User Reviews

If you enjoy cozy mysteries you'll enjoy this light mystery with an attractive cast. Don't examine the plot too closely......cozy mysteries by design are meant to be fun not realistic. Just sit back with a glass of wine & enjoy the view 🤗

This mystery was clean and fun. Of course you figure out early on who is going to fall in love, but there are enough complications in the plot to keep you guessing how long it will take for that to happen. In the meantime, you can stay occupied with wondering if the wedding will ever happen and which characters are good and which are evil, and who the murderer is. No, it's not Mary Higgins Clark. It's Hallmark, and it's fun. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 3/2/2021

Lately the Hallmark Channel has been having all kinds of amateur female detective heroes in their films. It's all in the grand tradition of that most famous and successful amateur sleuth of the female gender Miss Jane Marple.

Erica Durance is our detective here and as you see by the title she's a wedding planner. Right now she's planning her rich friend Chelan Simmons's wedding. But there are a lot of complications like a feud between her father and his former business partner, both of whom are under investigation. And then there's the death of a cousin of Simmons in a car crash where the car was tampered with.

While all this is going on Durance is also being courted by reporter Andrew Walker and lawyer Brandon Beemer. Who will she choose?

As it turns out that murder was only part of a greater scheme hatched by members of the cast. That's what Durance has to foil to get this wedding back on track.

Wedding Planner Mystery was a pleasant enough mystery with some good performances by the ensemble. Hallmark with its PG programming is providing some good entertainment with these films.

This movie had a great cast. I liked most of the actors in their respective roles but the script was terrible. The situations were contrived. Most of the conclusion that the main character drew were based on faulty reasoning. The decisions they made to solve problems or get out of dangerous situations were always based on bad decision making. I found myself constantly saying aloud: "No one would do that." More than once, someone was accused of a crime based on ridiculous logic. This was a Murder Mystery; a formula that calls for a certain amount of logic and deduction. I found both sorely missing. I really liked Erica Durance in the lead. I really hated the lines they obviously forced her to say. As Hallmark Movies go this was the most disappointing one I have ever watch. Disappointing because it had all the elements to be enjoyable. If, when you suspend belief while watching this, you also suspend logic and reasoning, you may still be able to enjoy this movie.

Erica Durance is extraordinarily beautiful, talented, charming, and very watchable. And Andrew Walker has long been one of the best male Hallmark leads. But this "mystery" makes no sense.

First, why is she worried early on about losing money from a wedding that she already planned? The most basic contract would have required pre-payment. No one gets a refund when a wedding gets canceled on the day of the wedding. If anything, given that they were apparently going forward on a different day, which would have required additional work, she would have been entitled to more compensation.

Hallmark movies often ignore legal and business realities, but this one is frustratingly bad in that regard.

Erica's character would have had no time to play amateur sleuth and frankly no need to do so. And the insane threats that supposedly drive her to "clear her name" because she's a "suspect in a murder investigation" and potentially "implicated" in a convoluted "embezzlement and tax evasion" scheme?? WTF???

What possible motive could she have to kill a bridesmaid? And where's the supposed proof that she's an embezzler?

And in what alternate universe would a wedding planner have ANY civil or criminal liability for serving champagne at a wedding? The bridesmaid was barely over the legal limit and left early and unexpectedly. The detective was an idiot and truly lousy at his job.

And the reporter's threats about implicating her in some alleged embezzlement between the bride's father and/or uncle?? Complete and utter nonsense.

And sneaking around and trying to get past security to "warn" someone? Did everyone lose their phones?

And the Perry response to alleged "financial irregularities"? If I see one more Hallmark movie where a character is pressured to make a legal decision or sign a big contract or waiver without talking to a lawyer I'm going to scream.

The rest was just a bunch of lazy plot lines to create a drama that never made sense.

And talking about love and marriage before a first kiss? Seriously?

I love Hallmark movies, but if this didn't have Erica Durance, I would have given it a 1 out of 10.

Erica Durance plays wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid. She seems to be cool under pressure, but that will really be tested as she has two weddings in the same wealthy family within two weeks. A big strain is placed on the festivities and the planning as one of the cousins is murdered during the reception of the first wedding. Will Carnegie be able to keep the account that her business so desperately needs and will she be able to remove herself from the suspicion of Detective Bordon. Will she be able to keep the plucky investigative reporter Aaron Gold at bay...and off the front page? And who is this handsome lawyer Holt Walker of the amazing eyes, who seems to be trying to seduce Carnegie?

Being from Seattle I did enjoy the houseboat setting and I like how skilled the wedding planner is and how persistent the reporter is. The mystery was decent and the cast was really good. I think mystery fans will enjoy this one.

