Avery and Peter are settling into parenthood and so it’s time to move onto our second couple – Emma and Paolo! They are also my favorite couple and so I was so excited to see this movie.
Was it a good follow up to the original movie (The Wedding Veil Unveiled)? Does it do our international lovers justice?
Let’s find out!
I will be there to share forever/Love will keep us together/I’ll be thinking of you/Look in my heart and let love SPOILERS!
Emma Di Stefano (Autumn Reeser) is enjoying life with her husband, Paolo (Paolo Bernardini), in Chicago. She gets ready for work as he comes in wearing an Italia shirt to keep her company. They discuss a gorgeous mirror they saw in Italy and how the owner was certain they would have a lot of children. Paolo offers to still buy the mirror but she says they would have to sell everything to afford the shipping fees.
This then leads into a conversation about children with Emma saying she wants to wait because the chair of her department will be retiring soon. Emma is then in line to become chair and believes that once that happens, she’ll be in a better place to start a family. But Paolo says her chair, Nancy, has been talking about retirement for a while but never makes a move toward it. He believes she is never going to retire and Emma will just keep waiting. He says he doesn’t like that their life plans are so reliant on another person.
Preach it, Paolo!
Emma insists that Nancy is really going to retire and Paolo decides to move on. He’s about to open a lace store in Chicago and Emma promises to be there. His grandmother even sent her a present for the occasion and it’s a beautiful lace shawl. Emma manages to translate the letter from Italian and it’s just a sweet message from Paolo’s grandmother, reminding her that when she wears the lace, she wears his family’s love.
Aww.
We then see Emma as she dismisses her latest class at the university. Her teaching assistant, Lily (Kacey Rohl), notes that they are lacking in enthusiasm but is confident that Emma will get them excited by art. It worked with Lily and that is why she wanted to TA for Emma. I love Lily already.
Emma wants to end her day early so she can go help her husband. But her chair, Nancy (Lynda Boyd), has other plans. She pulls Emma into a meeting.
And so Emma just makes the opening. Paolo does his best not to curse out Nancy before introducing us to his cousin, Matteo (Carlo Marks). Matteo has recently relocated from Miami to Chicago to help Paolo run the store.
Paolo then reveals a surprise – the veil is on display in the store! And it’s there because Avery (Lacey Chabert) has brought it. Of course, Tracy (Alison Sweeney) is there as well. The friends have a big reunion before Emma is convinced to tell the story of the veil while Lily, who has shown up to support Emma, films her.
During the opening, Lily also tries to keep a wide berth around the veil. Emma asks her why and Lily says she is not ready for a relationship so she doesn’t want it working its magic on her. Emma insists that is not how it works. But at one point, it nearly falls over and both Lily and Matteo race over to catch it. They are holding it at the same time their eyes meet and a spark already flies.
The veil strikes again!
Avery and Tracy go back home with Emma as they enjoy some Chicago deep-dish pizza. Paolo teases them about how that isn’t real pizza and then they all tease Avery about how much she loved Hawaiian pizza while pregnant. She vows to never eat another pineapple on a pizza slice and Paolo looks horrified before he gets a call.
When he returns, Emma can tell the call wasn’t a good one. He says his sister just called to say his father was rushed to the hospital. Paolo needs to go to Italy and Emma agrees. They get him a last minute ticket on a flight to Italy and get him packed. Paolo says he’s glad that Avery and Tracy are there before promising to call. Matteo drives him to the airport while Avery and Tracy comfort Emma.
They snuggle in Emma and Paolo’s bed as Avery and Tracy tease Emma for still having her five year plan taped to her closet. She swears by her five year plan, which will end with her becoming chair of the Art History department. Avery asks if her plan included Paolo and Emma shows them that Paolo added falling in love with a handsome Italian and marrying him. They love it and then go to make brownies since they figure they won’t be getting sleep for the rest of the night.
Paolo gives Emma an update the next day after Avery and Tracy have left and says his father is resting comfortably but they had to perform some procedure. He says he will stay to help his family until his father is out of the hospital and Emma understands. She sends her love and promises to keep an eye on Matteo and the store for him.
At the school, Nancy tells Emma that she needs to start coming to meetings so she can prepare to take over as the chair. But the meetings are during Emma’s classes so Nancy reassigns her classes to other professors. Emma is less than thrilled about it and Lily complains that the other professors aren’t as engaging as Emma. She worries that they are going to lose students. But Emma insists that she wants to be the chair and believes this is the price she has to pay to advance in her career.
