Bride Wars Parent Guide

If wedding plans are in your future, you might want to avoid this film—unless you want a lesson on how not to prepare for the big day. Either way, leave the fiancé at home. This movie may be enough to scare him off of ever walking down the aisle.

Liv (Kate Hudson) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) have been planning their nuptials since they were six-years-old and visited the grand Plaza Hotel with their mothers. On that day, over tea, they both decided this fairytale location is where they wanted to be married.

Now adults, Liv is an aggressive associate in a law firm and Emma is a mild-mannered middle school teacher who always ends up with extra assignments since she can never say no. As fate would have it, both women end up engaged within days of one another. The first order of business is to secure the services of the city’s most renowned wedding planner, Marion St. Claire (Candice Bergen).

Marion orchestrates weddings with the same military precision as a Napoleonic invasion. Nevertheless, a clueless aide mistakenly books both weddings on the same day. Years of friendship and loyalty are suddenly for naught as the brides-to-be begin battling for DJs, cake ideas and wedding guests. The two long-time pals don’t stop there either. They also sabotage one another’s beauty routines and party plans in downright nasty ways. Soon the warfare begins to affect the grooms (Chris Pratt, Steve Howey) who hardly get enough screen time to even be considered as eye candy. With the important day drawing nearer, tensions come to a head.

Granted, a girl’s wedding is big deal. Yet this film does nothing to dispel the concept of the malicious “bridezilla”. Both fiancées are so consumed with creating the perfect day that they lose all perspective on life. Luckily, their wider circle of friends refuses to take sides in the skirmishes, though they give in to the clichéd female comforts—ice cream, pill popping, etc.—to deal with the disappointment of still being single.

For women who can’t afford a Vera Wang gown or an extravagant reception at an expensive hotel, these battling brides are anything but role models. And unfortunately for many of the newly hitched in this film, marriage comes across as little more than a prerequisite for divorce proceedings.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.