Hallmark movies are known for many things. They’re overly sentimental, romantic, and often a little over the top. They churn out a selection of movies for every holiday occasion, and Valentine’s Day isn’t neglected. Each movie has its own unique premise but they all have one thing in common – none of them seem like they would be remotely possible in reality.
Couples meet, fall in love, and often end up married over the course of a single feature-length piece. Here are the strangest ways these star crossed couples have met in Hallmark movies.
Meet My Valentine
When you receive a terminal diagnosis, typically the first thing you do is tell the people closest to you. You want to soak up all of the time you can with the people you love. That’s not what happens in Meet My Valentine. This slightly dark offering from Hallmark features a couple who have drifted apart. When Tom is diagnosed with terminal cancer his thoughts turn to his wife, Valentine. He just wants her to be happy so he immediately begins to try to trick her into falling in love with her business partner. Against all logic, the plan seems to succeed and the film ends with a dying Tom watching another man teach his daughter to ride a bike. It’s odd but strangely romantic.
Once Upon A Winter’s Date
Everyone loves the Movie Groundhog Day. If you’d ever wished it was about a woman living in a constant feedback loop of Valentine’s days, Hallmark has made that dream come true.
Once Upon A Winter’s Date is a classic tale about a woman trapped in a magic spell who must give up on her career in order to find love. Career woman Katherine wakes up to find that every day is Valentine’s day until she finally makes a genuine connection with a florist named Danny.
A Valentine Carol
Most couples don’t meet on their wedding day. Ally is a successful radio host planning to get married on Valentine’s day. The only problem is that a friendly ghost is about to make her question everything. Matt is a high paid attorney with a promising future. He’s handsome, sweet, and ready to settle down. Everything seems perfect until Ally begins to wonder if she’s marrying him for the right reasons. A series of glimpses into the past and future (as well as some surprise visits from her exes) convince Ally that she’s making a huge mistake. She decides to call off the wedding… until 30 seconds later when she realizes the real Matt, the man behind the suit, is right for her after all. Ally proposes to Matt at the altar and marries him in her pajamas.
It Happened One Valentine’s
It Happened One Valentine’s is rife with details that seem to stretch our suspension of disbelief. Let’s start with the main character. She attended a school for the arts. Many of her classmates became successful performers. What career path did she follow? She became a tabloid journalist. Our plucky leading lady decides to wield her skills to write a career-ending piece about two of her former schoolmates. One of them is a boy she once wore friendship bracelets with in middle school – an obvious precursor to a serious relationship in the future. After she attempts to end his career her former grade school crush falls in love with her. Meeting your soul mate through petty, vindictive journalism to get back at your crush from 3rd grade is a little off-beat.
The Lost Valentine
This is arguably one of the best Valentine’s movies that Hallmark has ever made. It stars the incredibly talented Betty White and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The plot is centered around the love story of Neil and Caroline, a husband and wife separated by WWII. While the tragic story unfolds, Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character falls in love in a rather unusual way.
She plays a local news anchor who often covers sweet, sentimental stories. Her producer turns her on to the story of Neil and Caroline. Neil went missing in action and Caroline spends every Valentine’s day at the station waiting for him to return. Her grandson Lucas overhears the reporter write the 65-year old love story off as boring fluff. Insulting someone’s war hero grandpa and dedicated grandma isn’t usually the best way to form a love connection.
You’re So Cupid
Teenaged twin sisters Emma and Lilly are in for the shock of their lives when they find out their father is none other than Cupid himself. That’s already weird enough. These inseparable sisters are as close as they could possibly be. They adore playing matchmaker and finding happiness for other people. The girls have yet to find true love for themselves until they enter high school. As luck would have it, they both fall in love at the same time – with the same boy. Predictably this drives the sisters apart. In the end, their crush chooses one of the sisters, which may be the strangest part of the story. Dating the boy you know your twin sister is in love with is a major girl code violation.
An Hour Behind
Busy baker Trish has no time for love, nor setting her clocks for daylight savings time. A bad break up left her a little jaded, but her sister Chloe is having none of it. She sets her up on a blind date with a lawyer friend named Adam. Trish ends up an hour late, but sees another man matching her blind date’s description. She sits down to join him. Her unwitting date Parker is confused, but happy to share a meal with a beautiful woman. The pair have a fantastic date together but Parker never comes clean. Poaching someone else’s blind date has to be one of the weirdest ways to meet a guy there is.
Undercover Bridesmaid
Bridesmaids and groomsmen hooking up are far from new. It’s a pretty classic rom-com trope. But what Undercover Bridesmaid brings to the table is completely original.
Driven and practical Tanya is a private security agent with an attitude. When an important client needs discreet coverage for his daughter’s wedding Tanya is tapped to pose as a bridesmaid. It’s not often that you meet the man of your dreams while protecting a bride from exploding cake.
Love Surreal
Artists are known for their eccentricity, but this movie takes it to another level. It’s a classic tale of a romantic young woman forced to choose between the two men she loves, except one of them is in her head. Our leading lady is choosing between her imaginary friend and a classmate she can’t stand. Those are some fantastic options.
Accidentally Engaged
In general, pouring coffee on a guy’s lap and lying about being his girlfriend are terrible ways to get him to fall in love with you. Unless you’re in a Hallmark movie, of course. Clarissa makes a clumsy mistake on set during her first film role. She spills coffee all over star Chas. He’s not impressed. Later she lets her friends think the two of them are a couple to show off. Chas sees this as a great cover-up for the fact that he’s dating a married woman. What a charming love story!
