Inspiration
The Best Wedding Movies to Watch Before You Say "I Do"
AltarHaus Editorial
Sometimes the best wedding planning you can do is curl up on the couch with something sparkling in hand. These are the films we recommend to every bride in the thick of it.
Sometimes the best wedding planning you can do is curl up on the couch with something sparkling in hand and let someone else's fictional nuptials inspire, entertain, and occasionally terrify you. These are the films we recommend to every bride in the thick of it: some for the inspo, some for the catharsis, and all of them because they are simply wonderful.
1. Father of the Bride (1991)
Before there was a wedding planning checklist, there was Steve Martin falling apart at a supermarket over hotdog bun quantities. Father of the Bride is the ultimate family wedding film: funny, warm, and quietly devastating in the best way. Watch it with your dad and try not to cry. (You will cry.)
2. Bride Wars (2009)
Two best friends accidentally book the same venue on the same day. What follows is one of the most gleefully chaotic wedding films ever made, and also a surprisingly good reminder that the friendship matters more than the flowers. It's peak early-2000s energy and endlessly rewatchable.
3. Bridesmaids (2011)
The defining film for anyone who has ever been in a wedding party, or is currently planning one. Bridesmaids is hilarious, genuinely moving, and contains one of the best arguments for letting go of perfectionism ever committed to film. The bridal shop scene alone is worth the runtime.
4. Steel Magnolias (1989)
Not strictly a wedding movie, but the opening act, set entirely against the backdrop of a backyard Southern wedding, is some of the best wedding content cinema has produced. Watch it for the hair, the humor, the friendship, and the reminder that the women in your life are everything.
5. The Wedding Planner (2001)
Jennifer Lopez. Matthew McConaughey. A runaway dumpster. This film is not trying to be high art, and it doesn't need to be. It's warm, romantic, and a love letter to the idea that love itself is worth a little chaos. Also, the fashion holds up better than you'd expect.
6. Mamma Mia! (2008)
A Greek island, ABBA, Meryl Streep in overalls. Mamma Mia! is pure joy and one of the best arguments for a destination wedding ever put on screen. It will make you want to elope to a whitewashed villa immediately. Watch the sequel too; Dancing Queen on that boat will rearrange something in your chest.
7. The Parent Trap (1998)
Hear us out. The Parent Trap isn't a wedding movie exactly, but it is a movie entirely about love: familial love, romantic love, the kind of love that makes you want to fight for something. It's also a masterclass in the power of a great party, a beautiful setting, and a plan that somehow works against all odds. Plus: Natasha Richardson's wedding wardrobe in the flashback scenes is everything.
AltarHaus Editorial