Emma and Lily head down to the store to check on Matteo. Lily is still giving the veil a wide berth but there are some people admiring the veil. One woman recognizes Emma and calls her everyone’s favorite art historian. That confuses Emma until Lily reveals she took a video of Emma’s talk at the opening and posted it on some sort of social media website where the names are “Everyone’s Favorite (Insert Thing Here).” Matteo is familiar with the site as well and promises that it’s a good social media site. Emma is hesitant to leave the video up…until she hears about how many views it has already gotten. Emma tells Lily she wishes Lily had gotten her permission and will handle it later.
For now, she decides to share the history of the christening gown. And again Lily films her. Looks like “Everyone’s Favorite Art Historian” is going to have a new video!
Emma and Paolo touch base. He says that his father’s health scare has been a wake up call to the family. His uncle wants to retire and it is nearly Paolo’s time to take over the company. But Emma knows he can’t run it from Chicago and asks if there is anyone else who can take over. But there is not. She reminds him that her career is in Chicago and she will not be in another long distant relationship before quickly ending the call.
Uh oh. They better not break up Emma and Paolo or I might make the Hulk look tame.
Meanwhile, things aren’t going so well at the shop. They get a lot of people there to see the veil but aren’t making any sales. Emma realizes that most people coming can’t afford some of the grand designers so she suggests putting out smaller items that can be more affordable. Matteo does that and things pick up at the store.
Things also pick up between him and Lily. However, she resists her feelings for him, especially when she learns that he used to date a model. She believes she has no chance with him and so keeps him at arm’s length.
Emma struggles with no longer teaching and having to attend many meetings. And then Nancy tells her that she needs to stop making the videos as they were not becoming for a department chair. Emma is confused because it seemed like something the college would want them doing but Nancy says that the art department doesn’t get a lot of respect to begin with. She fears the videos would give their colleagues even more of a reason to not respect them and demands that Emma stop making the videos.
Nancy sucks.
There is also a cute scene where Lily spots a spider crawling around Emma’s desk. Emma freaks out but Lily tries to capture it to save it. But it escapes. Lily promises to find “Charlotte” and save her. Emma later tells Paolo she believes she needs to burn her office to the ground and he completely supports her.
Unfortunately, they are still caught in a dead end when it comes to his desire to return to Italy.
Paolo does briefly come home but it’s only for a couple days before he needs to leave again. He again encourages Emma to stand up to Nancy and also to consider teaching in Italy again. But she’s determined to continue where she is and so again, impasse.
These two really need to get it together.
But Paolo isn’t the only one that Emma is avoiding. She also tends to quickly end calls from Avery and Tracy, promising to call them back when she really doesn’t want to answer their questions. They are concerned.
Let’s go see what’s up with Lily and Matteo.
They continue to bond. We learn that Matteo had a girlfriend who was a model but that she broke his heart and is now married to someone else. So he decided to leave Florida and relocate to Chicago to help his cousin. And so he’s single but Lily keep resisting his romantic overtures, though she does finally agree to get dinner with him.
There is also a cute scene where they sneak into Paolo and Emma’s house to set up a surprise date for Emma at Paolo’s request. But when Matteo tries to spend more time with Lily, she again runs off.
We’ll learn more about Lily’s deal later.
Meanwhile, Nancy is still out there being the worst. Now she takes Emma out and tells her that she admires Emma’s colorful fashion sense. But she says it is not professional and so Emma needs to dress in a more subdued style. This is really overstepping as there was nothing wrong with Emma’s style. She looked professional and had a beautiful look. Colors are not unprofessional.
Nancy really sucks.
So Emma comes in wearing black and Lily asks her if someone died. Emma repeats Nancy’s words but Lily looks less than thrilled. But she heads into Emma’s office for a meeting, finally rescuing Charlotte the spider while Emma freaks out.
I’m with you, Emma.
On top of that, Emma gets into another fight with Paolo. She gives him the suggestion of selling replicas of Ariana’s veil and he likes it, saying he wants to run it by his sister. He then tries to talk about moving back to Italy but Emma tells him that she can’t do another long distance relationship. In the first movie, if you recall, we learned her last relationship had ended because of distance so she didn’t want to try that again. She says that Paolo will keep staying in Italy longer and longer before he just doesn’t come home and their marriage falls apart. Paolo tries to protest but Emma just ends the call.
Oh, Emma.
She heads home and is surprised to find her friends waiting for her. Emma has been avoiding their calls and so they’ve decided to fly out to see her. She lets them in her house as Tracy and Avery also wonder if someone has died.
