A Country Wedding

A Country Wedding Podcast

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you like movies such as A Country Wedding, then you MUST read LOVING LUKE by CECELIA DOWDY.

Loving Luke is about Kim Taylor, an unemployed accountant who returns home to assist her dad in their family’s cookie bakery. While in town, she reconnects with Luke, her childhood sweetheart.

Luke remembers how wild Kim used to be and he’s stunned to see her again. Kim mentors Luke’s daughter, showing her how to she runs her cookie bakery.

Luke has a problem and it looks like Kim is the only person who can help him solve his dilemma. READ this wonderful, classic Christmas tale! You will want to read it each Christmas. Find LOVING LUKE on ceceliadowdy.com/books, or, click on the link at the end of this blog post.

Now, let’s talk about A Country Wedding!

Do you know anybody who married his/her childhood friend? 

I’ve watched A Country Wedding so many times that I’ve lost count. This is one of my favorite Hallmark movies and I never grow tired of seeing it. I think I like this movie so much because the characters are so real and vivid. I also think there’s a bit of a romantic fantasy thrown into this movie. 

Romantic fantasy sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it? Let me explain myself. What are the odds of seeing someone, someone whom you’ve not seen since you were a child, and have the strong connection that Bradley and Sarah shared? From what I gathered, they’d not seen one another during their adult lives. I’d imagine that some men would barely remember the females they’d known as children – especially if they’d not seen them for over a decade.

Bradley is afraid to love. He’s never gotten over his parents’ untimely death, so he’s willing to settle on marriage to beautiful Katherine instead of waiting on true love. Bradley is good-looking, too, which is part of the romantic fantasy that I already mentioned. I found it kind of quirky that he didn’t really know Katherine at all. There’s NO WAY Katherine would have wanted to live in Bradley’s hometown. There’s also NO WAY Katherine really wanted to get married there, in spite of what she told Brad! While Bradley was planning his small-town wedding, with Sarah making the bridal decisions, Katherine was planning her elegant European wedding! Oh my!

The disparity between the two weddings was wide as a football field! Can you imagine the elegant Katherine being a regular part of Bradley’s hometown? I think not!

I also thought it was sweet that Bradley and Sarah married as children and Sarah had kept the ring. It was so endearing when she contacted him and sent his engagement ring.

My favorite part of the movie was when Sarah could see Bradley…I mean see him inside….his emotions, his thoughts, his fears. It was almost as if Sarah knew Bradley better than he knew himself! The most powerful part of the movie was when Sarah told Bradley how she felt and told him stuff about himself, stuff that he refused to openly admit. Here’s my favorite scene/dialog from the movie:

Brad: “Hey, what’s goin’ on with you?”

Sara: “You want the truth? ‘Cause like you said, you got a lot of people in your life who tell you what they think you want to hear, so, maybe you like it that way.”

Brad: “I’d rather hear the truth.”

Sarah: “Well, you’re about to marry a woman you barely know. You don’t know her favorite color. You don’t know her favorite flower. You don’t even know if she wants to have a family. I mean it seems to me you don’t know nothing about her at all.”

Brad: “No, I know everything I need to know.” 

Sarah: “Why are you here planning her wedding without her? Why am I here making all the decisions she should be making? Where is she?”

Brad: “I told you, she’s busy filming.”

Sarah: “Okay, look, you and I have been friends for a long time. So, I’m gonna shoot you straight.”

Brad: “Alright.”

Sarah: “You can’t marry Katherine Mann. You don’t love her.”

Brad: “I do, I do love her.”

Sarah: “Why did you kiss me?”

Brad: “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry. I just got caught up in the music and the moment.”

Sarah: “So, that’s all that was? You got caught up in the moment?”

Brad: “Yeah.”

Sarah: “Look, I get that you’re scared. Okay, you got your heart broken as a kid and you are afraid to love too much ever again. Well, you know what? Love is scary. It is terrifying to put your heart out there but you do it anyway. You do it in spite of the fear because a life without love is just half a life! And you don’t get married because you like the same things and ’cause you live similar lifestyles. You get married because you can’t stand the thought of not being together. You get married because you love the other person with your whole heart!”

Brad: “That’s…that’s just a fantasy”

Sarah: “Maybe it is. But I don’t think you should settle for less.” 

Brad: “You know just because you knew me as a kid, it doesn’t mean you know me now.”

Sarah: “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But you and me we have a deal. Okay. You help me mend my fences and I’ll help you plan your wedding. So, I guess we’re done!”

