The person sewing a last-minute button has contributed to the ceremony’s calm.

Big occasions run on small emergencies that most guests never hear about. Somebody found the thread, somebody moved the chairs, somebody talked a nervous person down in a corridor, and none of it appears in the account of the day. The calm everyone else experienced was manufactured, quietly, by people doing unremarkable things at speed.

After any event, ask who fixed something that morning and thank them specifically. And if you are attending, take a job when you see one going: the button, the lift, the person standing alone. It will not be mentioned in the speeches, which is not the same as not mattering.