10 of the best wedding movies of all time

OK, so we’re not professional movie reviewers, but if you’re in the middle of your wedding planning, there is nothing better then to chill out and watch a great wedding movie, so for those who are wondering which is the best, here’s a list of 10 if the best wedding movies of all time.

Four Weddings and a Funeral
Ok, so this one is a little about funerals as well as wedding, but hey, Hugh Grant is at his bumbling best in this feel-good farce about whether or not to tie the knot. British filmmakers showed Hollywood how to make quality a romantic comedy movie and Oscar nominations soon followed.

The Wedding Singer
Possibly the most fun and romantic wedding movie of them all, Adam Sandler plays the Wedding Singer and Drew Barrymore a waitress, they first meet at someone else’s wedding where they are both working. They soon meet again, when Barrymore is making plans for her own wedding, even though deep inside she feels that she’s “settling” for security rather then true love. Meanwhile Sandler finds out about the two-timing groom to be, when the he starts to brag about his adventures with every sexy girl that comes his way. Secretly in love with Barrymore, Sandler eventually sweeps her off her feet. Cracking 80’s soundtrack makes this a must see.

The Wedding Planner
The wonderfully sexy Jennifer Lopez portrays a successful wedding planner in Manhatten who is successful in her career but apparently unlucky in love. That is of course until she meets with her knight in shining armour (Matthew McConaughey). The only problem here is that Matthew is getting married to one of her new wedding planning clients and she may very well be doomed to a loveless life married to some loser from high school who used to pick on her.

My Best Friend’s Wedding
A 28-year-old woman (Julia Roberts), years earlier made a pact with her closest male friend (Dermot Mulroney) that if neither were married in the next ten years time they would marry one another. However, he ends up asking her to be his “best man” and she agrees, planning to go to the ceremony and then break up the couple before they exchange their vows.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Great fun, this movie is centered on Fotoula “Toula” Portokalos, a Greek-American woman, who falls in love with a non-Greek protestant fellow, Ian Miller.
Toula is going through an early midlife crisis. At thirty, she is the only woman in her family who has “failed”: her family expects her to “marry a Greek, have Greek babies and feed everyone, constantly.” Instead, Toula is stuck working in the family restaurant. In contrast to her “perfect” sister, Athena, Toula is frumpy and cynical. She fears she’s doomed to be stuck with her life as it is.

Father of the Bride
Steve Martin stars as George Banks, a wealthy upper-class businessman living in Suburban America with a gentle wife (played by Diane Keaton) and feisty son. His oldest daughter has finally grown up and departed the family home, and the day she comes home with a fiancée the father literally has a panic attack. Steve Martin plays the role of the father losing his only daughter brilliantly. Funny, warm and enjoyable to the end.

Muriel’s Wedding
The movie is about Muriel (Toni Collette), an ugly-duckling character, and her one motivation in life – to get married. Her motivation arises from the fact that all of her friends from high-school, the ones she tries so hard to fit in with, are walking up the aisle. Muriel thinks she finally has her chance when the bouquet from one of her friend’s wedding lands in her hands. The movie is well-backed by an ABBA soundtrack that fits the theme rather appropriately.

Runaway Bride
Another Julia Roberts wedding movie, where she plays a spirited and attractive young woman who has had a number of unsuccessful relationships. Maggie, scared of commitment, has left three men waiting for her in church on their wedding day (all of which are caught on tape), receiving tabloid fame and the dubious nickname “Runaway Bride”. Big shot reporter Ike Graham (played by Richard Gere), writes a column about her that contains several factual errors, and is fired for not verifying his sources. He then decides to write an in-depth article about Maggie in a bid to get his job back by travelling to Maryland, where he finds her on her fourth attempt to become married.

27 Dresses
While working the wedding beat for a New York newspaper, Kevin crosses paths with perennial bridesmaid Jane, who has stood beside 27 brides as she has waited patiently for Mr. Right to come around. Jane loves, her boss George, but can’t work up the courage to tell him. Then Jane’s younger sister, Tess, blows into town. She is introduced to George by Jane at a company party, and they immediately hit it off. Weeks later, they’re engaged to be married, and Tess asks Jane to be her maid of honor .

