ABOUT THE FILM:


The Perfect Wedding is the story of Paul Fowler (Eric Aragon) and Gavin Greene (Jason T. Gaffney), two young gay men who meet and fall in love over the Christmas holidays.


Charismatic, handsome Paul is a recovering alcoholic, eighteen months sober, but still picking up the pieces of the destruction he'd wrought while drinking. He lives at home with his parents, Richard (James Rebhorn) and Meryl (Kristine Sutherland), and with their support and the help of his AA sponsor Zach (Sal Rendino), Paul is learning how to live one day at a time.


But Christmas is approaching, and Paul's adopted sister Alana (Apolonia Davalos) is coming home for the holidays. This won't be just a regular family celebration -- she's recently engaged and the weekend will be spent planning her June wedding. She's bringing her best friends Roy (Roger K. Stewart) and Vicki (Annie Kerins) home with her, to help with the task.


Problem is, Roy is Paul's ex-boyfriend, and their relationship was a casualty to Paul's drinking. In fact, the two young men haven't seen each other since their very messy breakup. Nervous about seeing his ex again, Roy talks his good friend Gavin into joining him for the weekend, and pretending to be his new boyfriend.


When Paul and Gavin meet, sparks of attraction fly -- but Gavin thinks Roy's still hung up on Paul. And of course, the last thing Paul wants to do is hurt his ex all over again.


Meanwhile, like all families, the Fowlers must deal with bad news as well as good, and we discover that patriarch Richard has been recently diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer's. He is essentially symptom-free, but Meryl is terrified of what the future holds and throws herself into planning a lavish wedding for their daughter, Alana. Even though Meryl knows it's foolish, she wants to create a wedding so big and so beautiful that no one -- not even Richard -- will ever forget it.


When Paul realizes that his sister's wedding plans are getting steamrolled by their mom, he gets involved and convinces Alana's fiancé Kirk (Brendan Griffin) to re-propose to her, asking her to marry him that very day, in a small ceremony at sunset near the water, with only close friends and family attending, just as Alana has always imagined. And with Paul's help, Richard also confronts Meryl and convinces her to join him in the present instead of living burdened with the uncertainties of the future.


The proposal, the intimate wedding, and Paul and Gavin's ultimate connection are touching scenes in a warm and funny story about a very real, modern American family.

ABOUT THE SCRIPT:


The Gaffney/Brockmann family writing team decided to construct The Perfect Wedding after realizing that many GLBTQ movies either used closeted characters as a source of humor, or were angsty coming-out stories.


Where were the movies about families like their own, where being gay was considered no different than being tall or having freckles, where the ability to be true to one's self was something to celebrate, where coming out -- or the fear of coming out -- didn't create even a tiny bump in the road, let alone a conflict big enough for a movie-length story, where love and support has been, is, and will be always present...?


Where were the gay characters who, thanks to the generations of incredibly courageous GLTBQ people who came before them and refused to live life in the closet, could help redefine normal -- by showing the movie-viewing public that they were not all that different from the Julia Robertses, Hugh Grants, Anne Hathaways and Owen Wilsons who have laughed, cried, and fallen in love in Hollywood's romantic comedies throughout the years?


Finding few movies like that, the Gaffney/Brockmann team decided to write their own.


The question of Paul and Gavin's sexuality is not a part of the story in The Perfect Wedding. None of the gay characters are in the closet. Their families and friends all know that they are gay, and no one cares. (Why should they?) There are no stereotypes -- the humor comes from the situations the two romantic leads find themselves in, and their responses to the obstacles they must overcome to win their happily-ever- after.


The story is light and set during the Christmas season. The focus is on the lives of one small family as they deal with issues that all families face.


And the message is no different from any other romantic comedy: Life is better when you take that risk and open yourself up to the possibility of finding that special someone to walk beside you through good times and bad.

ABOUT THE WRITERS:


Suzanne Brockmann is a proud PFLAG mom and the New York Times bestselling author of fifty-three novels. Her favorite is the one where her most popular character, gay FBI agent Jules Cassidy, wins his happily-ever-after and marries the man of his dreams. Called All Through the Night, this was the first mainstream romance novel with a hero and a hero ever to hit the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list. In 2007, Suz donated all of her earnings from this book, in perpetuity, to MassEquality, to help win and preserve equal marriage rights in Massachusetts. Known for her hunky Navy SEAL heroes, Suz is also the author of When Tony met Adam, a romantic e-novella published in celebration of the repeal of DADT. Her next romantic suspense, Do or Die, will be released in hardcover and e-book by Ballantine Books and in audio by AudioGo on February 4, 2014. www.SuzanneBrockmann.com


Ed Gaffney is the critically-acclaimed author of four legal thrillers published by Bantam/Dell, the latest of which, Enemy Combatant, was a finalist for the EDGAR Award. He also co-wrote and produced a full-length play named Looking for Billy Haines, which ran off-Broadway for approximately 10 weeks during the spring of 2010. And most recently, Ed became an award-winning filmmaker, when The Perfect Wedding, a feature film he co-wrote and co-produced won the Bud Abbott Award for Best Feature Length Comedy at the Garden State Film Festival. He lives in Florida and Massachusetts with his wife, New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann.


Jason T. Gaffney was born in New York, grew up outside of Boston, performed his first professional acting job in Alaska, returned to Manhattan for a run as the tap- dancing lead in an off-Broadway play, and now lives in LA. As the son of two writers, he knew when he called and said, “I have an idea for a screenplay,” he’d be taken seriously. A proud member of SAG/AFTRA and AEA, Jason brought the actor’s perspective (and his tireless energy) to the writing and producing process of The Perfect Wedding. He’s a graduate of AMDA (NYC) and received his BFA in Musical Theatre from The New School. Jason performs regularly in LA with his improv troupe, Pregnancy Pact, and his latest project is a web series called The Comedy Minute. www.JasonGaffney.com