I play with MCCC, which helps with a lot of this, but I agree, it would be nice if it was provided by hte game. Or at least the option--what's nice about MCCC is you can CHOOSE what you want, which gives a lo of versatility. Not every body plays the same--some want more control, some like to be surprised, and I wish Maxis built in settings that let you control that. I mean, that's basically what MCCC does, but why do we have to depend on mods so much?
Personally, I would LOVE to get wedding invites, and the see the NPCs have fuller lives. With MCCC have it set NPCs get married and have babies, but it's totally random. I don't ind that so much, since it certainly makes some interesting stories (I just made a thread about it actually :-P), but how amazing would it be if the NPCs were actually more inclined toward their specific stories? I think that would be amazing.