Um Natal Para Lembrar

The scenery and set design in this movie reminded me of a Nancy Meyers movie! Absolutely gorgeous, extravagant, stunning, expensive set design the entire movie! This Hallmark movie is in a league of its own when it comes to set design!

I watch Hallmark Christmas movies mostly for the scenery, it's not for the extraordinary scripts and stories, lol.

The female lead has well off parents with lots of money, so they have a gorgeous home, and drive a Mercedes, etc.

This movie has gorgeous Christmas scenery and lots of snow and the story and the romance was OK, but I will mostly watch this again for the beautiful visuals.

This film had Sixteen Candle vibes all over it, brother's wedding...forgotten birthday. But instead of a sweet sixteen birthday it's a thirtieth birthday. Shockingly they picked someone as handsome as Jake Ryan.... I love Casey Deidrick! (Any Driven fans out there?)

Leah's brother Paul and his fiancé, Julia, plan her dream wedding...on Christmas Eve, which just happens to be Leah's thirtieth birthday. Julia has real ideas about her wedding and Paul is trying to create her dream and he needs his friends and everyone in the family to help. In all the commotion everyone had forgotten about Leah's birthday (sound familiar?), except Paul's best friend Drew...who just happens to be Leah's childhood crush.

Drew takes it upon himself to make Leah's birthday special, while respecting her wish not to bring it up to anyone else. Through the process...they get to catch up and relearn what makes the other one tick.

Leah hasn't done all of the things she had hoped to do by the age of thirty...and is a bit melancholy about it. Drew on the other hand has done the traveling that Leah missed out on and they both share a great fondness for his Nana who used to live across the street from Leah and Paul's childhood home in Roselake.

"Not gazebo in winter crazy."-Drew.

I really liked the familial love and sacrifice. I also love the friendships and the brother warning off his friends and warning his friend to not hurt his sister.

This was sweet and romantic...with lovely throwbacks to one of my favorite films of all time, Sixteen Candles. I highly, highly recommend seeing this over the holidays!

Despite the lost wedding dress, this movie is mostly upbeat. No one is about to lose their job or under pressure to achieve something for a promotion. There are no great highs or lows or tension. As a result, the movie is about the relationships, and it does a pretty good job there.

I thought the chemistry between Emily Osment as Leah and Casey Deidrick as Drew was quiet but good. Also, Emily shines in her unselfishness kindness toward Julia.

There were some nice moments, some sweet and some funny. The reveal moment by the brother Paul to his bride was nicely done. The first presentation at the wedding dinner was a little different and also sweet. The car driving up to the house after the wedding was a cute touch. Some or all of these things may have been predictable, but they were still nice.

All in all, many little things added up to an enjoyable movie. I will probably watch this again when it comes around next year.

A December wedding! I can relate to that as a December bride myself almost 14 years ago later this month. I loved this movie because of the excellent chemistry between Emily Osment (she comes across so real and down to earth) and Casey Deidrick (more of him on Hallmark, please!). They just clicked in this movie and I enjoyed the pairing from start to finish.

I loved how deep the story went into the background relationship between Leah and Drew. It was fun to see them making alfajores and Emily Osment looked great in all the blue comfy-looking sweaters. I really don't think they needed to explain what a milestone birthday is three times, but whatever. Also, who would have their wedding on their sister's/future sister-in-law's birthday? That said, they did a good job not making Julia seem like bridezilla (for example, she apologizes very quickly when she thinks she may have offended the family and is not quick to blame or yell at the airline associates on the phone). I thought the line about someone putting the ornaments on the tree before the lights was pretty funny!