This is the part that really gets me, how unfair and un-introspective people can be. If someone truly made a mistake and couldn’t attend, OK, but when I reflect on double-standards it makes me so angry.
He’s better; not great, but better, thanks.
My theory is that whenever there’s a wedding, some kind of ultra-low frequency vibe causes the couples’ family members to go crazy (or at least be unable to mask their craziness for a few hours).
Oh dear. I just remembered my best friend’s wedding, which might make you feel a little better.
Her mother and father are divorced. She loves both of her parents dearly. Her mother was flying down from Seattle, her father was supposed to be flying down from Idaho.
Her father calls her up two weeks before the wedding and asks why his new wife isn’t sitting in the front row next to him.
“Because that’s where Mom’s supposed to sit.” She said, confused. “That’s the mother of the bride position.”
He tells her that he will not sit next to her mother, and insists that she put his new wife, who she has always hated and who has always treated her like shit, in the mother of the bride position. She refuses, so he doesn’t come down for her wedding. My dad walked her down the aisle.
At least your dad didn’t pull that crap. He didn’t make it, but he didn’t try to make you change your arrangements for YOUR special day.
~Tasha
In the year before we got married, my wife learned her dad was a bigamist with another family. Her mom kicked her alcoholism into high gear and filed for a divorce.
We planned a small informal wedding, but MIL wanted a big fancy deal like her older daughters had. MIL said she would pay for it, and since it seemed really important to her, we agreed.
The day before the wedding, MIL handed my wife a check from her asshole father that my wife was supposed to endorse over to the reception hall. A huge fight ensued, but ultimately my wife agreed.
To this day - 20 years later - her dad reminds us that he paid for our wedding, yet my wife would not let him walk her down the aisle, dance the first dance with him, have her picture taken with him, etc.
Her dad’s a complete asshole, but I think her mom really let us down by putting us in that situation.
It must be nature’s way of making sure we will never forget how nuts our respective wedding days were. 
cruel butterfly, I am very sorry that your father and sisters couldn’t make it the wedding. I hope you get the answers you desire one day.
As for wedding horror stories, I joined this board because of my wedding and spent a lot of time posting about my woes (Thanks everyone for not telling me to get lost. 
)
My husband and I had a very small informal wedding. I was really worried about my mother because she and I don’t get along and she’s has a history of violent behavior.
Mr. Maven and I had all the wedding decorations, including items from his mother and mine. We decorated the venue, dressed and I was setting up for the march down the alse.
Mom: Mouse_Maven, where are those candles I bought?
Me: I’m not sure. Did you check all the cars?
Mom: Yes I did. I don’t see them anywhere.
Me: I guess they were forgotten. A couple of things haven’t turned up.
Mom: Mouse_Maven, its really hard for me to be apart of your life. <storms off>
I was torn between crying and homocide. Whenever I look at our wedding photos, and I see the ones with me and my mother I remember how angry I was at her.
I think you should at least try to talk to your dad about what happened. But one thing that really jumped out at me was the fact that your dad and your two half-sisters were coming to the wedding, but not your step-mom. Methinks this is where the problem is. Perhaps your step-mom became upset at the three of them flying off to Vegas to have fun without her, and decided to do the ultimatum thing. So was she not invited to your wedding? Why wasn’t she coming? had she been supportive of the idea of your dad and sisters attending before this happened?
I had talked to my stepmother about whether she could come to the wedding. At the time, she worked for a Texas state legislator, and told me very early on that her schedule would prohibit her attendance. I went ahead and sent her an invitation as a formality.
I hadn’t realized the depth of the “background” involved. I’m wondering why your dad “messed up” the day for his ticket only, but the step-sisters had “punishment” involved. You’d think that he would have bought all 3 tickets at once, giving the same day for all of them. Very strange. Now that I’m looking at it with more info, I’m not entirely sure any of them are ashamed. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.
As for wanting to hear my SILs’ argument, definitely not at the time! I didn’t even know it was going on, thankfully. This is a drama-filled group of inlaws and so there’s always something going on with at least one of them; I’ve heard plenty of obnoxious arguments among them.
My dad bought his ticket by himself. My stepmother bought the tickets for my sisters as kind of a gift to them so that they could go. For the record, my brother, who has a much closer relationship with her than I, chastised her for yanking the tickets at the last minute. He told me that he told her that in the end, she was only punishing me. There’s no word yet on whether she actually cares.