Corpse Bride
Perhaps not your traditional bridal movie, but still worth a mention in our 10 best wedding movies of all time – Set in a 19th century European village, young Victor is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious Corpse Bride, while his real bride, Victoria, waits bereft in the land of the living. Though life in the Land of the Dead proves to be a lot more colorful than his strict Victorian upbringing, Victor learns that there is nothing in this world, or the next, that can keep him away from his one true love. Even the kids find this tale great fun to watch.

So there you have it, our list of 10 of the best wedding movies of all time. Got any more you want to add or comment on, if so, leave your comments below.

For those of you who have never heard of DJ Mike Porter then you probably aren’t really from Essex at all. Mike is a (now retired) wedding DJ and more well known for his shows on Southend Radio, Essex FM, Time FM and probably more radio shows around Essex that we can’t be bothered to research ourselves at the moment.

Anyway, Mike is now making movies, as well as holding down his day job on Southend Radio, and here is a recent clip from a Channel Five show called My Wedding Day Ruined my Life.

“Absolutely anything can go wrong at a wedding, from the groom getting caught with his pants down, to a bar room brawl, and whatever happens you can guarantee that the trusty wedding DJ will be there to witness it…”

This is our first post of 2010, and it’s been a crazy start to the year. After a fairly quiet December with not too much going on, 2010 has started with a huge bang, plenty of new businesses have already listed their services with us meaning we’re offering more and more options for the brides and grooms of Essex to plan their perfect wedding – and judging by our stats, there are an awful lot of people planning their weddings at the moment.

Perhaps there was a flurry of engagements in Essex over the Christmas period, if you got engaged then just complete the little form to join our mailing list so we can tell you about any special offers that our services have for 2010.

If you’re planning your wedding, and are daunted by the thought of saving up for your wedding budget, then consider something similar to this crazy couple from the States. Pete and Andrea are on a mission, to save up for their wedding that they are planning for July this year, but they are doing it slightly differently by collecting aluminium cans to claim the recycling refund that their state offers for each can.

Andrea Parrish, 25, and Peter Geyer, 29, from Washington, have already collected more than 18,000 cans which are currently sitting in their living room. The couple said: “Saving the environment and throwing a killer party… what could be better?”
Their target is 400,000 cans, and have accepted cans as gifts from well wishers – if they reach their target they will have collected around 5 tonnes of aliminum sitting in their house, an expect to earn around $3800 (£2375) for their efforts.

The pair have even set up their own website to help advertise their mission, so if you’re feeling generous, or just want to have a nose at such a great story, their website is www.weddingcans.com

I’m sure there are plenty of weird and wacky ways to save some money for your wedding day, so if you think you’ve heard of a better one then complete the form below and let us know.

Facebook fancy dress wedding

After reporting possibly the first facebook status update at the alter last week , we thought it only right to tell you about a Facebook group setup to decide whether a couple get married in fancy dress or not.

The group was set up by Bec Miller who states “100,000 people join and Bam and I will have a fancy-dress wedding,” The Facebook group has already attracted around 900 members – and with your help, you can “vote” for their special fancy dress wedding.

Join the Facebook group

MS Miller started the group as it was her childhood dream to wear fairy wings as she walked down the aisle. Her original plan was to achieve a mere 1,000 members to the group but her fiancée deemed this too easy, especially as their achieved 700 members in under two weeks.

The Facebook group has even found Bec a “sponsor” in the form of costume shop, Escapage, who have offered the couple full clothing for the couple and their child Vitani.

The wedding is set for 1st April, so Bec has only a short period to find the necessary 100,000 Facebook group members – although the rumour is that Bec and Bam (?) have verbally agreed that 10,000 members could be a comprise.

Ms Miller invited everyone to join the group to help her wedding campaign, stating “the more the merrier” – So get yourself along and join the Facebook group today, and ensure the poor groom gets his fancy dress costume for his wedding day ! You can find the group here – 100 000 people join and bam and i will have a fancy-dress wedding.

During the most romantic moment of his entire life, a groom decided to interrupt his wedding ceremony to update his Facebook status from his mobile phone.
As soon as the minister pronounce the couple man and wife, the groom whipped out his phone immediately to update his Facebook page AND Twitter.

The minister was in on the joke, and announced that the groom was busy updating his relationship status at the earliest opportunity, leaving the wedding guests in fits of laughter.

He also Tweeted: “Standing at the altar with TracyPage where just a second ago, she became my wife! Gotta go, time to kiss my bride.” Before doing so, he passed his new bride a phone for her to also update her Facebook status from “in a relationship” to “married”.

