Don't screw it up.

Summer season is wedding season. For most people, weddings are happy festive occasions filled with a mushy sort of over-the-top joy. But other people, they can be nothing but a tedious trial of dealing with family and horrid bridesmaids dresses.

You may not have a date, you may hate dressing up in fancy shoes and stockings, and you may have another million other things on your mind. However, depending on your relationship with either the bride or groom, you should keep these basic things in mind:

1.  This is not a day to make you happy, this is a day to make the couple happy. Unless you yourself are the new bride or groom, do not draw overdue attention to yourself.

2.  Even if you are bated, do not consume more alcohol than your old Cousin Al who thinks it may be funny to take shots every time someone says cheers, but it really isn’t, and you should probably restrain yourself.

3.  Get to know the people at your table. They may be from another era entirely, but if you love the bride/groom, this can tell you more about them. Blackmail material? You never know.

4.  Don’t take a picture of everything with your digital camera, especially during the wedding service. Yes, this is memorable, yes, you want to recapture the emotions ... but also yes, they already hired someone professional to take the pictures better than you.  

5.  Under absolutely no circumstances are you allowed to complain about the food, the dining arrangement, the precession, the reception, or any other aspect of the wedding to the bride, groom, or their extended family. Even if you just saw a couple get married in a cornfield with music provided by a Sawyer Brown cover band – they worked very hard on this day, so it was a lovely ceremony, wasn’t it?