I was recently talking to a gentleman who teaches woodworking classes
about face jointing, and he said that he hardly ever does it. He said
if he were making a dining room table or something similar, he would
face joint, but otherwise, he simply edge joints.

The lumber I typically use is 13/16" kiln dried random width cherry.
The place where he works sells the same wood, so I'm assuming he's
using what I'm using.

I recently built a shaker style sofa table, and I edge jointed, face
jointed one side, and then planed it to a uniform thickness.

Can I omit the face jointing if I'm selecting pretty straight lumber?