Wedding Planner

1 DVD 11 EPISODE
English Subtitle

Synopsis

My dream... is to become a "pretty bride" Every woman must have thought so, at least once.

"Actress," "announcer," "flight attendant"... there are many occupations a girl dreams of. Still, number one on the list is no doubt "bride." The one and only moment when that "bride" becomes a beaming existence, is at her "wedding." It's a moment when the bride and groom become the stars of the show. That's why people's passion and willingness to have a successful wedding is just extraordinary.

Weddings during the great bubble years were extravagant. But that was the past. Now the trend is having fancy weddings in restaurants or in a rented home, somewhat like those in Europe and in the United States. That's why we need wedding planners. They're there to listen to the couple's needs, and create a wedding full of originality. A wedding is a once in a lifetime experience (with some exceptions, of course). Both the bride and groom are wedding beginners. With their rich know-how and experience, wedding planners play a significant role in helping these beginners to have the time of their life.

Since it's a once in a lifetime event, couples ask for the impossible. Demands even come from the couple's parents too. Wedding planners have no choice but to listen to all their requests, go through tremendous trouble, and be responsible for everything. Their job is really tough both physically and mentally. Who can imagine that from the flamboyant world they create?

This is a love comedy that takes you behind the scenes of the latest bridal businesses, as well as the human drama of engaged couples, seen through the wedding planners' eyes, as they help to put on weddings.

Toru Oomori (29) works in the accounting department of a medium-sized firm. Unable to escape restructuring by his company, he gets sent to work at an affiliated company, "Sweet Bridal," as its president. Toru realizes his days as a salaried worker are numbered. That's why he's determined to increase sales, and regain lost ground.

There's one major problem though... An incident hit him one year ago that makes work here, just too miserable. This is where our story begins.

The sky was absolutely clear on this April day, one year ago. The scene, a solemn wedding, in a church where the bride is strolling down the aisle. Ahead of her is the groom, with a huge smile on his face. The church is filled with a pleasant and happy atmosphere...

...and then, a scream breaks the silence. "Yoko!" yells a man who barges into the church. Without thinking, the bride dashes across to him, and the two flee together. The church is now in an uproar, and the groom standing astonished. We've seen this scene in the movie, "The Graduate". What's different from the movie however, is that the main character of this story is not the man who stole the bride, but the foolish groom who had her stolen. Marriage sure has its traumas, doesn't it?

In the company, "Sweet Bridal," not only are all the employees women, but all of them have difficult personalities.

Kanako Terashima (34) who lives with her son Taku (8), was left by her husband for another women after five years of marriage. Although she's the vice-president, Kanako is the one who literally runs the company. To Kanako who loves her job, what bugs and irritates her the most is Toru. All he says is, "the bridal industry makes big money!" The two are nothing but enemies. Nobody knows this, but the pipe organist who played at Toru's wedding a year ago was actually Kanako. Yes, an eyewitness to that disaster.

There's also the mature, calm, and beautiful Misaki Uno (30), a perfectionist in everything she does. She is the only person who is happily together with a boyfriend, within "Sweet Bridal." At a glance, she seems to have no problems at work, nor in her love life, but actually,...

Kurumi Aizawa (22) is like Kanako's younger sister. She wants to get married more than anybody else, and can't wait to wear a wedding dress. But when it comes to her own love life, things don't go that smoothly. She can't help feeling inferior to Miss Perfect, Misaki. Kurumi is struggling to find her own self, both at work and in her love life.

Toru feels isolated in this all-female company, so he invites Shuhei Narumi to work for him. Shuhei was Toru's junior in the same photography club at college. Shuehei became a professional photographer at a young age, and worked as an exclusive cameraman for a famous magazine. He must have been through tough times at work, because his friendly and innocent personality from college is now nowhere to be seen. The bridal industry of course, doesn't interest him at all.

Can people who can't even handle their own love lives succeed as wedding planners???

Let's just forget about the men. As for the ladies, even though they have difficult personalities, one thing they have in common is that they all want to "make the wedding a success."

Staying up all night sewing a wedding dress, making the bouquet with painfully chapped fingertips, being yelled at by a restaurant owner, the gospel singers they hire are not only tone deaf but can't dance, the wedding cake collapses, guests get drunk, a bride's father bursts into tears, falling in love with the groom, comforting a bride who has marriage-blue...

Though this business isn't an easy task, all they want to do is "make the wedding a success." Even Toru, who thought wedding receptions were foolish, is touched by their success. Enemies Kanako and Toru, soon learn to respect each other through observing couples having the time of their life. It's not long before the other employees learn to work as a team...

And Toru's wedding trauma...

In this romantic comedy, the story unfolds within a wedding planning company filled with love, laughter, and occasional tears.

Main Cast

• Iijima Naoko as Terashima Kanako
• Yusuke Santamaria as Oomori Toru
• Kimura Yoshino as Uno Misaki
• Abe Hiroshi as Okonogi Jun
• Tsumabuki Satoshi as Narumi Shuhei
• Ito Ayumi
• Kamiki Ryunosuke as Kanako's son
• Shiga Kotaro
• Gin Pun Chou
• Nukumizu Youichi as Hamatani Tsutomu
• Takahashi Hitomi
• Imai Yoko
• Kinouchi Akiko