The un-named groom said on YouTube : “This was just done to be funny – we really don’t Facebook THAT often:).
“I have a lot of family scattered around the country and we all use Facebook a lot to keep in touch. So when Tracy and I were engaged, most of my family found out via Facebook because we updated our statuses.

If you can’t believe this would actually happen in the middle of someone’s wedding ceremony, here’s the clip for you to see :

It’s become a bit of a new tradition in weddings, perhaps not a very popular one, but certainly one of the most fun.

The idea is simple, you spend your hard earned money on a beautiful wedding dress, take part in your dream ceremony, marry the man of your dreams surrounded by your nearest and dearest. The perfect day.

Then, you trash your wedding dress…… yes, ruin it forever. You up for it ?

We think perhaps this tradition won’t be quite as popular as wearing a garter, or throwing the bouquet over your shoulder, this new wedding tradition certainly isn’t for everyone. However, it does seem to have one very significant benefit going for it, hilarious, entertaining wedding photos. That is if you can get your wedding photographer to agree to it, you wouldn’t want to ruin your wedding dress and then miss out on the fun memories.

These kind of photos require skill and good timing, here is a collection of various “Trash the Dress contest” run by the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) who hold an annual competition.

Goal......

I take this bride...

Dress Dive

Wedding in an Essex strip club anyone ?

We’ve long been saying that Essex is a fantastic place to get married, with over a hundred licensed wedding venues in Essex to choose from, coupled with some of the most historic and beautiful churches, we truly believe that getting married in Essex is the perfect start to your wedded life together.

Katz Gentleman’s Club in Basildon, Essex

And according to this week’s National press, Phil Warren and Lynfa Lawson also agree with our statement, however, they chose not to opt for one of our county’s magnificent Victorian Manors, or exquisite hotels for their wedding day, instead they got married in Katz Gentleman’s Club in Basildon, Essex.

According to reports, Katz applied for a wedding licence back in August, as Phil and Lynfa had met there, they decided it was the perfect place for them to exchange their vows.

Lap Dancing Weddings Venues

Dean Kayne, the general manager at Katz Gentleman’s Club in Basildon thinks they have found a niche in the wedding market “As far as I know we are the first strip club in the country with a licence to hold weddings.” he said.

The club use a registrar from Brentwood to marry the couples, and people can organise their own entertainment and caterers.

Sounds like an interesting prospect, but if you’re planning a slightly more traditional wedding, you may wish to browse our list of wedding venues in Essex, most of which are less likely to have poles from their ceilings.

Top 10 Worst Wedding Photos

Yesterday we blogged about the newlyweds who sued their wedding photographer over his pathetic attempt to capture their special day on film. But that article left us thinking, what are the worst wedding photos of all time ?

So here we’ve compiled our worst 10 wedding photographs for your amusement

Number 10 – Drunken Bride
Looks to us that this bride would rather spend her big day with her big bottle rather then her new husband.

Boozy Bride

Number 9 – The Happy Couple
This wedding photo clearly captured the magic of the day, with the beaming bride delighted at her choice of husband.

The Happy Couple

Number 8 – Half a wedding dress
The wedding photographer snapped away whilst the bride suddenly realised she’d only ordered half a wedding dress.

The garter is the same size as the skirt

Number 7 – Bridal Bathroom
“Dear wedding photographer, please ensure you take plenty of photos of me and my bridesmaids relaxing before the ceremony.”

Who's holding the toilet paper ?

Number 6 – Katie Price aka Jordan
Yes, well, Katie’s wedding dress choice proved everything we need to know about that girl’s sophistication.

Remember those knitted toilet roll holders ?

Number 5 – Stripper’s Wedding Dress
I bet the groom loved this dress, and his mates, and their football buddies, just not her new mother in law perhaps.

Wedding Bikini

Number 4 – Beached Whale spoils wedding day
The wedding photographer wasn’t quite alert enough to pause whilst this lady walked through the background. Some Photoshop editing required here.

Porkie Passer By

Number 3 – Groom snogs Best Man
Probably the least flattering wedding photo of all time, how to make the bridal party all look stupid at once.

I love you man, I've always loved you

Number 2 – Class and Decorum on your Wedding Day
The photographer needed no zoom lens here, it was obvious who the “happy pair” where.

What a happy couple

And at Number 1 - The wedding photograph that has to be the worst of all time, just imagine the bride’s face when she sat down to look at her wedding photos after returning from her happy honeymoon.

