Over the course of five social occasions, a committed bachelor must consider the notion that he may have discovered love.
In Britain, slightly bumbling and always tardy Charles (Hugh Grant) and his closest group of friends seem always to be attending weddings, but are never the bride nor groom, and as such, each, with the exception of gay couple Gareth (Simon Callow) and Matthew (John Hannah), is looking for love. At the wedding of their friends, Angus (Timothy Walker) and Laura (Sara Crowe), where Charles is acting as best man, Charles meets an American woman named Carrie (Andie MacDowell). For him, it's love at first sight. She too is attracted to him. Although they spend a memorable evening together, that's all it ends up being. Over three more successive weddings - some of the brides and grooms who are very near and dear to Charles' heart - and one unfortunate funeral, Charles runs into Carrie, but something always seems to prevent the two of them from getting together. He also runs into a plethora of old girlfriends, one of whom he may believe is really the one he was meant to end up with, especially if Carrie seems to remain unobtainable. Will Charles settle for who in his heart is second best, or will fate finally bring Charles and Carrie together?—Huggo
Charming but insecure Charles keeps entering bad relationships and attending other, usually rich and posh people's weddings, repeatedly as best man, yet keeps oversleeping and messing things up, even forgetting the rings, luckily perfectly-organized gay couple Mathew and Gareth -untul the latter's fatal cardiac crisis during a grand wedding- help out, while other can go wrong even worse, like trainee-priest Gerald's unforgettable verbal slip-ups. Still Charles feels lucky when he thus meets American journalist Caroline 'Carrie', who is in for non-committal sex, but out of the country or engaged to another before Charles can make up his mind to properly move on her. Charles's deaf kid brother David gives him the courage to stand up for true love when it seems lost.—KGF Vissers
The film follows the adventures of a group of friends through the eyes of Charles (Hugh Grant), a debonair but faux pas-prone Englishman, who is smitten with Carrie, an attractive American (Andie MacDowell), whom Charles repeatedly meets at weddings and at a funeral.
The first wedding is that of Angus (Timothy Walker) and Laura (Sara Crowe), at which Charles is the best man. Charles and his collection of single friends wonder if they will ever get married. At this wedding, Charles meets Carrie for the first time and spends the night with her. Carrie teases him by pretending that, now they have been to bed together, they will also have to get married, which Charles endeavors to respond to before realizing she is joking. She then goes back home to America, observing that they may have missed an opportunity.
The second wedding is that of Bernard (David Haig) and Lydia (Sophie Thompson), a couple who got together at the previous wedding. Rowan Atkinson makes his second appearance, this time as a fully-fledged but gaffe-prone priest conducting his first wedding ceremony through his connection as a friend of the family. Charles is happy to discover that Carrie is attending the wedding, until she introduces him to her fiance, Sir Hamish Banks (Corin Redgrave), a wealthy politician from Scotland. At the reception, Charles finds himself seated at a table with several ex-girlfriends who relate embarrassing stories about his inability to be discreet, and afterwards bumps into Henrietta (known among Charles' friends as "Duckface"), with whom he had a difficult relationship.
As the evening wears on, Charles finds himself in an empty hotel suite watching Carrie and Hamish leave in a taxicab, only to be trapped in the bath after the newlyweds suddenly stumble into the room to have sex. After Charles awkwardly exits the room, Henrietta confronts him about his habit of "serial monogamy", telling him that he is afraid of letting anyone get too close to him. Shortly after this encounter, Charles runs into Carrie (without her fiance), and they end up spending another night together.
A few months later, Charles receives an invitation to Carrie's wedding in Scotland. While shopping for a present in London he accidentally bumps into Carrie in a shop and ends up helping her select her wedding dress. Carrie also astonishes him with a list of her more than thirty sexual partners (he learns he is #32). He later tries to confess his love to her and hints that he would like to have a relationship with her. However, he says it rather lamely, and the confession obviously comes too late.
The third wedding is that of Carrie and Hamish at a Scottish castle. Charles attends, depressed at the prospect of Carrie's marrying Hamish. As the reception gets under way, Gareth (Simon Callow) instructs his friends to go forth and seek potential mates; Fiona's brother, Tom (James Fleet), stumbles through an attempt to connect with the minister's wife, while Charles's flat mate, Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman), strikes up a conversation with a tall, attractive American named Chester. As Charles watches Carrie and Hamish dance as husband and wife, Charles's friend Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) deduces his feelings about Carrie. When Charles asks why Fiona is not married, she confesses that she has always loved Charles since they first met years ago. Charles is surprised and empathetic but does not seek her love.
At the wedding, Gareth dies suddenly of a heart attack: Gareth's partner Matthew (John Hannah, in one of his first screen roles) is in another part of the room listening to the groom's toast when Gareth dies.The funeral is that of Gareth. At the funeral, Matthew recites the poem Funeral Blues ("Stop all the clocks...") by W. H. Auden, commemorating his relationship with Gareth. After the funeral, Charles and Tom have a discussion about whether hoping to find your "one true love" is just a futile effort, and ponder that, while their clique has always viewed themselves as proud-to-be-single, Gareth and Matthew had in fact been a "married" couple among them all the while.
The fourth wedding takes place ten months later, and is that of Charles, who has decided to marry Henrietta. However, moments before the ceremony, Carrie arrives at the church and reveals to Charles that she and Hamish are no longer together. Charles has a crisis of confidence, which he reveals to his deaf brother David (David Bower). At the altar, when the vicar asks if anyone knows a reason why the couple should not marry, David asks Charles to translate for him, and says in sign language that he suspects the groom is having doubts and loves someone else. The vicar asks whether Charles does love someone else, and Charles replies, "I do." Henrietta punches Charles and the wedding is abruptly halted.Finally, Carrie visits Charles, who is recovering from the debacle, to check that he is OK and apologize for attending. Charles confesses that, while standing at the altar, he realized that for the first time in his life he totally and utterly loved one person, "and it wasn't the person standing next to me in the veil." Charles makes a proposal of lifelong commitment without marriage to Carrie, saying, "Do you think not being married to me might maybe be something you could consider doing for the rest of your life?" Carrie responds by saying, "I do."
The song "Going to the Chapel" is then played as we see Henrietta marry a member of the guard, Scarlett marry Chester, David marry his girlfriend, Tom marry his distant cousin Deirdre (whom he met at Charles's wedding and instantly fell for), Matthew with a new partner (Duncan Kenworthy), Fiona marry Prince Charles (a joke), and Charles and Carrie with their son -- presumably not married.
