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When it comes to planning your wedding, even small things like choosing flowers can be stressful, and picking your bridesmaids is no different!

Bridesmaids are the ones who help the most in the planning stages of the wedding. They're also in charge of your hen night and are tasked with keeping you calm on the big day. Suffice to say, you need to choose wisely, cunningly and, more importantly, without offending friends you have known for years.

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Here are our top 10 things to take into account before you make that all-important decision:

1. Assess whether or not they know how to throw a good party - no one wants a boring hen night.

2. Discount anyone who may get too bossy, angers easily or is too high-maintenance - it is your wedding after all.

3. Take into account which of your friends have been good at organising previous nights out.

4. Choose someone with excellent taste. You will need their advice during the initial planning stages and need to be able to trust that they are on the same wavelength for when you leave them to their own devices.

5. Make sure you choose a head bridesmaid that your parents love. Preparations and the running of the big day will go more smoothly this way. (More so than if you pick the accomplice from school who got you started smoking behind the bike sheds.)

6. If small children are coming to the wedding, make sure at least one of your bridesmaids is good with them. This will keep the crying and screaming to a minimum - yours and theirs!

7. Pick people who are honest with you. When trying on wedding dresses there is no point taking a friend with you who quite happily lets you walk out of the house in less-than-flattering outfits on a regular basis.

8. Select someone outgoing who will get on well with the groom's friends. Not too well, mind...

9. Think of those of your friends who are always calm in a crisis situation. Chances are you are going to have at least one problem that you consider the end of the world. The bridesmaids' job is to bring you back down to earth.

10. This is your big day so don't pick friends who are too vain - no one wants a bridesmaid who is more concerned with how she looks on your big day than making it special for you.