Should i invite my old best friends to my wedding?

You don't need to decide on bridesmaids this year, especially when you are going to see this friend again. Just try to avoid inviting her as a bridesmaid in the short visit and rekindling of friendship.

I'm in a super similar bind right now. I met my best friend when we were 20 through work and actually introduced her to her now husband, one of my life long best friends that I had dated when I was like 15. When they got married I was very suprisingly her Maid of Honor, and right before they got married my 6 year relationship had ended (Nov 2019...) Fast forward past covid and a huge move out of state from NY to TX five years later I finally met my perfect most incredible man. I want to ask her to be a bridesmaid but shes also been busy the past five years and has had two kids, etc... I try to keep in touch regularly but I think we both know that we're both living serperate lives and they're both super busy. But we often go months without talking... Also she used to HATE me and thought I was a huge meanie when we started working together ( I was her supervisor at the time) but we became very close friends. But from experiance moving into a managerial position I've had bosses tell me that I NEED to seperate work from friends and if i work with my friends i need to be able to dicsipline them. In my case they literally sat there and made me fire one of my other best friends (her and I also still talk). Being in a managerial position is the worst job because you're literally almost not allowed to have "friends" by most employers and they pull all the strings. So, I wouldnt take your "work" relationship too personally because she was probably just doing what her bosses made her do. Bosses can be very manipulative, because they have the power as your source of income. They can make you do things you wouldn't typically do to your friends because they have you income in their hands.

If she messaged you back saying she wants to be in your wedding, she probably has feeling of remorse and guilt that she allowed work to get in the way of a genuine friendship. But keep in mind a genuine friendship doesn't pay the bills, if i went around quiting every job that made me distance my friendships from my work I'd probably be homeless. But it takes time and balance to create an appropriate work / friend relationship.

At this point your wedding is over a yr away I d work on reconnecting and rebuilding the relationship. When it's time to send out invites if you are still friendly send her one. But I would avoid asking her to be in the bp just yet and honestly I d avoid saying she s invited to the wedding. Spend some time together and as the wedding draws closer if she's become a significant person in your life again absolutely invite her. Enjoy getting to know your friend again and take it one step at a time. Happy wedding planning!

I think you still have time to feel out the relationship and decide in a few months. I have a childhood best friend from 7th grade through maybe sophomore year of college (I'm 35 now), and up until last year we hadn't spoken in maybe 10 years, no good reason, life just happened! She text me out of the blue last year and we met up for frozen yogurt with my kids. I had no intention of inviting her to the wedding pre-meet up but afterwards, it felt wrong NOT to invite her. I had already chosen my bridal party and felt it would be disingenuous to try and add her, but you still have time! Do what feels right to you