This is the story all about how, a synopsis in my mind wound up on Viacom. Bet+ to be exact. And it landed itself a number one in its category. Here’s the start to finish on how it happened.

So My Perfect Wedding actually has nothing really to do with The Perfect Mate. Although I did initially state that I would do The Perfect Brand of Movies continuing on the franchise storyline. However, My Perfect Wedding was a morpheture. As I would put it.

I came across a writer, Dani Renee and I remembered enjoying one of her scripts she wrote previously so I decided to bring her onboard to write this script with me. My initial concept was that our lead, Trisha was it? I barely remember as I create so many stories these days. Anyways, the original synopsis from my very first email with the distributor for the title was this…

“A woman really wants to have and experience the perfect wedding, she doesn’t want the marriage just the fake wedding, so she hires a groom. Unbeknownst to her the laws of her state recognizes the wedding as an official act of marriage and they realize they are stuck together. Afterwards they realize that they are completely wrong and incompatible for one another and do everything they can to have it annulled. The more they fight, the more they realize they’ve fallen in love with each other but they don’t want to admit it. Finally the papers arrive to sign and have the marriage annulled. She signs the papers first to make sure it’s gets done bc she doesn’t want to rope him into anything, she just wanted to have the wedding. When it’s his time to sign he sends off the papers but has a change of heart and does everything he can to track down the documents and get them back. He finally confesses that he has fallen in love and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. They exchange vows in the divorce office which is sweet and annoys the attorney at the same time.”

After sending that email, this was the distributor’s reply…

From there, I was off to the races for draft 1. But first, we needed to tweak the synopsis. After all, it was a vomit draft to get the ball rolling. We know we had a slot for a Female led romcom feature focused on a wedding. The synopsis’ only goal was to hit that target. Now we need to tweak it in order to give ourselves some grip inside the story. I sent the story off to Dani Renee and this was the reply I received.

So if they just hire someone to perform the wedding ceremony, how does that make them legally married? So what would make them stuck together? And they wouldn’t need to realize that they’re wrong for each other because it was all fake to begin with. So I kind of switched the story around just a little bit. Let me know what you think.”

After Dani Renee and I hashed out the synopsis we jumped into the script, now keep in mind, every writer by now expects me to A1 the script (which is code for completely flip it from what we said it’s going to be to what it now is once I see it). So in the completed draft, Trisha was just tired of waiting so she actually just hired the guy to marry her and they do a final dash to cancel the annulment at the end of the film. However, it felt so expected, so that’s when we morphed the story a tad bit more in order to give it the twist in turns we needed, the phrase hit me, the man she wants, the man she chose, and the man who chose her..it leads for a perfect couch scene with Trisha sandwiched between characters and several near misses of her being caught between lovers. All based on a wedding proposal that was offered to her. Because why would such a beautiful woman have to pay someone to marry her, if even for the joys of experiencing the wedding? Instead, let the proposal seek her out and in her moment of anger and hurt she carelessly accepts and now is thrust into a whole new world and dazzling dresses and budding romances.

After completing flipping the final draft over on its head into this new beast, we brought on Erica Hubbard to play the lead, Omar Gooding to play supporting, and Gregory Alan Williams to play her father. 

Further looking to find new talent, I found a crew from South Carolina and decided I would give them a chance. Somehow a title of theirs came across my view so I pointed them into the direction of sales agents who could acquire their title. I worked with them in camera and sound. We also brought in some makeup crew from Georgia to compliment our local staff. I really wanted to make sure that our lead stood out from any other titles so I wanted to have a specific wardrobe style, location, and makeup look that would make her pop to the audience. Her appearance needed to stand out beyond any former titles so I wanted glam. I remember even having the crew just pick up random shots of her wearing outfits lying around the house both happy and sad in case we would need it in the cut. 

When it came time to choose the director, I wanted to try Gregory Alan Williams. This would be a great project for him to sink his teeth into while he was on break from HBO, plus he would be brilliant in working with the emotions and the authenticity needed from the talent. And boy, behind the scenes this was a great project but some emotions were brought out on the page and on the screen. 

Production wrapped, post production completed, the soundtrack finished, and the team at BET+ and Starz where in the runoffs to make it one of their originals. After careful deliberation, BET+ became the home for the original release of this idea to completion. And it turned out quite well from audience reviews as well. Not so bad to Dani, Greg and the rest of the team under my guidance that made it happen.

Check out some clips below of what some of the cast had to say and peek at some of the photo stills.