My Bridal Watch Bucket List | every episode and film you need to watch before your wedding
This is the ultimate list of all the wedding-based films or TV show episodes I watched in the four months between getting engaged and getting married!
As you are reading this, it is one week before my wedding day. I know - I can’t believe it, that went so fast! I have made it my mission to cram as many bridal, wedding-themed films and TV show episodes into four months as I can to really milk this period of my life. This is everything I watched.
My only criteria is that the movie/episode must feature a wedding or a wedding dress!
TV
Lily and Marshall’s wedding on HIMYM
I also watched the whole of How I Met Your Mother as part of this process 🤣 If you are looking for romance, an early 2010s wedding dress, a wedding with lots of mishaps which ends up joyful and heartfelt - this is for you
Amy’s wedding on Doctor Who
I would really only recommend this for who fans because otherwise you’re not going to have the faintest clue what’s going on. If you start with ‘the pandorica opens’ and watch these two episodes, it's a perfect, satisfying finale to the season, after which her wedding feels all the more profound
Monica and chandler’s wedding on friends
What can I say. This is THE wedding. It was watched by over 30 million people when it aired making it one of the most viewed friends episodes of all time. To see two characters you have been watching for years fall and love and get married is so cute
Ross and Emily’s wedding on Friends
This is my personal favourite of the weddings on friends - I love the venue, I love the music, I love the candles - its the most beautiful ceremony!
Hayley and Dylan’s wedding on modern family
If you are looking for a small, intimate, family-orientated wedding, this one is so cute. I also love Hayley’s maternity wedding dress which she ends up with
Charlotte and Harry’s wedding on SATC
These two are without a doubt my favourite couple on SATC. I am such a Charlotte so I am always looking to her outfits for inspiration.
Liz and TJ’s wedding on Gilmore girls
Okay, I have to say, I don’t watch this episode so much for liz and TJ but just for lorelai and Luke dancing to reflecting light - it makes me tear up every time.
Lane and Zach’s wedding on Gilmore girls
Although I don’t really love Lane’s wedding dress, they have such a fun wedding in the Gilmore girls square
Amy and Sheldon’s wedding on the Big Bang Theory
I strongly dislike both of Penny and Leonard’s wedding episodes, but Amy and Sheldon’s is extremely cute. I particularly love the episode where they get engaged, and in fact I love the whole season where they get married as there are lots of wedding planning episodes which are really fun to watch while you are prepping your own wedding!
Films
27 dresses
Let’s start with the obvious ones. 27 Dresses HAS to be mentioned! A bridesmaid who is never the bride finally getting her moment? Yes please
Bridesmaids
This is one to be saved for your hen night! We watched this on my friend’s hen night last year and we absolutely died
Mamma Mia!
The only wedding film which really matters - I will be watching this with my girls and mum the night before the wedding and I plan to sob
Four Weddings and a Funeral
A classic for a reason. It has everything magical about the idea of going to a wedding and falling in love
Bride Wars
Absolutely one for wedding planning season. It captures all the madness of trying to put a party for 100+ people together in a matter of months
About Time
This is my fiancé’s favourite rom-com of all time, and it makes me cry a lot. There is a song from this to be featured during our wedding which I am so excited to hear
Cinderella (2015)
We HAVE to have a Disney Princess movie in there! The wedding dress in this movie is one of my absolute favourites - it has a little colour, it fits Lily James perfectly and it is everything a little girl would want in a wedding dress.
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
I LOVE this movie. Chris Pine is a beautiful man 🙈. The use of colour in this film is something to be admired
The Parent Trap
Okay so TECHNICALLY this isn’t a wedding film - but it has the nostalgic 90s vibes of a perfect romance, and there are some iconic wedding dress moments as the mum designs wedding dresses
Sex and the City The Movie
Carrie has one of the most innovative, interesting wedding looks in this movie, and I actually also love what she eventually gets married in. I’m always suspicious of follow-ups to a series but I genuinely enjoyed this
Pen’s wedding in Bridgeton s3
Honestly, any of the Bridgerton weddings are worth a watch (and will make you want to add 100k to your wedding budget 🤣). Pen’s wedding dress being a shade of blush is so perfect for Nicola, and she is just the most beautiful bride
Far From the Madding Crowd
This is one of my top 3 books in literature, knocking Tess of the D’Urbervilles off its spot when I first read it. It is my favourite love story of all time, it is wholesome, sweet, a slow burn, friendship-to-lovers and a real evil f*ckboy type of guy who gets his comeuppance. Plus, Carey Mulligan. What’s not to love.
Love Actually
Keira Knightley has of the most innovative wedding dresses for the era in this film - I love the use of the feathers it is so interesting. A perfect watch if you’re having a winter wedding.
Twilight Breaking Dawn P1
Now, come on, if we’re doing a lap of all the weddings I fantasised about in childhood, Twilight has to be in there. Especially as someone who always wanted a wedding in the woods (which I didn’t quite get but I’ve got a good compromise!) this is such a beautiful wedding
Emma (2020)
I love a Jane Austen film and I personally think this is one of the best executed. It’s frothy, light, pastel. Anya Taylor Joy is amazing.
The Sound of Music
A classic for a reason. Maria’s dress is very demure 😉, and their love story is timeless.
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
I happened to watch this as part of a project I am working on - but I think Padme’s dress is such an interesting take on a fantasy/sci-fi wedding look. It’s medieval inspired, yet futuristic - it’s truly innovative
Moulin Rouge
Again, TECHNICALLY not a wedding but it’s a wedding within a play within a play which also reflects a potential real wedding. I love metafiction and Nicole Kidman looks far too beautiful for a dying woman.
The Notebook
The Notebook doesn’t actually feature a wedding, but it does feature an absolutely stunning 1940s-50s inspired wedding dress which is different from your expected dress from this era
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
As a British girl, this wedding is the blueprint. It’s quite a short scene really, but it has been imprinted on my mind all these years later - the fairy-inspired feel is everything I have ever wanted from a wedding.
Letters to Juliet
Sophie’s wedding guest dress in this movie is one of my favourite outfits I have ever seen Amanda seyfried in. I watched this film a lot during the era me and my boyfriend first started going out (which, as 14 year olds, meant walking around the woods holding hands - I forget that we were literally children!). I listened to ‘what if’ and ‘you got me’ on repeat, I was totally in love
Nanny McPhee
When Evangeline gets transformed in the snow it makes me cry every time 😢
What’s new
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What did you think about today’s newsletter? Let me know in the comments below ⬇️
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I highly recommend the Julia Robert’s movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding” 🥰
I second The Father of the Bride. It's such a sweet, classic 90's movie and always makes me cry.
Congratulations on your happiest day💍