Dresses for the 'Maids

I have to admit, I'm pretty sure that I've looked at every single bridesmaid's dress that is currently in production. That may sound like an exaggeration, but I promise you it's not. See, I have a great group of 4 girls standing up with me as my bridesmaids.. but they are all very different shapes. One is pretty busty, one is super-petite, and the other two are fairly average. Also, I happen to love these girls a lot, and I wanted to make sure that they look really good at my wedding! Oh, and it had to be in a deep purple color, which was surprisingly hard to find at the point of my search.

The first real contender was Dessy dress #6553. Here it is on me (obviously not in the correct color):

I love how the top kind of mirrors the top of my dress (which I'm still figuring out how to show you!), and the waistband really nips in your waist. The dress also has pockets(!!!) and I think overall matches the formality level of the wedding pretty well. I love pockets. Unfortunately, it's strapless. And I was really looking for non-strapless for my super-busty bridesmaid. It does come with removable spaghetti straps, so it's still definitely a possibility. Another problem was that it was tea-length, when most people preferred knee-length and so it would have to be hemmed.

I came across the second dress kind of by accident, I was looking at someone's post on the WeddingBee boards and had to go to the David's Bridal website to look at her dress, and lo and behold there was a very cute printed dress with straps. And it was purple!

(source)

No real problems here, except that the more I think about it, the more I feel like it doesn't entirely fit the feel of the wedding. Perhaps it comes across as too casual? Or am I way overthinking this? I do love the print, and think that it does make it more wearable post-wedding.. I guess I'll just have to see how it looks like on all the girls and make a decision that way!

This decision is made all the harder by the fact that three of my girls are currently in Georgia, one is in Guam(!!) and I am in Kentucky. I am planning a trip down to Georgia soon, but it's also a matter of getting all the girls there together (oh, did I mention they're all in different cities too?). So we'll see how it all turns out. Obviously, I have some time to go before I have to make any hard and fast decisions.

What do you think? Which dress is your favorite?