I feel your pain! I'm in a very similar situation. Every time I find a bike that has everything I want it is either too heavy or too expensive. The Soma Buena Vista looks great and is a good price, but it's a mixte not a step-through. I've thought long and hard about that bike and might end up going that way. Mixtes work well for riding in skirts and dresses once you are on the bike (the dress drapes nicely). The problem, as you've pointed out, is getting on the darn thing! My current bike has a sloping top tube that meets the seat tube about 25" off the ground. That's about the same as the Buena Vista. I have to tilt it pretty far before I'm able to step over the top tube. On an unrelated note: I'm also not crazy about the colors. Soma used to make a nice blue frame for that bike, but now it's either gold or white. This isn't my top concern, but I do wish I liked the paint better.

Here's the bike I'm looking at now: http://www.achielle.be/NL/louise.php. I'd love to have it in red. I have no idea if it will end up being affordable. Waiting to hear back from the bike shop now.

Edit: there's an update about the Achielle bike in post #11 over on this thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ght-be-in-love