Why Pippa Middleton is the worst wedding guest of all Pippa Middleton off to another wedding. BOOZY best men, pink-cheeked young chaps in morning coats, leggy girls in pashminas, country churches, choirs and confetti, disappointing weather ... the ingredients for an upper-crust British wedding are reassuringly predictable. But lately there is a new must-have among young Sloanes trotting up the aisle: Pippa Middleton as a guest. Since her star turn at the Royal Wedding, every toff in the kingdom seems to have perky Pippa looking on as they pledge their troth. Nearly royal and freshly famous, she has become the popular party perennial, the talisman of any boisterous Shires wedding. Not a Saturday goes by without Waitrose's new food columnist - and editor of The Party Times, the website for her parents" Party Pieces company - squeezing in an early-morning blow-dry, piling on the black eyeliner, checking her nude tights for ladders and choosing a feathery fascinator. It seems no Hattie or Georgie wants to wed without her. However, some brides have surely regretted inviting Pippa. For when their big day dawns, it doesn't take long for them to realise that someone else will be princess for the day. From the moment the hordes of paparazzi descend outside the church - how do they know she'll be there? - everyone knows they haven't turned up to see a junior barrister or chartered surveyor get hitched. And it's not just the photographers. At even the smartest of weddings, when Pippa is in the pews there's only one guest anyone's interested in. Indeed, not only do they spend their day staring at Pippa, when she's out of earshot, she's all they talk about, too. Which must be a little galling for the bride. A friend who attended a Berkshire wedding with Pippa revealed that when the festivities were over, everyone wanted to reminisce - about the food (what Pippa ate), the clothes (what Pippa wore) and the dancing (was Pippa any good?). Happily, bruised bridal egos can be assuaged by the buzz generated by having Pippa as a guest - it's like having Marilyn Monroe turn up just as the congregation shuffle into a church in Nowheresville. While Pippa always manages to look cheerful and delighted to be there, whether it's Northumberland or Norfolk (for rarely does a Sloane wedding take place anywhere as convenient as London), this round of weddings is becoming more fraught for her. For 29-year-old Pippa is a singleton in the wedding zone - the years between 28 and 34 when, in an irresistible domino effect, your entire social circle gets married, one after the other - and as such there will be times when that bleak worry dawns: when will it be my turn? But Pippa should fear not. Her most recent boyfriend, banker Nico Jackson, looks like a promising choice, being sporty, handsome, keen and available. But it's interesting to note that, by and large, he doesn't go to weddings with her. After all, trotting along to weddings with a relatively new boyfriend when you're nearing 30 is excruciating for everyone involved. Above the feathers on Pippa's head there would be that giant question mark hovering in the air for the whole congregation to see. Worse even than the fear of being alone for ever is the frightful fashion dilemma that weddings present. For Pippa, this is nothing less than an ongoing crisis. She has been to at least 15 weddings since her triumph at her sister's Westminster Abbey nuptials two years ago - and since she is usually the most photographed person there, she can't wear the same thing to each one. Yet, despite having plenty of practice, Pippa's ensembles don't always hit the mark. While she doesn't flout the most obvious rules for guest dressing - no white, nothing see-through, no upstaging the bride on purpose a la Elizabeth Hurley's sparkly knickers on show at her chum Henry Dent-Brocklehurst's wedding - it's true that Pippa's wedding wardrobe is sometimes found wanting. The Middleton women have developed a kind of family uniform for weddings, slightly different from the other guests. There may be lots of leg (possibly too much), but it must always be safely housed in nude hosiery. Fascinators or hats - they have moved on from the former to the latter - must be quite small and feature feathers. But Kate plays her wedding hand slightly differently. She sometimes wears High Street and, unlike Pippa, clothes she has worn before, with a keen awareness that she could be accused of decadence if she was seen in an endless stream of outfits. Pippa, on the other hand, has no such constraints. She also doesn't play it so safe and experiments with fashion - producing mixed results. Once her outfit is decided upon, Pippa will grab a walker - perhaps a banker friend such as Tom Kingston - and flash her whitest smile at the waiting hordes of photographers and guests. At least the forgotten bride can console herself with the thought that the Pippa show has made her wedding go with a bang.