Shoe Dilemma

I tend to be a little overly obsessed with shoes.  I personally think owning 75 pairs of shoes is normal, but I have been told that my shoe collection is excessive.  I don't see why needing a pair of shoes in every color/style is ridiculous. It makes sense to me. I have a hard time figuring out what shoes to wear to work, so when it came to picking out my wedding shoes, I knew it would be difficult.  I KNEW I would be buying a pair.  Wearing a pair of shoes I already owned was completely out of the question.  

I am absolutely obsessed with the whole "bridal shoe" photo.  You know what I am talking about, right? The bride, in her dress, showing her shoes? Nope, still clueless? Ok, THESE!

BEAUTIFUL! I absolutely LOVE these types of photos! I know for sure I want a shoe shot.  Here in lies the conundrum... what type of shoes do I buy? Do I go with white/ivory since that's more classic?  But how I do love the pop of color that dyed shoes give.  If I dye my petticoat, I could get white/ivory shoes that way it's not TOO much.  But what if I get a white petticoat, then should I go with colored shoes? UGH! So many decisions.  CRUCIAL decisions.  If I don't choose a pair of shoes, the wedding will surely not go as planned and i am sure zombies will come in and kill all my guests if I do not make the right decision.

Since I don't want my guests to get their brains eaten, I really need to make a decision regarding shoes.  A decision I thought I already made.  Here are some amazing shoes in white/ivory that I am in love with.  They are what I consider classic bridal shoes.  Mmmm...shoes.

They're the prettiest things I have seen in my entire life. I love them all. I will buy them all!  Oh, no I shan't.  They are WAY too expensive and I can't justify setting aside $2000 in our budget for shoes.  I would have to tell Eric he doesn't get a tux, or a gift, or food, or a cake.  I don't think he would be happy about that.  


Let's see if teal shoes are cheaper.  I really like the look of colored shoes, as I stated before (that must mean I REALLY like it.)  Thankfully for my peacock theme, I can even do peacock feather type shoes.  That's pretty frickin fantastic.  Gorgeous dress then BAM! Feather.  So here are some teal/peacock shoes that I thought were pretty and I could picture with my wedding gown.

I REALLY like the idea of colored shoes.  However, my mother did say that she thinks they're tacky and not traditional enough.  Well hmph.  I REALLY wanted to go with colored shoes.  But apparently if I do, my mom will throw them away and then I'll have to go barefoot to my wedding.


So after TONS of searching (like ten minutes) I came across a pair of shoes I became IMMEDIATELY obsessed with.  More obsessed than I usually get over shoes.  They were everything I wanted. Tall, blinged out, wintery, and whitish.  BAM! Found them cheap at an online store and got them.  BOO YAH! Bestest shoes ever.

LOVE! No seriously...LOOOOOOOOVE! They were amazing. Look at the crystals! They're little snowflakes! That goes perfectly with my winter wedding.  These shoes were meant to be.  When I got them in, I tried them on right away. Just as I expected, they hurt beyond belief! PERFECT! The prettier the heel, the more they hurt right? Check.  I know I would only need to wear them for a little because I intended on switching shoes for the reception. Beauty is pain, so these shoes are gorgeous.  I swooned over them for months while waiting for my dress to come in.  When I finally got the call that my dress was ready, I got so excited to wear the shoes with the gown.  At the salon I put the shoes on and got the dress on, and they were the PERFECT height. I didn't have to get the gown hemmed at all. They were PERFECT! Then...it happened.  My Alanis Morissette moment. My death row pardon two minutes too late.  The shoes did NOT match the dress.  Can you see the shoes when I am walking? Nope, sure can't.  But my bridal shoe shot...yeah that's RUINED if I wear these suckers.  So now...what's a girl to do? Without the perfect shoes remember what will happen? Here's a hint.

So...HELP ME! I have ALWAYS wanted that gorgeous shoe shot. And although my shoes are AMAZING, the color is NOT right with my dress and would ruin the whole picture. :( Do I go with my shoes? Do I get a different pair of ivory heels?  Do I go crazy and get teal shoes? What should I do??  

Miracle on (Insert) Street

Oh...mah...gawd!!!  And no, I am not asking Becky to look at anyone's butt....this is a WAY better OH MAH GAWD!  I...are you ready...bought my rehearsal dinner dress today!!  Say whaaaaaaa? That's right, I did.  Let's back it up a little.  Again, not talking about someone's butt.


