Meanwhile, in New York, reporter Homer Eisenhower Graham or "Ike" (Richard Gere), writes a column about her that contains several factual errors, supplied to him by one of Maggie's jilted exes for revenge. He's fired for not verifying his source and then decides to write an in-depth article about Maggie in a bid to get his job back. He travels to Hale, Maryland, where he finds her living with her family and on her fourth attempt to become married. The fourth groom-to-be, Bob Kelly (Christopher Meloni), is a football coach at the local high school who treats Maggie like one of the players on his sports team. He constantly makes references to Maggie "focusing" on the goal-line.

While doing research for his story, Ike's realizations are forcing Maggie to face her fears, and eventually the two find themselves becoming more and more attracted to each other. In the meantime, Maggie is still set to marry Bob. In the midst of the wedding rehearsal, Bob helps walk Maggie down the aisle, and asks Ike to stand in his place as the groom. This proves to be a mistake, when Ike and Maggie "practice" the kiss right in front of Bob, finally admitting their feelings for one another. As a result, Bob punches Ike in the face before storming out of the church. Soon after, Ike and Maggie agree to marry since the wedding is already set to take place. But on the day of the wedding, Maggie gets cold feet, and leaves Ike, too, standing at the altar. As she rides away on a FedEx truck, Ike runs after her, but can't catch up.

Later, we see Ike living in New York and Maggie trying to discover herself, trying different types of eggs, and putting her lighting designs up for sale in New York. She shows up unexpectedly at Ike's apartment one night where he finds her making friends with his cat, Italics. Maggie then explains that she's been running because every other guy she was engaged to was only engaged to the idea she had created for them rather than the real her--and when she was marrying Ike she was simply freaked out at the crowd. She "turns in" her running shoes just before proposing to Ike. The two are married in a private ceremony outside, on a hill, avoiding the big ceremonies that drove Maggie away in the past. In the end, they are shown riding away on horseback while everyone celebrates the fact that Maggie finally got married.

Box office
The film opened on July 30, 1999 with $12,000,000 on its opening day. In its opening weekend, Runaway Bride peaked at #1 with $35,055,556.

By the end of its run, the film had grossed $152,257,509 domestically and an international $157,200,000, altogether making $309,457,509 worldwide.

Critical reception
The film earned positive to mixed reviews. While Richard Gere and Julia Roberts were liked in their second film since Pretty Woman, viewers and critics felt the film was not as good as it could have been. Originally, Marshall was going to do a Pretty Woman sequel, but he let the sequel sit on the back burner and did this movie instead.