How are modern couples navigating family pressure around traditional bridal party size limits or uneven sides?

How are modern couples navigating family pressure around traditional bridal party size limits or uneven sides? We lived this — 2 attendants on one side, 6 on the other — and here is what we learned:

• Uneven sides are completely normal now. Our photographer said most of her weddings are uneven and she just staggers the processional pairs. Nobody in the audience counts.
• Give people jobs instead of titles. The siblings who were not in the party did readings, managed the guest book, and walked our moms down the aisle. Nobody felt demoted.
• The sentence that ended every argument: "We are keeping the wedding party small and choosing people, not numbers." Said kindly, once, to each mother, and then not debated again.
• Skip the matching-outfit arms race. Same color family, different dresses — it photographs better and costs everyone less.

Your wedding party is the people you want standing with you. It is not a math problem anyone else gets to solve.