The scene: A little flower girl at a wedding is given the cue to begin walking up the aisle and drop the rose petals in her basket, one by one, along the way. The wrinkle: She forgets about the rose petals until she reaches the top of the aisle, at which point she takes the basket, upends it and dumps all the petals in a heap on the floor.

Sigh. Kids at weddings? Adorable.

Next scene: Another wedding, where the kindergarten-age ring bearer decides that midway up the aisle is as good a spot as any to relieve himself. He holds off until he reaches the shrubbery lining the walkway, takes care of business and returns to transporting the ring up the aisle — to shrieks of horror and peals of laughter.

Sigh. Kids at weddings? Awful.

Few opinions fall into the middle, says Nora Sheils, a wedding planner in Portland, Ore., who observed both scenes. “It is black and white: Brides who absolutely don’t want kids at the wedding, and others who really wanted kids to attend,” she said.

It seems as if anyone who has ever been to a wedding has an opinion (and a story) of sweetness and shenanigans involving children.