I watch a lot of Hallmark Channel movies. Practically my entire December is spent watching Christmas movies on Hallmark.
But this year, I happened to watch a movie that got me so enraged I found myself yelling at the television and wondering if it is the worst Hallmark Channel movie. That movie? A Christmas Bride.
A Christmas Bride was released in 2016. It stars Jessica Lowndes and Daniel Lissing as our leading couple. Lowndes stars as Layla O’Reilly, who is in a bit of a funk this December because she was supposed to get married last December but her fiancé dumped her after he met and fell in love with her cousin. Now her ex-fiancé and cousin are getting married and Layla needs a date to the wedding. She was going to go with her neighbor but he ended up getting sick so now she is going with a mutual friend of her and her ex-fiancé, Seth Murphy (Lissing). At the wedding, everyone wants to know when Layla and Seth started dating. Seth proceeds to tell everyone that not only are they dating but they are also engaged. Which leads to the heart of the movie – pulling off a fake engagement at Christmastime.
Look, I love a fake dating/fake engagement story. And that’s not why I didn’t like this movie. What made me so annoyed at this movie was Layla’s family and I’m going to tell you why they are the worst relatives.
First of all, all of Layla’s family is telling her that she needs to go to the wedding of her ex-fiancé and cousin. Can we all agree that she does not need to go to the wedding of her ex-fiancé and cousin, especially after, presumably, they both broke up Layla’s engagement? And it’s only been one year? She does not need to go to this wedding, I don’t care who’s getting married and if they are family.
Also, can we talk about who is going to the wedding? Layla’s father and brother!!! I’m sorry but if I heard that my father and brother were going to the wedding of the man who dumped me and it was not to yell at him or cause some sort of bodily harm, we would have some issues.
Layla’s aunt (her cousin’s mother) is so annoying. She kept instigating scenarios where Layla and her cousin would be together so that the cousin could apologize and Layla could forgive her. The aunt would say that she just can’t help meddling with family and family should forgive each other and it was at this point that I found myself yelling at the screen.
Then, the cousin and the ex-fiancé invite Layla and Seth to dinner to “clear the air” but when they arrive at the restaurant, there’s a surprise engagement party. I would have turned around right there and went home.
Throughout the movie we hear all about how Layla’s dream is to get married in December. But the movie starts in December when the cousin and ex-fiancé are getting married. So not only did Layla get dumped and is not getting married in December, but now she has to watch her ex-fiancé marry someone else during her dream wedding month. It honestly would not have surprised me if we found out the cousin was wearing Layla’s old wedding dress as well.
Of course, Layla has to be the bigger person and forgive everyone, including the ex-fiancé. He asks to talk to her and then proceeds to tell her that they probably wouldn’t have worked out because maybe they didn’t know each other well enough. I’m sorry – you proposed to this woman and wanted to marry her and now you’re saying maybe you didn’t know her? Did you think you would propose to her and then have a years long engagement where you could figure out if you really liked her and wanted to marry her? It made no sense!!
There are a couple of other things that bothered me in this movie, including Layla wanting to wear her mother’s wedding dress and having it fit her perfectly despite it being a strapless ballgown that was popular in 2016 and not something that someone would have worn 30 years ago (when I would assume her mother would have gotten married).
But don’t take my word for it. It you took out the horrible family and ex-fiancé this movie would have been 100% better. Or at least have one person angry about the ex-fiancé and cousin getting married? Everyone just seems find with the fact that Layla’s ex-fiancé is now marrying her cousin one year later.
Have you watched A December Bride? Do you think Layla’s family is the worst?
A December Bride is on the Hallmark Channel.
I have just watched this and had to come online to see if it was just me! How is it a heart warming festive movie watching a woman being gaslit and emotionally abused by her entire family! You missed out when she finally sat down with her ex fiance and the aunt and cousin appeared either side of him before they’d finished speaking. They even took that away from her. Hugely misjudged by the writers the whole thing. I was seething for her!
Haha, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one wondering about this movie! Her family was awful!