To wedding party, or not to wedding party, that is the question:

Whether ?tis nobler on the Big Day to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous wedding drama,

Or to take arms against a sea of ceremonial traditions,

And by opposing end them: to wed without argument, to celebrate without dispute?
~William Shakespeare (with some edits by yours truly)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that few weddings take place without drama. I?ve noticed that, in most cases, wedding drama seems to originate from two sources:
1. the parents of the bride or groom or?
2. the wedding party.
My parents are divorced but civil in public, and Mr. Feather?s mother is a sweet, Southern lady,* so I feel our wedding is safe from any parental drama.
Wedding party drama, on the other hand, is more of a concern for me. I?ve had more than one female friend tell me stories of weddings where the wedding day was the last time they spoke to someone they used to consider a good friend. Arguments were never resolved, resentment grew, and, in some cases, a wedding was the final straw that destroyed an otherwise solid friendship.
Knowing all this, I was firmly in camp ?no wedding party!? leading up to our engagement. A friend of mine from college had a wedding with no wedding party, and she said she didn?t miss out on anything. She still took photos with all the people she was close to, and she said nobody felt left out or resentful for being excluded from the wedding party because there was no wedding ...