Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Rating: 7

A woman whose lost faith in love and marriage returns home to Hawaii and her female-empowered family business of wedding planners.

The beginning of the movie goes through this whole cutesy cartoon explanation of the fact that each daughter of the fiercely independent mother and runner of the wedding planners has, in fact, a different father. It seems as though Mom can’t hold it together, can’t hold down what she thinks is love when she finds it, so each daughter seems to deal with the questions of love and marriage differently. But the oldest, Lily, who’s seen all of it and is apparently rather bitter over the experience, is downright refusing to even consider the possibility, and when her perfectly nice boyfriend asks her to marry him, we have a very different response waiting for him – tossing her cookies. In front of everyone. But hey, he asked in front of everyone, so it’s partly his fault.

Lily proceeds to run home to Mom and family, studiously ignoring Mom trying hard to get Lily back with her thwarted fiancé. Lily finds refuge in the comforting presence of an old high school friend, who of course unbeknownst to her, is dating one of her sisters, the youngest in fact, Twinny. Hoku, another sister, is a fashion designer and not all that interested in the wedding planner world either, but her heart’s in the right place. She tries very hard to be kind to Lily, even designs a would-be wedding dress for her, assuming her wayward would-be fiancé James is coming on and they will be getting married. Needless to say, Lily’s reaction to the wedding dress is right up there with her reaction to her would-be fiance’s proposal. In the midst of trying to set up not one but two weddings at the same location, Lily ponders the questions of life and love and the weird turns fate and family takes. In the end, with some sad feelings but no bad ones abounding, Lily seems to take up with the one she’s meant to be with, the high school friend Kai, and they do participate in a wedding – just not eachothers’.

For a romantic comedy, it’s not a bad movie. The locations are beautiful, and so is the soundtrack. I being an only child have a hard time relating to the inter-family relations with the sisters, and also being a most-of-the-time-optimist, I’m saddened by most of Lily’s early thoughts and revelations on love and marriage. Doesn’t mean I disagree, it’s just sad for her to have to go through it. But if she didn’t, there would be no movie!