. Fox offers to talk to Mandy and give her a proper talking to.

Ms. Vivica A. Fox investigates Mandy’s property, let’s not forget that she is a detective in this movie, not just a KWEEN. She learns from the landlord that Mandy skipped out on the lease but paid through the end of the month. Mandy is gone, but where did she go? Oh, she is looking in Ashley and Ben’s Window and watching them on the nanny cam.

A locksmith comes over and is very insistent on Ashley installing a security system. Then he goes home and strips naked to take a shower after lifting heavy weights shirtless. He is murdered in the shower by Mandy. (A la psycho.) It is the wrong shower scene. I’d much prefer to see Andrew Rogers in a shower scene. (winky face.)

Mandy breaks into Ashley and Brad’s house and tells Ashley that she is “sick of losing her man to a whore like you.” Then Mandy chloroforms Ashley. Now we are at the beginning of the movie. You know, where the woman is being dragged upstairs and tied up in her slipper. The woman is ASHLEY. As Mandy is tieing up Ashley, she tells her that Brad left her when she was pregnant, but he always told her he wanted kids.

Brad comes home and pours himself a glass of vodka. Then he meanders about the house while Ashley is upstairs trying to untie herself. Brad goes to bed and lays down. He is scared shitless when Mandy pops out from under the covers. Mandy pulls a knife on him and screams at him for leaving her. Ashley is untied and sneaks up behind Mandy and hits her with a hammer.

Ms. Vivica A. Fox is called to the scene and rushes upstairs. Mandy is gone. When she comes back down, she says the title of the movie. It is great.

The wedding happens—Ashley and Brad kiss. While Mandy watches with from the pews in a black wig and hat. I’m surprised she didn’t stand up when the priest asks if anyone objects.

The end!

Side Note

Minority Report: Ms. Vivica A. Fox, Clarissa, Ashley, Gemma.

Another solid production. I would have loved if Brad and Ashley didn’t end up together because he was a jerk and she could do better.

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Overall rating

🔪🔪🔪🔪 (4 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)