Can of Flower Girl Dresses

Wedding planning is full of cans of worms. Of all things, choosing flower girl dresses was one of my cans of worms. I would think this would be a very minor detail of all the wedding planning details and simple choice to make, but it really touches on many other issues than just what cute little dress I'll be sticking my little ones in.

When choosing a flower girl dress we all think of the obvious issue, which is color harmony and keeping with the theme. But even this proved more difficult than I initially imagined. I really had no problem picking out my bridesmaids dresses. Both my girls agreed on the style so that was easy, My bridesmaids, my best friend *B* and my sister *Y* are wearing this Jim Hjelm chiffon gowns:



in this color, eggplant:


I love the flowy romance of the fabric and the style and I like the deep dark color to contrast with my ivory lace dress. Simple. Easy. Done!

As for the flower girl dresses, what most people seem to do is to have either a mini bride or match the little ones to the bridesmaids. I do not want to beat one color into the ground though. I want a nice balance, so I definitely do not want the flower girls in any shade of plum/purple/eggplant and I also don't want them in ivory for the same reason (plus, I really don't like the idea of mini-brides--it creeps me out like little girls in pageants creep me out!).

So, that leaves me with something in the spice/peach, green, or gold families. I don't want it to look like the circus either, so I think the logical choice is gold. Plus, I love the idea of little girls in gold for some reason. Ok. Color done. Nice and easy.

Ugh. But style is not so simple. Again, no mini-bride or even mini-bridesmaids (kids should look like kids!), but I wanted something complimentary to both my dress and my maids. I found this divine dress from Little Flowers: It comes in gold chiffon with a gold ribbon belt. Perfect! Until I saw the price.

This brought up the second issue, which is much more important than my color scheme: interfamily/friend relations and money. My two flower girls are mrp's 4 year old niece, *K*, and *B*'s 7 year old daughter, *P*. My best friend is like me and will very happily plunk down some cash for something divine. She's style obssessed and lives in San Francisco and *P* will have several opportunities to wear the dress again. However, can I ask mrp's sister, a working mother of two who as far as I can tell has no interest in fashion and who lives in Cleveland, OH, which will be freezing cold for the remaining months *K* can fit in the dress, to plunk down $300 on a dress for *K* who will surely only wear once? I could just ask and see what she says, but in the realm of in-laws just asking may be seen as rude. Also, I wouldn't feel comfortable that she would feel comfortable saying no. And do I really care that much about a flower girl dress?

So, I embarked on a mission to find a cheaper alternative. I searched and searched and searched and finally, through the magic of the beehive, naturally, found Pegeen's. Not only are there lots of relatively inexpensive (hey, half the price of the other dress is cheap enough to me!) adoreable dresses, most of them are made from gorgeous silk fabric to boot! On top of that I found a style in that comes in gold and is made of lace and tulle which will play off the lace in my dress and the chiffon in the bridesmaid dresses. Hoorah! A win win!

What were some of your wedding planning cans of worms?