Let's Get Some Shoes

I am a shoe fiend.

P teases me often about my propensity for buying shoes. It's only exacerbated by the fact that I'm small enough to wear shoes from the children's department in Target, and they're cheaper, and so I justify my purchases by whining "But they were cheeeeaaaap."

But since that whole we-need-to-be-able-to-afford-rent thing is kind of sort of I don't know important, I haven't gotten any new shoes in a while.

However, unlike my cousin who got married barefoot, I want shoes for my wedding.

(Let me clarify a bit. Barefoot brides=awesome, but she got married indoors. In a church. In Pennsylvania. In winter. Wasn't she cold?)

So I made out a list of qualities that I wanted in my Dream Shoe.

-blue

-a decent heel

-an ankle strap

-a bow

Doesn't sound like too much, right?

But, oh yeah, I didn't want to spend too much.

Zappos, Piperlime, DSW, Baby Girl Boutique, Modcloth, and Ebay yielded nothing. NOTHING. I found some that I half-heartedly liked, but nothing that I really tremdously enjoyed.

But then I found it, like a beacon of light in a thick fog. The Dyeables' Christina!

Ankle strap. Three-inch (sturdy) heel. Bow. Even better: a retro look and a peep-toe!

I shopped around, since most people were selling my beauties for $80-$100, and found them on Ebay for $68 and free shipping. SOLD.

Only one problem: they're not blue. And I haven't found a place in Nashville that will dye shoes.

I hemmed and hawed about it. They need to be dyed, because my dress is ivory, and while I usually don't care about PERFECTLY MATCHING my shades, it's clear that these shoes are WHITE and the dress is NOT.

So I'm taking a page from one of my favorite heroines.

"Why, she wanted a pair of blue boots for Sallie's party, so she just painted her soiled white ones the loveliest shade of sky blue you ever saw, and they looked exactly like satin," added Jo, with an air of pride in her sister's accomplishments that exasperated Amy till she felt that it would be a relief to throw her cardcase at her.

If Amy March can paint her boots sky blue, surely I can paint my wedding shoes!

My painting is usually left to acrylics on paper, but last summer one of my coordinators on Sunset Boulevard asked me to paint tiger stripes on his neon orange Chuck Taylors. He gave me a bottle of Jaquard Textiles fabric dye, I spent a couple of days painting the stripes freehand, and bah-BAM. They turned out great, he loved them, and so far there's no sign of warping, streaking, or fading.

My Christinas came with a piece of test satin, so I pulled out the leftover bottle of dye and gave it a whirl.

The swatch on the top was the first part I did. See how sketchy it looks? It dried thick and cracked, and warped the edge of the sample. I realized I was painting against the grain. So I tried again.

The swatch on the right was painted with the grain. It didn't warp as much, but it still didn't cover as well as I liked.

The bottle says you can dilute the dye, so I added just a drop or two of water. The result? Perfection. That's the swatch in the middle. It dried smoothly, without streaking, and it didn't cake the surface or warp the fabric.

The swatch on the left was very diluted. That was more of an experiment than anything else. It made it very light, but the brush strokes and the edges are too distinct. It would be great if I was going for a tie-dyed effect...but alas, I am not.

So my plan is to buy a jar of Jacquard dye in a light blue and dilute it. I can't wait to see how my kick-awesome shoes turn out!

Well, how about that?!

With my mini invitation crisis yesterday, I thought I would check up on some other key wedding items that I picked out early in my engagement to see if they were still there. For a while it looked like I was all right; there weren't too many things that I was terribly specific about. But then I made a horrifying discovery...

...the Juliana Coloriffics were discontinued!

I mean, just two days I ago I blogged about my debate with all these different shoe styles that I loved. I narrowed it down ("narrowed" being a relative term) to a handful of shoes that I really liked, but in the end I realized what I was truly looking for in my dream wedding shoe.

#1: a fairly substantial heel (I am under five feet tall, after all!), but not so tall that I would be tottering down the aisle, or worse yet, on the dance floor.

#2: an ankle strap

and

#3: a cute bow

And if it came in blue, I would not say no.

