Choosing my last Bridesmaid

So my fiance and I are getting married next Fall in 2022. We've had our wedding party picked out for a long time since we got engaged back in April of this year. Asking our friends and loved ones to be apart of our day as bridesmaids or groomsmen was something we did fairly early as well. We had planned to have 5 ppl on each side. Well my fiance has asked all his ppl and they have each said yes. I asked all my girls and everyone said yes except for one of my best friends. She lives out of state and is just dealing with things in her own life right now. We were both sad that she couldn't be in my wedding since we've talked about being in each other's weddings since highschool, but at the same time I completely understood why due to finances and not having certainty of knowing where she would be at by that time next year. So I was very appreciative of her just telling me that rather than saying yes and having problems later where she wouldn't be able to attend or be involved last minute. But still I've considered even checking in with her again since months have passed and have wanted to check and see if she feels her answer would still be no. But I don't want to make her sad about it again or make her feel she needs to change her answer, so I've left it alone.


Due to her not being able to be a bridesmaid I am one bridesmaid short. I have had some other ppl come to mind but am unsure what to do and I really would prefer to not have an uneven group of ppl as ik some ppl have said to do that in other forums on here. But it's just my preference to not have that if I can.
I have a couple of other friends who I could ask to be in it but we haven't talked in quite some time and don't stay in touch regularly so I feel I would blindside them out of the blue if I ask them to be in my wedding since we haven't hung out in almost a year or more and only have brief convos thru social media from time to time.
I have a cousin who I could ask. I know she would be happy to do it but we are not very close and it would probably surprise her too. We don't keep in touch except for saying happy birthday on social media each year and having brief convos at family functions.
Another option I thought would be my future brother-in-law's new Fiancé. They started dating last year and just got engaged this month (so far we've heard they plan to get married the spring after our wedding). I hadn't originally considered her because when they were only bf/gf I didn't want to risk them possibly breaking up before our wedding or even after our wedding and then having her in our pictures forever if that makes sense. And because we barely know each other. It was nothing against her personally. But now that they are engaged I feel it may be more appropriate to ask her to be in the wedding since she'll be my fiance and I's sister-in-law eventually. And since my fiance's brother is in the wedding of course, they could easily be paired to walk together for the ceremony. But we've only been around each other in person on a couple of occasions (we live like 3 hours from each other and haven't visited much due to Covid) so we still barely know each other and are still getting to know one another. We have each other on social media tho and interact thru that from time to time. I think she would be happy to do it but idk if she'll think it's weird either.
I guess overall I'm just unsure of what to do. My fiance offered to trim a person from his side but I don't want us to do that as it would hurt whoever's feelings I'm sure since they all already agreed and are excited to be a groomsman. I'm curious if anyone else has had this situation come up and what you ended up doing? And if you think any of the people I've thought of would be a good choice or I just need resolve it some other way. I just keep circling thru each person I've thought of and am unsure of what to do.