It has only been five years since the first installment of the Wedding March series, but for stars Josie Bissett and Jack Wagner, it feels like a lifetime.
“I’ve learned so much about myself and just what I love to do,” said Bissett to fans.
“It’s been a blessing,” Wagner said.
The stars spent half an hour on Facebook Live on August 13 answering questions about Sealed With a Kiss: Wedding March 6, which will air Saturday, August 14 on Hallmark Channel at 9/8c.
In the sixth and final film, Olivia and Mick (played by Bissett and Wagner) finally tie the knot, ending the will-they-or-won’t-they storyline that has run through the series. After so many films together, the stars said the wedding scene caught them both by surprise.
“I don’t think we knew what to expect,” Wagner said. “The emotion was unbelievably raw and in the moment and real.”
Five years, six movies
In the 2016 original film, Wedding March, Bissett’s character Olivia travels to Vermont to plan her upcoming wedding, where she finds out that the venue is owned by her ex-boyfriend Mick, who also happens to be a rock star.
The two fall in love again, and Olivia calls off her wedding. In the series, the pair run Mick’s inn and help plan weddings for other happy couples, never managing to make it to the altar themselves.
The sixth installment shows how much Olivia and Mick have grown over the years, according to Bissett and Wagner. While planning their own big day, they help a younger couple, played by Caitlin Stryker and Nathan Witte, organize a wedding and recognize a lot of themselves in the bride and groom.
“It reminded me of who Mick and Olivia were back then because of the similarities between the characters and their struggles,” Bissett said.
Like Mick, the young groom is a celebrity. His bride is learning how to cope with his fame while still being true to what she wants in life. This parallels Olivia’s journey with Mick, Bissett said. Giving the younger woman advice is an opportunity for Olivia to be honest about how she feels and to accept Mick’s career.
Wagner said one of the best moments in the film comes when Mick talks to the young groom about the insignificance of fame in the long run.
“You hear things about the business like when you’re hot, everybody loves you and when you’re not, nobody remembers you,” Wagner said. “And Mick reminds him of that but also says that it’s the women who love you you can count on.”
Wedding day
As for the wedding scene, both actors said they were taken aback by how beautiful the set was, and how emotional they became during filming.
Bissett was so overcome that she kept forgetting her lines.
“I was so in the moment that when it came time for me to say, ‘Those are the best vows I’ve ever heard,’ I’d always forget,” Bissett said. “He would squeeze my hand and I would remember and I would get the words out.”
Sealed With a Kiss: Wedding March 6 will air Saturday, August 14 on Hallmark Channel at 9/8c.