'Wedding Planner Mystery' (2014)

Opening thoughts: Personally have no bias against the Hallmark murder/crime mysteries, as there are some decent ones out there (whether part of their numerous mystery series or not). Erica Durance has always been worth watching, regardless of whether her filmography is consistent or not (it isn't, but that is true for most actors and actresses). Andrew Walker is also one of Hallmark's best leading men. Despite those two, expectations were not exactly high for 'Wedding Planner Mystery', due to it sounding so ridiculous.

Unfortunately, 'Wedding Planner Mystery' is as ridiculous as it sounds and it just didn't come together. To me, it wasn't a total waste of time or terrible thanks to (most of) the acting saving it. Hallmark did do far worse films in 2014 and it is not even anywhere near one of the worst from the Movies and Mysteries block, from that year or overall. Hallmark, as has been said by me a number of times in past reviews, have shown numerous times that they were capable of films of good quality or at least watchable, but 'Wedding Planner Mystery' is not indicative of that.

Good things: The best thing about 'Wedding Planner Mystery' is a radiant Durance, whose performance is very authoritative and charming. Walker is an amiable and never wooden presence too and the two have a genuine, unforced chemistry together that has touches of wit. The supporting cast on the whole are better than average, despite their roles being quite underwritten.

Production values are suitably slick. There are moments of light hearted wit and the film starts off with promise.

Bad things: 'Wedding Planner Mystery' falls far short in the scriot and story. Most of the script is stilted and lacks tautness and bite. There is also too much of an over-reliance on humour, and too much of it doesn't work, too much of it being forced and sometimes appearing in inappropriate places.

Story-wise, the film just doesn't grab. It badly lacks suspense, is mundanely paced and any turns in the plot are prematurely obvious which gives an over-formulaic feel throughout. To see that quite a lot of it is ridiculous to a credibility straining degree is being kind, the ending being facepalm inducing.

Direction has nice moments visually but is otherwise pedestrian. The music could have been used a good deal less and been toned down. There is an exception to the acting, and that is a very hammy Gabrielle Rose.

Closing thoughts: Overall, just scrapes average thanks to the cast. If it weren't for them, it would have been rated mediocre at best.

5/10.

I love Erica Durance; the other cast members were good and believable. However, the script was the worst. I see others came to the same conclusion. I, unfortunately, cannot suspend enough (belief, logic, you name it) to enjoy this movie as a murder mystery. I finally figured out the only way to enjoy it was as a comedy. And that worked. It's amazing that Hallmark airs this because most of their murder mysteries, in addition to having good production values, are fairly well written. This is a major bump in the road from that angle.

Note that I absolutely believe there are people out there who are dumb enough to act this way. But no one should make a movie about them! It just gets viewers upset over nothing.

Carnegie Kincaid (Erica Durance), a wedding planner who is very on top of things, is deemed a person of interest in a car accident that kills Michelle Parry (Barbara Kottmeier), cousin and bridesmaid of her client. The detective (Rick Ravanello) suggests that Carnegie is at fault since she supplied the wedding party with a bottle of champagne thereby making her liable for Michelle's death. It's an absurd accusation, and there are suspects with far more motivation. Michelle's boyfriend (Clayton James), for example, gets in a public argument with the deceased right before she drives off but somehow he doesn't merit an interview. A hooded figure caught fiddling with the car before the ceremony doesn't get a second look either because the detective is convinced that Carnegie is the shady one.

It started out well, but largely falters significantly throughout. It's not very engaging, has a poor mystery, though the leads are good, oozing some neat chemistry. I found this flat for the most part, though it's light and fluffy. It came across more like a romantic film than a mystery one.

Hallmark has very up positive movies and you almost always walk away with a smile. The main character in Wedding Planner Mysteries was good but the parts of script was so unbelievably contrary to the characters personality and intelligence. She kept making decisions that were so common sense and yet she went the other way. There were many comments that should have been made to the police, that she kept secret for no real reason, other than to make her look guilty. She was obviously hostile towards the Detective for no real reason. It was like the whole story line was being placed on her part rather than setting the interaction across the cast.

I really enjoyed the Deborah Donnelly wedding planner books and I'm sorry she stopped writing them. Seattle was one of the best characters, which was why I started reading them. But once Hallmark takes over - it's filmed in nondescript somewhere in Canada, any possible edge is sanded away, the stable of Hallmark performers is pretty but bland, and any sort of intelligence by a female is diminished.

The cast was fine; always love Andrew walker. But the writing was bad. The morning after the murder (which happened at night), and someone is already trying to kill Carnegie for asking questions? The plot comes out decently, if predictable, it's the execution that sucks. Good for one watch, no more.

