I have warned wedding parties many times about the importance of leaving little flower girls and pages (or ring dudes as they often want to be known) if they run off and abandon the wedding party, or move around during the ceremony. As long as there is a responsible adult around who is not in the wedding party who can take charge of them if they leave the area, we can all breathe easy!

What I have found at a few weddings, however, is that this advice - given for good reason - is sometimes ignored. It is not a good look to have bridesmaids or groomsmen dashing away from the wedding party to chase little ones (often their own little ones). But I fear that I may now have to extend this advice to the nearest and dearest family members, too.

At a recent wedding the mother of the groom kept leaving her seat to retrieve a wayward flower girl and page boy - both aged under 3 years - at one point intruding right onto the wedding platform containing the couple and their wedding party. At another event, a bridesmaid kept leaving the wedding party to chase her own little one. The DVDs of these weddings would certainly be interesting. But what all this does is intrude on the couple's special time. Their attention is taken away from each other and put onto misbehaving children or AWOL attendants.

Personally, I don't pay much attention to what happens with the children once I start speaking because I know if the children leave the area there is someone responsible to care for them. If I halted every time a toddler ran amok at a wedding, I wouldn't be very good at my job. As a mum of two, I have experienced the gamut of behaviours and emotions in my own children, so I know what to expect of a fractious toddler or four-year-old and I talk to couples about what they might expect at their own ceremonies in this respect. Many brides have little experience with children and may not be aware of what they are capable of at weddings! I am still laughing, years later, at the antics of the flower-girl at my best friend's wedding. Tired of all the attention being on the couple, the flower-girl grabbed wet yellow rose petals from her basket and tossed them at the parents and friends of the groom sitting in the front row. One lady looked like Big Bird at the end of it... But that's another story...