Whew! I clapped after that scene. Go on Sarah! Bravo! She saw Bradley’s HEART. She knew his fears and she stood up to him and forced him to see within himself, made him see that he was making a mistake. Of course hard-headed Bradley didn’t admit his mistake to himself…at least not initially.

So much about this movie to love. It’s definitely one of the best Hallmark Movies.

So, do you know anybody who married his/her childhood friend? Also share your feelings about A Country Wedding. What was your favorite scene? Was there anything in the movie that resonated with you? 

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you like movies such as A Country Wedding, then you MUST read LOVING LUKE by CECELIA DOWDY.

Loving Luke is about Kim Taylor, an unemployed accountant who returns home to assist her dad in their family’s cookie bakery. While in town, she reconnects with Luke, her childhood sweetheart.

Luke remembers how wild Kim used to be and he’s stunned to see her again. Kim mentors Luke’s daughter, showing her how to she runs her cookie bakery.

Luke has a problem and it looks like Kim is the only person who can help him solve his dilemma. READ this wonderful, classic Christmas tale! You will want to read it each Christmas. Find LOVING LUKE on ceceliadowdy.com/books, or, click on the link at the end of this blog post.

 Enjoy this blog post? Subscribe to CECELIA DOWDY’S Hallmark Movie Blog!

LOVING LUKE BOOK LINK

6 thoughts on “A Country Wedding

  1. Deborah

    The scene you quoted is my favorite also. The passion Autumn Reeser brought to the scene was stunning. Jesse Metcalfe’s best moment came in his sweet proposal at the end of fhe movie. The only scene that didn’t ring true was the actual wedding: the wedding guest audience was far too small, given the context of the movie, and the guests were certainly not dressed the way most Texans dress for weddings. Another small but important detail to me, there is no real town in Texas named Milltown. There is an area called the Milltown Historic District near Austin but it is a place for commercial interests and tourism. To set a movie called Country Wedding, which does feature small-town country ranching life in a town called Milltown doesn’t make sense. There are some towns in Texas that have various kind of mills though. I would be interested to know how this name was chosen. I am a Texan so these kind of things are important to me. The scenery did look authentic.

    Reply
  2. Deborah

    I can understand using fictional names for places; in this particular case the name struck me as being rather unbelievable for the reasons I mentioned; namely, there was no connection given between a mill and the ranching community. I am familiar with a few Texas towns with lumber mills, so I guess that is plausible. I am not aware at the moment of any Texas town that is primarily a “mill” town of any kind, although I guess there could be. Yes, Texans love to party and a wedding is the best kind of party. While you may read of rustic, country or Western themes for weddings, Texans are as sophisticated as anyone else. Take a look at some of the wedding magazines for weddings in Texas and you will see what I mean. The guests in this movie were wearing street clothes, not dress clothes. My husband wore a tuxedo and I wore a long formal dress for one of our daughters’ weddings that was held outside on a terrace at an Italian villa style house in the Hill Country. Our other daughter’s wedding and reception was somewhat more casual but still extremely elegant.

    Reply
    1. Cecelia Dowdy Post author

      Hi, Deborah! Next time I see a Texas wedding magazine I’ll be sure to take a look! Hey, I wanted to ask you something – in the movie, near the end, Katherine tells Sarah that she’ll need to leave soon and miss the wedding so that she can take that job at that ranch in California. When Sarah leaves her ranch, she takes her suitcase with her, and goes to the bank to talk to the banker about her house being sold and that she was leaving. At this point, I’m led to believe she’s on her way to California. But she returns to the ranch with her suitcase! The suitcase made things kinda confusing for me. Why’d she bring it with her if she were returning? Just seemed weird. Then she goes back and sees Bradley and the town in the barn and he tells her that he’s not marrying Katherine and he proposes.

      Reply
  3. Deborah

    I thought that was strange also. I guess it was written and directed that way to make Sarah’s leaving and loss more dramatic. I will find a wedding magazine article to share with you. It has been years since I have looked at wedding magazines.

    Reply
    1. Cecelia Dowdy Post author

      Hi, Deborah

      I look forward to seeing the wedding magazine article. I sense that the scene I mentioned may have been a blooper? I feel like Sarah should have gotten a phone call or something from a one of the other characters in the movie, stating there was an emergency and she needed to return to the house. The call would have been made as a ruse to get her to return. She returns and then Brad proposes. That makes more sense. I feel they may have forgotten to film a scene which explains her return with her luggage.

      Reply

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