bridesmaids aka dressing my best friends

this is the picture that started it all, folks. i have no idea the photographer who took it or where it was or anything - i stumbled upon it in one of those embarrassing facebook stalking episodes many moons ago. at any rate, it shall be recreated at my wedding, no question. pretty much the one mandatory photograph i will hand to my fabulous photographer, josh malahy. love him. this photo also spawned my sash-obsession, because i think it pretty much necessitates sashes. they add to the effect.
so, glad that's out of the way. maybe start working on that shoulder tone, ladies, because if i have my way, this will be framed and displayed in the stone household until the end of time.

long before captain fantastic popped the question, but long after i knew he was The One, i had decided on my wedding color scheme. pink & green with accents of white. perfectly preppy. the more i stalked other people's weddings online, the more firmly i decided that i am allergic to both pastels and satin. bright colors and swirly patterns, though, i cannot live without. the inspiration for my wedding was thence dubbed vera bradley's pink pinwheel pattern. love. not exactly paisley, but close.
one of my most triumphant moments was when i found out that vera bradley makes TIES, and i almost had a heart attack from awesome at the prospect of the groomsmen smartly arrayed in these babies.

captain fantastic, however, in one of his unfantastic moments, crushed my dreams when he refused. le sigh.

so my original thinking for bridesmaid dresses was to do something like one of these dresses in a bright raspberry/fuschia silk dupioni with a bright apple/kelly green sash (tied in a big bow in the back, obvi) and white bouquets:
from aria bridesmaids
from charsa designs

then came my love affair with all things trimmed in ruffles and pleats. you can do a ruffly neckline and a sash, right? i think yes. my current obsession is this little number, in the same color scheme as above:
from coren moore (you can see the whole dress here)

HOW CUTE IS THAT?! come to think of it, the white sash is cute too, maybe with predominantly green flowers? hmmmm....

as far as bridesmaid accessories, i'm not going to force everyone to have the same hairdo or wear the same necklace or buy the same shoes , so don't worry (though this is extremely adorable)
i've also grown to kinda like the idea of bridesmaids in different dresses. the problems with that are a) usually you get a discount for ordering multiple dresses at a time, and i don't want to bankrupt my maids b) see above mandatory portrait with matching sashes c) i am somewhat obsessive compulsive, and it may drive me insane to have two girls in one dress and 8 in another. i'd probably try to make a certain number of people get each dress and then arrange everyone alternating for pictures...and no one wants that.

i actually like a lot of the dresses on the coren moore site. perhaps we could work out a style ratio agreement between the lilly, the julie, and the brooke? what do we think, ladies?