Garage Sale Mystery: Il vestito da sposa

The Garage Sale Mysteries, like many Hallmark mysteries, are for light watching and mild entertainment. This is unlike, say, the Hallmark Christmas films, which are awful.

I love seeing the antiques and collectibles featured on the shows, and the cast is likable. These films also move a little better than others on the network.

In this one, Wedding Dress, the shop owners Jennifer and Dani (Lori Loughlin and Sarah Strange) find a vintage wedding dress from 1979 at an estate sale. Given the styles back then, I rather doubt it was a real vintage dress - guess the set dresser couldn't find one. On investigation, they learn the groom disappeared during the reception and was never seen again.

They meet the bride, Helen (Cheryl Ladd), and Jennifer becomes involved in the mystery.

These are usually easy to figure out - this one was slightly more intriguing.

The thing about anything Lifetime or Hallmark is you have to know what you're getting into and take it for what it is: made in Canada without big budgets and a mostly Canadian cast with one American TV or soap star, and not particularly well directed.

On that basis, Garage Sale Mysteries are a slight cut above the norm.

This is the fourth film in Hallmark's Garage Sale Mystery series and I think the series is finally hitting it's stride. I still miss both the original actors who played the husband and the daughter...especially the daughter, having trouble warming up to Eva Bourne in that role. Also...they rolled back the time on the daughter, she is now a junior in college again, no mention of the detective boyfriend from the first film or law school, but she has a current boyfriend who is also a junior in college...and they are serious. She seems to be floundering a bit and working in her mom's shop. I do like Steve Bacic, the actor who plays the husband currently, he is a great actor and I particularly liked him in the end of this film.

No appearance by their son in this episode who is at a camp of some kind. The domestic conflict is all about Jennifer and Jason's anniversary, which she thinks he has forgotten...and the mystery revolves around a designer wedding dress that Jennifer and Dani pick up at an estate sale. It ends up being connected to a decades old missing person cold case. Of course, once Jennifer's interest is peaked there is no stopping her!

"The police have a saying...no body, no crime."-Detective Frank Lynwood

I appreciated that in this case there were no malevolent characters...that was kind of refreshing. Jennifer has made friends with the local medical examiner Tramell...who loves his puns almost as much as Jennifer and is still good friends with Frank, aka Detective Lynwood. Frank, on his lunch breaks, is helpful but not encouraging of Jennifer's extracurricular sleuthing in this case of a debutant wedding where the groom goes missing after the vows and pictures, but before the reception!

It was wonderful to see Cheryl Ladd, who is as gorgeous and elegant as ever, in her role as the abandoned bride Helen Whitney Carter.

"You know what happens in these big houses at 4pm? Tea! It almost makes paying the property taxes worthwhile."-Helen

I like the mature characters and the family dynamic in this cosy mystery series. Happily married and mentally healthy core. I like the best friend Dani being quirky, new age-y, vintage clothes wearing, healthful eating oriented and still searching for her special someone...and just answers to life. She seems a good fit for the show and for an antique shop, making a wonderful foil for Jennifer. But the thing I like the most about the series is the antiques! I love seeing slag lamps in the backgrounds of the scenes and hearing about them selling a Bakelite backgammon set. This makes the series really work for me.

This was a decent mystery and an excellent cosy mystery...fans will not be disappointed. This is a strong recommendation from me.

(P. S. I totally agree that digital is like fast food and the old tube radios and receivers are fine dining! Excellent analogy.)

........ but with a sloppy sappy whitewashed ending. Why did Director: Peter DeLuise , end this episode with that goofy oh so feel good ending? I found the buildup in solving the wedding dress mystery very absorbing and well written as Jennifer Shannon brings the events together on that day in 1979 in line with her inquisitive research.

Her deductive reasoning while evaluating the evidence she finds added a more than usual interest to this episode. Then when the two principle characters confess to the detective what happened the day of the wedding I was expecting a deeper secret to come to light after 36 years had past. Such as a hidden affair between the socially prominent bride of that day and the lesser prominent auto garage repair owner.

But no! Hallmark threw in the sugar coating and nostalgia and everybody goes home happy and pleased. That just ruined the mystery for me.

This mystery had me guessing until the end. It was sad but the truth all came out in a beautiful way.

Jennifer finds an old but expensive wedding dress in a box of clothes purchased at an estate sale. She finds a blood stain on a pocket and investigation turns up Helen Carter, the bride, together with the story that the groom disappeared between the wedding and the reception after the wedding. Jennifer doggedly pursues the mystery and, using Luminol, determines that there were still blood stains inside a closet in the storage room of the church. The killer is soon unveiled...

A little farfetched in how Jenn tracks the wedding dress to a bride ( Cheryl Ladd) but a fairly diverting mystery, which doesn't always tread a typical mystery path. It's entertaining, as in most Garage Sale Mystery.