Hard and fast rules often fail to fit instances in which people’s emotions are involved or where someone’s object of desire, even if past, is at stake. Nonetheless, I will chance the view that there are many happy outcomes in which past love deserves a place at the wedding celebration of any Love Stories reader.

Some caveats may need to be considered, though. A family wedding rarely needs further dramas added to the script at the best of times. If any real doubts are entertained it might be more circumspect to drop the idea of inviting the ex. Or, should the bridegroom feel dubious on the point, as he might do, I suggest that attention is paid to his reaction.

Then again, the circumstance of a quiet wedding presents a somewhat different picture in this context to a big social do. When close family only and a few friends are invited to the wedding reception, a previous emotional attachment among the party might feel a shade spare.

Probably the least stressful way round in cases where feelings run high is the tried and tested device by which the bride does invite her ex formally, on the grounds that to exclude him would seem ungenerous, and for the guest to do the decent thing and decline. But in the numerous cases in which everyone appears cool on the matter surely she may ask him and he accept with pleasure.

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