Dress anxiety

Why does the prospect of picking bridesmaids dresses always leave my stomach in knots? I can't seem to settle on a particular gown - or even a particular designer. I know that I want them to be a light, mossy shade of green with pink accents, but I can't seem to get much beyond that. I can't even manage to settle on a length - all the etiquette people say that if the bride is wearing a long gown, then the girls need to wear long gowns too. But that doesn't seem the trend, I've seen lots of pictures of weddings where the bride is in a long (formal) gown and the bridesmaids are in shorter (informal) gowns and the universe didn't explode. And I really like tea-length, A-line dresses. But all the etiquette people say that if the maids are less formal than the bride, they'll look out of place/foolish and I'd be horrified if I did that to do that to my beautiful girls. So I've been swinging back and forth between having them all in tea-length gowns, having them all in floor-length gowns, or having them in a mix of both.

Then there's the designer issue - I got my gown at David's Bridal so it seems natural that the bridesmaids dresses should come from there too, since that would be the easiest way to coordinate them with my gown. But I'm worried about the quality/re-wearability of David's gowns - I haven't seen any of my girls in any bridesmaids dresses at all, and I'm worried with David's that I'd have a higher chance of picking something ill-fitting or needing ridiculous amounts of alterations. Also, to be honest, I'm not particularly crazy about any David's Bridal bridesmaids gowns. I'm limited due to my color choice (the only green I'd want is called peridot and there are only maybe a dozen gowns in peridot) and there's some nice gowns but I seem to have small (but ultimately probably easy-to-get-over) issues with all of them.

For instance, I like this gown:

...but it only comes in black, navy, brown, and a funky olive green.

And I like the looks of these mix-and-match gowns - each bridesmaid can get a slightly different gown (only variations on the ones pictured) so she can choose one she'll feel most comfortable in, and they can all be individuals, but they'll also look good as a group.

The add-ons are extra - the cuff at the top of the far right dress, the belts, and the peek-a-boo under skirts are all a bit more ($15 or $20). I particularly like the two gowns on the far right - they're both sweetheart necklines without the cuff (I'm not a fan of sweetheart necklines but i wouldn't be wearing it so it's okay). I think my ideal dress would be somewhere in between the two in length. The short one is a bit too short (above the knee without the under skirt) and the long one is, well, floor length and no matter how hard I try to get behind the idea of having my maids in floor-length gowns, I can't fully own the idea. There is the possibility of getting the long dress hemmed to be tea length, but that adds more cost to the gown when I'd already want the girls to at least get the extra sash in pink.

I also like this gown, but it isn't designed in such a way that it would look good with a pink accent (namely, the sash):

And I do want each gown to have both green and pink. I actually want the main wedding color to be pink, not green, but I don't want everything to be too pink-pink-pink plus I like the idea of the pink bouquets popping against the green dresses. So the idea is to have the dresses in green with some pink, and then have everything else be pink with some green.

I also like this one, which would work well with the pink sash and is more tea-length than the shorter one from above:

But I think this gown, from Alfred Angelo, is somehow much prettier:

And you can allegedly order this one in light green ("celadon") with a pink ("dusty rose") belt all ready put together - no needing to buy an extra sash. And I found it for $89. But it is tea-length, and I'm still not convinced that it's okay for me to pick a tea length gown if my gown is floor length. And also, what if my bridesmaids don't want to wear a strapless gown? My sister has expressed a dislike for strapless and for sashes, so I found this dress:

This is satin with a chiffon top layer. The dress is basically a strapless A-line, but the chiffon top layer creates see-through V-neck straps/sleeves that my sister might prefer. And since she'll be the maid of honor, it would be okay for her to wear a gown that's different from the other girls. The only problem is, this dress is from After Six, not Alfred Angelo, so who's to say that the Celadon from After Six would match the Celadon from Alfred Angelo?

- - - - - JAMES - - if you're reading this... STOP READING HERE - - - -

(tee hee!)

But I haven't seen the colors in person and I'd need to know if they're the "right" colors. Particularly the pink. It's important that the pink be the right shade since my gown features a pink sash. That's the thing about the David's gowns - it's guaranteed that the pink in those gowns will match the pink in my gown.

...Of course, I'm not too crazy about the "Pearl Pink" sash for my gown from David's - I think that shade of pink is a bit too salmony, and while it does come in a shade of straight up "Pink," there are no bridesmaids dresses or accents that come in Pink - only Pearl Pink or hot pink (and I don't want to do hot pink). So I guess one option would be to return the "pearl pink" sash if, when I see it at home at Thanksgiving, I decide that it's too salmony for me to stand and just get the pink sash -- then all bets are off. I guess the pinks don't need to match exactly, as long as they're in the same pink family?

And maybe that second-to-last gown would be on the same level of formality as my gown, even if it is tea length? Because they're both simple, elegant, A-line dresses without beading or anything ornate, I think they'd look good together.

---- JAMES -- - YOU CAN READ AGAIN :) ------

So, friends... any suggestions???