Choosing who will be part of your bride squad is a huge task and one that isn't taken lightly - because you cannot take back who you pick.
Though one bride would beg to differ, after she went ahead with her wedding day without one of her closest friends and bridesmaids there.
Her ex-bridesmaid has taken to Reddit to rant about the betrayal, after she discovered the celebration had already happened in secret - by viewing a livestream of it online.
She was notified to a post on social media by the groom's family and felt utterly "heartbroken" when she realised that she'd been excluded.
In her post on Reddit, the woman said: "So I was supposed to be a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding.
"I've known her and her family for over 10 years, we met when I was in middle school and I've been 'adopted' by them ever since.
"She started all the planning in March of last year. The wedding was supposed to be in October of this year.
"I had been helping with the planning and decorating, and helping her pick out her wedding dress.
"Near the end of last year I had to get a second job so I wasn't able to help out as much as I was before.
"We were planning the bachelorette trip for this summer and we all wanted to surprise her with a special trip in honour of her father who passed away five years ago."
Then suddenly, last month the bridesmaid got a social media notification that the groom's sister had posted about the wedding.
"She was congratulating the two of them for getting married with a video of them all getting ready for the wedding. I was confused thinking maybe I had missed something," she explained.
"I went back through all of the messages and found nothing of the date being changed. Then the groom's mother did a livestream of the wedding.
"I watched it thinking maybe they had just wanted to do a small ceremony for family only. But there were so many people there, some that I didn't even recognise.
"I feel heartbroken that they had the wedding without me."
The bridesmaid was distraught and has been ignoring any texts or calls from anyone who attending the wedding for the last month.
She reached out to fellow Reddit users for advice, who were just as shocked and dumbfounded as her.
"There's nothing that will ever make this okay. You were literally dropped from the most important day of her life with no explanation," someone said.
"This is really strange. I don't think you are overreacting," another commented. "I think you owe it to yourself to find out what happened, and then ignore if you wish."
A third agreed: "You are understandably hurt and deserve time to process it. However you need to tell your friend this at some point.
"And honestly, she's no longer worthy of being your friend."
Some people expressed their confusion at missing parts of the story and struggled to get their heads around it.
One person pointed out: "I feel like she wasn't a bridesmaid. She never said the bride asked her to be one."
A second agreed: "Were you actually invited to the wedding? It sounds like how you think of them and how they think of [you] is very different."
What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments.
