The Age Old Struggle of Picking Bridal Party

I hope it works out. It's hard when you have to treat your friendships like numbers on a side of a wedding party. I suppose you could have your friends be involved without being in the wedding party, but it might feel to them like they're "second best".

Really, the trend is toward uneven wedding parties, it's not like friends and family come in matched sets.

You have awhile before you need to ask anyone. I would suggest January of 2023 to ask them.

This such a tough one if it s really important to you to have them at your side I d let your fh know that and if he wants to add 1 or 2 more he s welcome too. If the sides are uneven so be it what matters most is that you have the people you want and need at your side at such an important moment. Another option would be if you are having a ceremony with readings you can ask your friends to each do a reading or in a catholic mass you usually need people to bring up the communion gifts. Best of luck to you

My husband knew he needed at least 6, potentially 7 groomsmen. The issue I ran into was that I don't really have a ton of CLOSE friends anymore. I was in several college friends weddings, but I was a single mom at 20 while they were still partying and then when they started having families, my child was already 10 so we just naturally grew apart. I love them all, still invited them, but we're not close. So I really struggled with coming up with people to "match" numbers. I asked my best friend, another close friend, my sister, my cousin who grew up like another sister, and my two SILs. So I had 6 to match. my one close friend ended up not being able to financially afford it. So I had 5 at that point. I chose to not replace her but the uneven numbers really didn't look that out of place. We had one bridesmaid walk with two groomsmen and you barely notice it in pics.

So if having all 6 is what would make you happiest, and they're the people nearest and dearest and you don't want to exclude any, I would just have another conversation with your FH about it, maybe he can add at least 1 more if he's worried about how it will look and doesn't have 2.

Lovely photo Ashlee! I totally agree.

One suggestion to even it out could be having your FSIL stand on your fiance's side! She could still help you plan and go to your bachelorette party and everything, but that would just even out the sides a little so you could have your 2 sisters and 3 friends, and then he has his 4 guys and 1 sister.

Are you having children at your wedding? My friend just did a child-free wedding and had one of her friends be the "flower maiden" and it worked really well! You could have A & T be Flower Maiden and Ring Barer.

I get having uneven sides too. I have 8.5 Bridesmaids (my cousin's daughter is a Jr so she's my half lol) and my FH is at 5 Groomsmen (and that was a struggle to get). Our family and friend situation is just different! My friend group is mostly female and we have all branched out. His is co-ed and they all married each other. I have family close by and he doesn't. At the end of the day, the number of people in your party doesn't matter. Just that you're happy.