Shoes

Another element of the wedding that most people do not think too much about...but a Bride often thinks A LOT about...is the shoes. As weddings become less cookie-cutter and more personalized, the shoes are just another thing that brides can customize to their every whim. It is no longer expected that a bride will wear white or ivory shoes; in fact, many wedding-style gurus insist that a pop of color underneath a white/ivory dress is just the ticket to liven up a wedding (and looks fabulous in pictures). So, instead of saving the purple and navy colors for only your table settings, why not wear shoes of either color? Or both? Or a pattern that incorporates white, navy, and purple? And then...you can purchase shoe ornamentation. Shoe clips/pins are coming back into style (they were last 'in' in the 40's or so) and you can find hundreds of autions on EBay selling pretty clips and pins that are meant to sit right on the toe of your shoe. You can also pick up sparkly crystals with sticky backing, and place them on the underside of each shoe - in a heart shape, your initials, your significant others' initials, or the date of your wedding. Oh what a wonderful age we live in - it seems that the multi-billion dollar wedding industy certainly knows how to make brides spend $100 on shoes they might have normally only spent $60 (before accessories or dyeing, of course). AND - another trend of late is to purchase 2 pair of shoes - one for the ceremony (gorgeous high-heels that you can only stand to wear for 30 minutes), and another for the reception (comfortable shoes to dance the night away). Make that $150-200 spent. On shoes. Learning from the example set by one of my bride-friends (37 days!), I too now believe that perhaps spending a good bit of money on wedding shoes is not a bad idea altogether - but you might only do it if you are able/willing to wear said shoes again. Sure, buy two pair - but think twice about wearing them just once. Especially in the case of a beach-wedding, you may actually 'need' a pair of flats or flip-flops to take photos in the sand or on the rocks near the ocean. Just be smart about it, and the money you spend on that one day will go a bit further.

I created a very fun inspiration board of all of my favorite shoes - so far. I love the idea of wearing aqua-colored or persimmon-colored shoes - or, perhaps just silver so I can be sure I will wear them again after the wedding. Click to make it larger. {I'm not sentimental enough to let them sit in a box for the rest of my life, only taking them out on my anniversary to pine. Ew.}