After letting things percolate for a few days, I had decided to weave up some more samples for the wedding-coat fabric. Bonnie Inouye, however, rescued me from rethreading by suggesting that I simply print out the different motif spacings and try them. And, after printing out nearly 30 combinations of spacings, I decided that my favorite was actually one of the fabric samples!
Here are the three finalists (click to see the larger versions):
Of these, the first one is my favorite. The spacing is actually slightly closer vertically than horizontally, creating a subtle vertical stripe which is flattering to the figure. In the second one, the stripes are slightly too wide (I think) to go with the size of the figure; if I were bigger, it would work better. And in the third, the vertical stripe is too pronounced, making it strong enough to clash with the double-happiness characters at center front. The double-happiness characters are really the central focus of the coat, so they should dominate.