My mom said "of course you have to have at least 4 bridesmaids!" and fiance and I groaned. He only wanted 1 best man. We ended up with a best man and matron of honor (who are married to each other, which really nice I think) and live in town. Then I included a Jr bridemaid on my side because I think when you're 15 and haven't been in a wedding it's actually fun and exciting and you don't have to pay of course.

I agree with you that wrangling mid 20s friends with limited funds who live in different places is really, really hard and I had no interest in doing that.

Of course, I could have gone with siblings but I have a step sister and 1 older sister, both of whom I know wouldn't be super thrilled to be bridemaids and would think of it as an imposition, so I nixed that idea.

FH had a lot of friend options but it was a situation where, if he asked x friend, he'd also have to ask y friend- so it was like, either 1 best man, or 6 groomsmen. And we went with the "ruthless cuts" option. That was everyone is equally excluded and there are less hurt feelings, lol.