Emma pours them some wine and the let her vent about Nancy. She also talks about her problems with Paolo. Avery then asks a very smart question. She asks if Emma ever changed her five year plan after marrying Paolo. Emma says she didn’t. Avery and Tracy point out that its not just her anymore but her and Paolo. It wasn’t fair not to consider him in her plans. That seems to give Emma something to think about.
The next morning, Emma gets Avery and Tracy coffee and breakfast as they admire the lace Paolo’s grandmother made for her but that Emma not got to wear. Their car comes and so they say their goodbyes before Emma goes to face a new day.
And despite the angst in her own relationship, Emma convinces Lily and Matteo to give each other a chance. So Matteo surprises Lily on her morning walk and they lay their baggage out for each other. Matteo has been working to get over his model ex-girlfriend and the fact she got married. Lily reveals that she’s always been considered the weird kid and that has usually eventually caused boyfriends to leave her. Matteo asks her to take their relationship one date at a time and she agrees.
Nancy comes into Emma’s office and tells Emma that she needs to fire someone to make budget. She recommends a professor but Emma protests, saying that the professor is good but has had some childcare issues. Nancy’s recommendation stands so Emma says she is going to fire herself. She apologizes to Nancy but says she realizes she doesn’t want to the be the chair after all.
To her surprise, Nancy is relieved and says it took Emma long enough to realize it. Apparently Nancy isn’t exactly the worst. She knew that if she had told Emma that she would not like being the chair, Emma would not take it well. So she decided to just make Emma so miserable she decided not to take the job. That is a stupid plan that could’ve backfired on Nancy and the university spectacularly. Emma is stubborn and was dedicated to getting the position but I don’t think Nancy went about it the right way. At all.
I wish we could let this trope die.
A relieved and determined Emma returns home and is packing when a panicked Paolo enters their room. He looks heartbroken when he sees her suitcase and he asks if she’s leaving him. She shakes her head and hugs him as she tells him she was going to fly to Italy to find him. Emma promises that she will never leave him. They continue to share an embrace, pretty sure the crisis has been averted.
Emma and Paolo sit in the backyard around the firepit. He is amazed that Nancy isn’t the worst after all and Emma reveals that she quit her job. She takes her five year plan – minus the part about marrying Paolo – and burns it, saying it’s time to come up with a new plan. And if that means moving to Italy, then she’s willing to do that for him. Besides, she can continue her videos now as Everybody’s Favorite Art Historian. Paolo is just happy that she’s happy…and then amazed when she tells him that Matteo and Lily are dating. She reminds him that they did leave the veil in the shop and it appears to have worked its magic again.
And so we jump forward to Lily and Mateo’s wedding. Emma and Paolo serve as the matron of honor and best man, clapping as the happy couple shares a kiss. Lily is wearing the veil and a rather cute short dress. It fits her style perfectly.
Emma meets up with Avery and Tracy, who seem to be invited on principle at this point. They tease Tracy about the fact she still hasn’t gone on her honeymoon yet and she promises that it will happen. With all the time jumps, I’m not sure how long it’s been since the end of The Wedding Veil Legacy, but I assume it’s at least two years. But it is the set up for the next movie so we just have to hold tight a bit longer.
Tracy will be taking the veil back home with her. It’s time to pass it on to some of Nick’s sisters. Avery then asks about the christening gown but Emma says she’s going to hold onto that because she’s going to need it in about eight months. Avery and Tracy realize Emma is pregnant and they hug her before waving to Paolo, who realizes they know the good news.
And so they make their traditional toast to the veil – with Emma drinking something nonalcoholic.
The movie again ends with Emma and Paolo recapping their love story for a camera crew. And they continue to just be the sweetest.
*****
This movie was an emotional rollercoaster for me. As I’ve said, Emma and Paolo are my favorite couple and I was so worried they were going to break up.
But I should’ve known that there would be a happy ending. It is a Hallmark movie, after all.
I do wish we had gotten to see more of Paolo but I loved how romantic he was even when on another continent. He and Emma continue to have the sweetest bond.
I also loved the relationship between Matteo and Lily. I feel like this movie gave them more time than the secondary couple in the previous movie. We really got to know both of them and watch them fall in love. I think this one found the best balance between the two romances.
The only thing I didn’t really like was the twist with the head of the department. Do we really need a plot where one woman essentially makes life hell for another one to prove that this isn’t what she wanted? They could’ve kept the whole “Emma would be too stubborn to realize Nancy is right” but just had Nancy let her really experience the workload without insulting Emma’s wardrobe or saying she couldn’t make the videos. It was just too icky to me.
But otherwise, another great movie. So let’s now finish the trilogy with Tracy and Nick’s second movie – The Wedding Veil Journey.
See you then!
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