I asked my best friend to be my Maid of Honour a few months ago. Unfortunately this summer she was in a very serious accident and has suffered such serious brain injuries, it is very unclear to what degree she will recover, not to mention at what pace her recovery will take. Our wedding is just less than a year away, and although I hope and pray each day that she will be able to be there, the reality of the situation is she just may not be. I've talked to the only other friend with whom I'm relatively as close with as my best friend about the possibility of him taking her place. He is unsure about whether he would like to do that, as he's afraid everyone will know who he would be "replacing". I've only become close with my sister in the past year, and although she is already in the wedding party, I'm not sure about asking her to fill in this role. She has already agreed to help out with a great deal as my best friend lives overseas. I'm stumped as to what kind of plan 'b' I can put on the back burner and pull out if needed down the road. I'm already planning to just go ahead and buy the maid of honour dress "just incase". Unfortunately I've moved around a lot in the last 5 years, and although I have a lot of good friends, no one I feel particularly close enough to to potentially ask to take on this role; not to mention that those that will be invited to the wedding will already be traveling from varying distances and I don't feel it fair of me to ask this bit extra of them. If my best friend can't be with me on our wedding day, that day will be filled with a roller coaster of emotions considering the situation, so I feel that I need that placed filled with someone I can lean on for support throughout the day besides my husband-to-be.
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? I'm open to listening and would love to hear thoughts on this unfortunately stressful and emotional situation.
Thanks!