Bum Deal for the Bride

Think you’ve seen worst wedding photographs ? Leave your comments below and we’ll try and beat these 10 howlers soon.

Having read this story in the papers this morning, we were scrambling to ensure it didn’t happen in Essex, and luckily for our Essex bridal parties, this awful wedding photographer appears to be from West Yorkshire.

For those of you who missed the story, newlyweds Sylvia and Mark paid Gareth Bowyers of Fresh Images a whopping £1,450 to be their wedding photographer. The package was supposed to contain a series of high quality photographs as you’d expect for that kind of fee, instead they received out of focus shots, snaps of bored guests, and random close-ups of cars.
The bungling photographer also managed to chop their heads of in some of the wedding photos.

Bowers was also in charge of the videographer, and failed to edit out a section of the DVD where the cameraman dropped the equipment and swore.

Marc and Sylvia are suing Fresh Images for breach of contract – hardly surprising at Bowers even managed to spell the bride’s name “Slyvia” on the wedding’s thank you cards he made to send out to their families.

The couple had met up with Bowers on several occasions in the run up to their wedding, and discussed specific requirements to make sure the wedding photographs were planned to perfection. However, on their wedding day, another team turned up at the bride’s home in Wakefield.

Sylvia said: “It unnerved me a bit but I just decided I had to get on with it and thought everything would be fine.

“But things went from bad to worse as the photographer and videographer kept missing important key points throughout the day.

“He missed us turning up at the reception and also missed the cutting of the cake and you can see how angry I’m getting on the wedding video – I even do a psycho slashing knife action, which I can’t believe they left in.”

Thankfully, last week a judge found in favour of Mr & Mrs Days and critised Bowers’ wedding business practices, inappropriate photos and woefully inadequate service. The judge then ordered Bowers to pay back £500 of the £1,450 they paid him.
Delivering his judgement at Pontefract County Court, Judge Nightingale said: “It is not just the quality of the photographs, but the subject of the photos is unworthy of wedding photographs.”

To see the dreadful photographs – then have a look at the Sun newspaper.

If you’re looking for high quality wedding photographers in Essex, then browse through our website. We do of course recommend that you spend time with your wedding photographer before the event, see samples of their previous work, check any organisations they may be members of, and ensure it will be them who arrives on your wedding day to perform the role of wedding photographer.

If you’re considering booking your wedding entertainment at the moment, then you may want to reconsider if you’ve opted for the Rolling Stones.
Although I think most people reading this article, haven’t actually booked the Rolling Stones for their wedding band, it’s only right to warn you that they would be the “worlds’s most expensive wedding act” – according to a poll by Living TV.

When searching for high quality wedding entertainment if you are looking in the £5 million market, then the Rolling Stones may be the perfect act to get your wedding guests up and rocking, however if you’re looking for something a little less pricey former Hear’Say singer and Shrek look-a-like winner, Danny Foster can be hired for around £650.

Bargain Wedding Singer

The poll was seeking the most costly wedding singers and bands, and the Stones topped the list, ahead of other favourite artists such Leona Lewis, Sir Elton, Sir Paul McCartney and pop princess Kylie.

Believe it or not, Karaoke favourites the Proclaimers can turn up at your wedding and belt out the sing a long classic I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) for £50,000, yes that is fifty thousand pounds. Which incidentally places them around the same price bracket as the likes of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.

80’s music fans may wish to book Rick Astley to wow your wedding guests, to hear “Never Gonna Give You Up” on your wedding day, will set you back a mere £25,000 according to Living’s survey.

Calculations from the survey were based on information from agents and examining accounts, by a financial analyst ascertaining how much it would cost to hire each act for a private performance.

For those of you planning to book wedding bands in Essex for your wedding entertainment, then here’s the full list of the dozen most costly wedding singers and bands :

1. The Rolling Stones (up to £5 million)
2. Sir Elton John (up to £2 million)
3. Kylie Minogue (up to £2 million)
4. Christina Aguilera (up to £1.5 million)
5. George Michael (£1.3 million)
6. Amy Winehouse (£1 million)
7. Sir Paul McCartney (£1 million)
8. Leona Lewis (£1 million)
9. Jennifer Lopez (£1 million)
10. Barry Manilow (£750,000)
11. Rod Stewart (£600,000)
12. Duran Duran (£500,000)