I have had my heart set on buying a certain type of dress for my rehearsal dinner.  I knew what color I wanted, and there was no budging.  Did I NEED a new dress? Nope, but I sure wanted one.  I found one I REALLY loved, I thought it was fantastic.

Image via Posh Girl Vintage

I absolutely loved love that dress.  Minor issue was that the dress was over $500, and it also was totally not my size.  That site sells vintage clothes, so the size they have is the only size you can get. I don't have a waist the size of a pencil, so that was NOT going to work for me.  Also, since it is not my official wedding gown, I felt very uncomfortable with spending that kind of money on a dress I can never really wear again. I can't exactly roll up to another wedding in a white dress.  I am not Pippa.

So that GORGEOUS dress was out.  So what did I do? I turned to the most amazing place I knew of on the internet.  Etsy.  Oh ETSY...how I do love thee.  Sure enough, I found a gown that had the same basic style! Tight waist, poofy bottom, sheer top, LOVE IT! And it was an amazing price! $85!! Holy crap!

Image via ETSY seller Elegance 50's

It came in quickly through the mail and I was so excited to try it on.  I ran into the bedroom, and attempted to zip it up.  Crappers...my back is apparently a lot larger than what this seller thought was a size 14.  That's honestly not possible, this dress was more a size 6.  However, I still decided to go model it for my mom and sister, even though I looked a little tacky.

They LOVED the dress, but there was no way the back would zip.  I decided I would bring it to a tailor to see if they could take it out.  Being completely flighty as I am, I never got to the tailor so I emailed the vendor and they told me they could not accept a return on that dress since it was longer than a couple days.  UGH! Sad day for me...that doesn't work well.  So I did what any person would do...stuck it in my bedroom and went on with my life.


Well, I turned to Google...almost as trustworthy as ETSY.  And I did come across quite a few gowns I really liked.  I also made sure to not go above $250 for this gown since it's just for the rehearsal dinner, and I knew that I preferably wanted a cocktail length dress so people don't see it as a "bridal" dress.

Image Via Shopstyle

Image Via Shopstyle

Image Via Shopstyle

Image Via TJ Formal

Image Via Shopstyle

One thing I DID have to try to keep remembering is that the dresses will not look like the way they do on the models...I am not a size 2 and I do not have a personal trainer.  So, I had to be realistic when looking at dresses.  So...this was out.

Image Via Shopstyle

There were so many pretty dresses out there, but I finally made up my mind on the one I wanted.  However, I wasn't ready to spend that money.  At the time I still needed a bridal shower dress and a lot of wedding stuff.  So yet ANOTHER dress was not on my list of priorities.  I did, however, swoon over that dress for a couple months.


Fast forward to today.  At lunch one of my best friends started talking about her dress that she is wanting to buy for her renewal of the vows.  In November, she will have been married ten years so they're throwing a party.  I asked her to send me a link to her dress.  When we got back to our desks, sure enough she sent me the link.  I got so excited for her and I decided I wanted to show her the dress I wanted to get for my rehearsal.  So I went to the website and all of a sudden I saw a mirage.  The dress appeared to be on sale, for more than half off.  Now I know I didn't sleep much last night but I didn't think I was THAT delusional. After reading all the small print, expecting to see something like "with mail in rebate" or "only with use of __ credit card", but upon further investigation, I didn't see any stipulations other than "Until October 1 or while quantities last".  HOLLA!!!! I clicked on the size drop down and they DID still have my size! Omg this is the best thing ever.  Before getting TOO excited, I finished the purchase to make sure there wasn't a catch.  Turns out...NO CATCH! This is honestly happening. I am getting a dress I have been drooling over for two months for less than HALF the original cost.  I truly could no longer think of a reason not to get this dress.  This was too good to be true.  This is like Tom Cruise exciting.

So I bought the dress.  It was an unforeseen turn of events.  While I was at lunch talking about my friend's renewal, I never would have thought that would lead me to FINALLY buying my rehearsal dinner dress.  I have ALWAYS been a firm believer in "everything happens for a reason" and "what's meant to be will always find a way" and this just proved it.  I got my dress, shipping, and tax for less than half the original price of the dress, because of one conversation.  This rocks!