15 Best Rom-Coms Like The Wedding Planner

After nearly 25 years since it was originally released, many fans are looking for movies likeThe Wedding Plannerto capture that fun rom-com vibe. The Wedding Planner stars Jennifer Lopez as Mary Fiore, a successful and dedicated wedding planner who puts on lavish events but doesn't have much luck in her own love life. After meeting what seems like the perfect guy, Steve (Matthew McConaughey), she is conflicted when she finds out that he is actually the groom in her upcoming wedding event.

The Wedding Planner was a hit, grossing nearly $100 million at the worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo), despite being largely dismissed by critics. The chemistry between Lopez and McConaughey is one of the biggest selling points of the rom-com and has led both actors to successful careers in the genre. It is a movie fans still watch today, but there are also plenty of other great comedies that mix in those charming romantic elements, and even some that also include a wedding setting that fans of The Wedding Planner should check out.

15 Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

Directed By Andy Tennant

Sweet Home Alabama

PG-13

Comedy

Romance

Release Date: September 27, 2002
Runtime: 109 minutes
Director: Andy Tennant
Writers: Douglas J. Eboch, C. Jay Cox

Cast

Reese Witherspoon
Patrick Dempsey
Josh Lucas
Candice Bergen

Fashion designer Melanie Carmichael is engaged to the hottest guy in town, the son of New York's mayor. However, her past is full of secrets, including Jake, the boy she married when she was a high school student. Jake refuses to divorce her and Melanie travels to Alabama to confront her past.

It is a common trope of many rom-coms that there is a love triangle of sorts with the main characters being obviously perfect for one another only for a third person to complicate things. Such is the case with the funny and charming Sweet Home Alabama. Reese Witherspoon stars as Melanie Carmichael, a professional in the big city who becomes engaged to her successful boyfriend, Andrew (Patrick Dempsey), but before she can get married she has to return to her hometown in Alabama and divorce her first husband, Jake (Josh Lucas).

Just as with Mary and Steve in The Wedding Planner, there are moments of tension and even anger between Melanie and Jake, but the audience can see the connection and understand that they are the real couple of the story. Andrew fills the same role as Fran (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) in The Wedding Planner as the intended fiance who is a good person, but just not the right person.

14 Wedding Crashers (2005)

Directed By David Dobkin

Weddings seem to be a fitting place for rom-coms, whether they be charming PG-13 ones like The Wedding Planner or raunchy R-rated ones like Wedding Crashers. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star in Wedding Crashers as two lawyers who spend their free time going to weddings they were not invited to in order to get free drinks, free food, and pick up women. However, things become complicated at one high-society wedding when Wilson falls for the sister of the sister of the bride, breaking the wedding crasher rules.

It is true that Wedding Crashers leans into the comedy more than the romance, which makes it distinctly different from The Wedding Planner in tone. However, there are still some romantic elements with Wilson's courtship of Rachel McAdams who is engaged to the villainous Bradley Cooper. There are also plenty of big laughs thanks to Wilson and Vaughn's chemistry, with fans still calling for Wedding Crashers 2.

13 America's Sweethearts (2001)

Directed By Joe Roth

Mary is an endearing rom-com protagonist as she is someone who is meant to be at the beck and call of others and offer assistance, meaning that she hardly has time to consider her own love life. This is similar to Julia Robert's character of Kiki, the sister and assistant to one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Gwen Harrison (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Kiki is dragged along as Gwen is reunited with her fellow A-lister and her ex, Eddie Thomas (John Cusack), for a new movie. Meanwhile, Kiki harbors a secret affection for Eddie.

Swapping out the hectic world of wedding planning for the even more hectic world of Hollywood still makes for a fun rom-com with a put-upon protagonist who is often overlooked as everyone else is given the chance to fall in love. The movie is a star-studded affair with Billy Crystal, Stanley Tucci, and Christopher Walken also along for the ride.

12 Moonstruck (1987)

Directed By Norman Jewison

While Mary and Steve are quick to form a connection in The Wedding Planner, once the conflict of the upcoming wedding is made clear, they also become quite hostile towards each other. It makes for a fun dynamic that makes it all the more exciting when those feelings start to fade and they embrace their passion for each other once again. This similar dynamic is used to great effect in the Oscar-winning rom-comMoonstruck.

Moonstruck has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Cher stars as Loretta, a bookkeeper who agrees to marry her kind but unexciting boyfriend. However, when he is called out of town, he asks Loretta to visit his estranged brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to convince him to come to the wedding. However, these two fiery people quickly fall for each other. The chemistry between Cher and Cage is wonderful as they are drawn to each other while also getting into hearted and hilarious fights.

11 Clueless (1995)

Directed By Amy Heckerling

Despite being one of the greatest teen movies of all time and dealing with much younger characters than in The Wedding Planner, Clueless draws some fun similarities. Mary in The Wedding Planner is someone who has been unlucky or unambitious with her own romantic life, but seems to have a talent for helping others find happiness in their own love lives. It reflects the main character in the classic Jane Austen novel Emma.

