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"Not sure who you want in your wedding party? Here are six tips to help you narrow down the selection. DO wait to ask until you&amp;#x27;ve set your wedding date. If you get engaged today but wait 18 months to get married, your inner circle might change. I&amp;#x27;m not saying you won&amp;#x27;t still be tight with, say, your college roommate, but adding bridesmaids is a lot more fun then demoting them, so I&amp;#x27;d hold out on asking &amp;#x27;til you&amp;#x27;re sure of who you&amp;#x27;ll want in the V.I.P. spots when your wedding day rolls around. DON&amp;#x27;T feel like you have to include all the siblings. (Or give them the &amp;quot;biggest&amp;quot; roles.) Having the same parents and once sharing a bedroom makes your sister, well, your sister. It doesn&amp;#x27;t automatically make her your maid of honor. By all means, ask your sister to be your MoH if you&amp;#x27;re close. But don&amp;#x27;t feel like you have to ask her if all you have in common is DNA. And definitely don&amp;#x27;t feel like you have to ask your groom&amp;#x27;s sister to be a bridesmaid. Which brings me to ... DO have &amp;quot;bridesmen&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;groomsgirls&amp;quot;! If you&amp;#x27;re close with your brother, that&amp;#x27;s great. But asking him to stand up as a groomsmen feels weird&amp;amp;#8212;unless he he happens to be close with your guy, too. If you&amp;#x27;d like to give your bro an important role, I think &amp;quot;bridesman&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;man of honor&amp;quot; is more appropriate. DON&amp;#x27;T feel like you have to have the same number of bridesmaids and groomsmen. I just don&amp;#x27;t get some brides&amp;#x27; obsession with having even numbers. You can shuffle the way people walk up the aisle (two bridesmaids to a groomsman or vice versa), or stand during the ceremony. And you can skip the &amp;quot;wedding party join in!&amp;quot; portion of your first dance&amp;amp;#8212;which I always found a little awkward as a bridesmaid, anyway! DO redefine the roles. A &amp;quot;maid of honor&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;matron of honor&amp;quot; is great&amp;amp;#8212;unless you have two best friends and neither (or both) is married. If you want to have two &amp;quot;maids&amp;quot; or two &amp;quot;matrons&amp;quot; or no one &amp;quot;of honor,&amp;quot; just four equally ranked bridesmaids, do what works for you. DON&amp;#x27;T ask a friend just because you were in her wedding. Your friend didn&amp;#x27;t ask you to be in her wedding because she hopes to be in yours&amp;amp;#8212;whenever that might happen. You might want to include more family members or just keep your wedding party small. Whatever the reason, don&amp;#x27;t assume your friend (especially one you&amp;#x27;ve grown apart from) expects to be in your wedding. Or wants to, for that matter. Are you having trouble picking your wedding party? Did I miss any tips? More miscellaneous wedding stuff: * Wedding Etiquette: Yes, You CAN Wear Black to a Wedding! * Who&amp;amp;#8217;s Older, You or Your Groom? By How Much? * Wedding Warning: You&amp;amp;#8217;ll Need to Do THIS After the Party&amp;amp;#8217;s Over! Photo: Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/weddings/blogs/save-the-date/2012/02/6-dos-and-donts-that-will-hope>