It's too late for me. Save yourself. Do anything other than watch this poor excuse for entertainment. What happened to Hallmark? They used to make good movies. Not the best; yet, good for a lazy night. It now seems that they are more interested in pumping out quantity of movies vice quality. And this sorry foray is a prime example. This is not one of them. It's pure and simple tripe. Bad writing. Predictable characters. Inane dialogue. Unplausible situations. Predictable scenes. I would have found watching paint dry to be more entertaining than trying try to watch this garbage. I have already wasted too much precious time watching this farce and I'm trying to find more things to post to meet the minimum requirements to make review.

A bridesmaid dies in a suspicious car accident after leaving a wedding party in a fit. The wedding planner (Erica Durance) is apparently in danger of being blamed for supplying alcohol at the party. Legally, I might add, so I don't see what the crime was but okay that's what gets this off the ground. Anyway, Erica investigates the case to find out if the girl was murdered and gets herself in deeper and deeper trouble.

This is from a series of books I'm unfamiliar with so I can't make any comparisons between the two. One of the things the movie does that I really didn't like was an irritating book-style narration. I assume this was to tie in with the books somehow but I found it annoying. I watched this for Erica Durance and she's great in it. She's lovely as ever and has the most charisma of anybody in this. In the movie's most adorable scene, she investigates wearing cat makeup. Chelan Simmons, of Final Destination 3 fame, is the bride-to-be whose wedding Erica is planning. The rest of the cast is made up of very forgettable and bland Canadians. The worst is Gabrielle Rose who hams it up with glee, no doubt influenced by the ridiculous wig they had her wear. The reporter love interest for Erica is underwhelming. The two have a friendly banter but I didn't see any sparks. It also appears all of the actors were responsible for their own makeup.

About the time Erica's brakes went out in her van I realized this wasn't going to be breaking any new ground. It was very easy to spot who the bad guys are. They're the ones acting shady and suspicious, doing everything but twirling their mustaches and saying "Muah-ha-ha!" One of the bigger selling points for this is also one of its drawbacks. I'm speaking of the comedy. The movie has a lighthearted tone, despite being a murder mystery. The problem with that is that due to the comedy, which shows up at inappropriate times, it's hard to build any suspense or ever feel our heroine or her friends are in real danger. Someone locks her in a room by gunpoint and there's some kind of Laurel & Hardy music playing. It's too silly to be taken seriously. It's not terribly fresh or suspenseful but it's very watchable. Honestly, it felt less like a movie and more like a TV pilot. Perhaps that's because they intended this to be the first in a series of TV movies based on this character. Fans of Erica Durance will enjoy it just for seeing her. If nothing else, she proves here she could knock it out of the park with better material.

Wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid (Erica Durance) tries to overcome melodrama in working the wedding of Nicky Parry (Chelan Simmons). It doesn't help that Nicky's socialite cousin Michelle Parry dies in a car crash running out of the wedding party. Nicky's rich dad threatens to sue reporter Aaron Gold (Andrew W. Walker) for writing constantly about his and his business partner Keith Gutherbridge's involvement in a large tax scandal. The police investigates Kincaid for the car crash. She needs the wedding for her business. She falls for mysterious Parry lawyer Holt Walker. She also needs to solve the case to clear her name but more murder attempts keep happening.

This is a Hallmark mystery. The main issue for the movie is motivating Kincaid into solving the case. It's a thin excuse to have the cop come after her. It doesn't make the cop look competent. In fact, it makes him look evil but what's the point? He needs to come at her with more accusations to make any case believable. With weak and confused motivations, the story struggles to pick up steam. I don't understand the financial misdealing. Shouldn't there be paperwork? If someone is stealing from the bank account, wouldn't the bank have a record of the withdrawals? Evil stepmother Clara Parry is way overacting. It's all slight-of-hand scriptwriting. It doesn't matter that the details aren't there or that the writing is simply an excuse to advance the plot. I don't understand why anybody does anything in this movie. Kincaid is obviously destine for Gold but they don't have enough time together and they take forever to get there. This is Hallmark mystery.

4/10 - stupid narration and a mystery that wasn't very enthralling makes this HMM feature one to be skipped

I'm a longtime Hallmark movie and store fan. I gobble up the sweet cheese of all of the movies and series but this one is just not good. I decided to do a rewatch tonight. I didn't remember anything about this movie until about 10 minutes into the movie. The acting is cute not too overdone except by the bride, Nicky, but the writing...oh goodness the writing...if you're a dialogue freak like me then this one will drive you batty.

Why in the world is a wedding planner wearing cat face at the wedding? This looked too stupid to continue watching. All I could think is "what's up with the cat face"