Emma has been adapted many different times, but likely the most popular and effective version is the modern-day teen comedy Clueless. Alicia Silverstone has a star-making turn as Cher, a popular high school girl who finds that she has a talent for matchmaking. However, while she is focused on helping others find romance, she realizes that she hasn't allowed herself to find such happiness.

10 What Women Want (2000)

Directed By Nancy Meyers

What Women Want was released in 2000 and was directed by Nancy Meyers, known for classics like The Holiday, Something's Gotta Give, and It's Complicated. Mel Gibson stars as Nick Marshall, an egotistical advertising exec who believes he knows exactly what women crave. While he's experimenting with women's products from the office, a freak accident gives him the ability to hear what women are literally thinking.

What Women Want differs from The Wedding Planner and many other movies in the genre as a rare male-led rom-com.

What Women Want differs from The Wedding Planner and many other movies in the genre as a rare male-led rom-com. However, it does have similarities to The Wedding Planner in the professional conflict at the center. Just as Mary has to put aside her feelings for Steve in order to do her job, Nick is torn about using his new abilities to get ahead in his job, because it could hurt his boss (Helen Hunt) who he is falling in love with.

9 The Wedding Date (2005)

Directed By Clare Kilner

The Wedding Date

PG-13

Comedy

Romance

Release Date: February 4, 2005
Runtime: 90 minutes
Director: Clare Kilner

Cast

Kat Ellis' younger sister is about to get married, and she doesn't want to be alone at the ceremony, which will be held in London. To top it off, her ex-fiancé is the best man at the wedding. Determined to show everyone, especially her old boyfriend, that her romantic life is going very well, Kat hires a charming call boy to accompany her. However, a real romance emerges from this arrangement.

Released in 2005, The Wedding Date stars Dermot Mulroney, Debra Messing, and Amy Adams. Messing plays Kat Ellis, a single woman who is set to attend her sister's wedding in London but wants to be sure she's ready to confront her ex-fiancé. She turns to an escort named Nick Mercer (Mulroney) to pose as her boyfriend at the ceremony and prove to everyone she's happy in love.

The Wedding Date plays a little bit like a gender-swapped version of Pretty Woman with the escort being used as a fake date. However, it is also easy to see the similarities between The Wedding Date and The Wedding Planner, especially with the wedding setting. It adds a heightened romantic element to the story and shows how such events can affect people in big ways. Kat and Mary are two women who are afraid of being alone forever only for the wedding surroundings to make those feelings even worse.

8 Just Married (2003)

Directed By Shawn Levy

Just Married is a romantic comedy that follows a young newlywed couple, Tom (Ashton Kutcher) and Sarah (Brittany Murphy). They decide to honeymoon in Europe, where their love is tested with an array of situations. What makes it worse is that Tom can't afford the trip, and Sarah comes from a wealthy family. When a past suitor named Peter Prentiss (Christian Kane) catches up with them to persuade Sarah to come home, the lovebirds realize they are in over their heads.

Unlike The Wedding Planner, which leads up to the climactic wedding, Just Married begins with the couple already getting married and then embarking on their romance. However, The Wedding Planner also features a lot of outside influence trying to discourage the central romance from happening. Mary's mother encourages her to go through with an arranged marriage while her best friend reminds her to focus on her career rather than a fleeting romance.

7 27 Dresses (2008)

Directed By: Anne Fletcher

In the rom-com 27 Dresses, Jane (Katherine Heigl) is the epidemy of "always a bridesmaid, never a bride," seeing as she's been one 27 times. She never says no to her friends, which gets her into these situations in the first place. She meets a journalist named Kevin (James Marsden), who broadens her horizons while also having ulterior motives. When Jane's boss George falls for her younger and flighty sister Tess (Malin Akerman), she silently watches everything unfold while slowly falling for Kevin, a cynical man of love.

Like Mary in The Wedding Planner, Jane is someone who is constantly surrounded by people getting married and enjoying the happiest days of their lives while she is left still looking for love. There is also a similar aspect of the main character being interested in someone she knows she shouldn't pursue, but it also differs from The Wedding Planner with Jane's revelation that the partner she wants has been there for her all along.

6 Because I Said So (2007)

As Michael Lehmann

Because I Said So is a 2007 rom-com that focuses on an overbearing mother who tries to plan her daughter's future. Diane Keaton stars as Daphne Wilder, a single mother who raised her three daughters, Milly (Mandy Moore), Maggie (Lauren Graham), and Mae (Piper Perabo), alone. After Maggie and Mae find the men of their dreams, Daphne worries that Milly will never find her perfect match. She takes matters into her own hands when she sets up an ad to find her the perfect man.

Like The Wedding Planner, Because I Said So deals with a character who cannot seem to find the right romance and it is worried that she never will. However, it is unique that this is told from the perspective of the parent. The Wedding Planner also features a similar subplot with Mary's intrusive but caring father attempting to arrange a marriage for his daughter despite her frequent insistence that she is not interested.

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