But the Julianas! The Juliana was gone! I searched high and low, but to no avail. The only pair I found was on Ebay, and it was a size 8 1/2...and I typically can wear only up to a seven.

So with a heavy and panicking heart, I turned to the internet, hoping to find my dream shoe. My search continued for several hours, as I searched frantically for some kind of wedding shoes. I don't know why I felt the need to find the PERFECT shoe RIGHT now...but I did. Maybe because I'm afraid the elusive Dream Shoe will be discontinued before I order them!

And I know what you might be thinking. "You had a whole list of shoes! Why not just pick one of them?"

Well, I thought about it. But I realized that while I love love love the idea of a retro-inspired shoe, I just haven't found a good one. They're all super pretty and I love them, but for each one there's something that holds me back from being completely sold.

(It's mostly height or the presence of anchors. Why so many anchors? I want to know.)

After a great deal of searching, I finally turned up a FANTASTIC shoe. It's a 3" heel, it has an ankle strap, and it has a bow! Plus, it's dyeable...so I can make it blue!

I now present the Christina by Dyeables!

As much as I love the Juliana, I adore this shoe just as much, if not more. The heel is a little chunkier than I originally wanted, but it fits all the other requirements I have. Plus it's super cute. I have a big love for the cute stuff.

I'm going to have them dyed light blue and add something to the center of the bow: a blue and white cameo button, maybe. I know JoAnn's has them...

But I just purchased them in a size 6 1/2. They should be here in 2-3 weeks. And now I'm so excited! I never get mail, and this is my first WEDDING MAIL. Let the anticipation begin!

In the meantime, I've started looking for a good place in Nashville to get these babies dyed. And that's when I found it. It being the article about Franklin Bridal Gallery. It closed.

I was flabbergasted. Bridal Gallery was fairly high on my list of places to look for my dress. After all, they were the only store in Tennessee to carry the Disney wedding dresses. And I love me some Disney wedding dresses. Alas, they were way, way, way out of my price range, so I didn't even bother trying them on. (I was deathly afraid of trying on the Snow White ballgown, falling madly in love with it, and then hating the cheaper dress I would inevitably have to settle with).

Now I'm incredibly grateful that I didn't go there. Now brides have paid for expensive dresses that they had their hearts set on, and they can't get them. That's terrible! I'm sad for those girls...yet relieved I'm not one of them.

I don't know what I would do if my dress shop went of business. What would you do? Or did you have to deal with that?

A shoe situation

Now that I have the dress and veil taken care of, it's on to the next crucial part of my wedding-day ensemble: the shoes. I'm not quite five feet tall, so I can wear heels no problem. And if I have a fairly substantial heel, I probably don't need to get my dress hemmed at all (it's a miracle!).

The trouble is, I don't know how precisely to proceed. My dream shoe is blue, with a bit of retro flair. I'd prefer it to have an ankle strap and a bow. But finding that elusive bit of footwear is proving harder than I thought. So, for your consideration, I offer this conundrum (and a handy-dandy poll at the top of the page.)

#1: Coloriffics Juliana ($55)
I can always get it dyed and add a pretty brooch or button to the bow. It meets all my basic requirements...I just don't know if I want to go through the hassle of getting it dyed.

#2: Sexy Blue Anchor Ellie Shoes ($46.95)
I love love love these. The bow, the peep toe, the blue stripe...so precious! But the anchor throws me for a bit of a loop. There's not a single bit of nautical in the wedding at all, and I don't know if that's a little too much. The heels are also 5". FIVE INCHES! I don't know if I'll be able to walk in them...

#3: Navy Mary Jane Pump with Chrome Heel ($44)

This one is only a 4.5" tall heel. But it's got an ankle strap, which makes me feel like it balances out the height. However, I'm not sold on the chrome heel. Not sold at all.

#4: Blue Patent Leather Peep-Toes ($44)
Again, what's with the anchors? I feel like I could take these off, though, and add a pretty button or brooch or something. These are 4.5" tall as well...and I'm not sure if that will work.

#5: White Patent Leather Mary Janes ($42)
They're very basic, but they have a nice retro flair. And again, a 4.5" heel.

#6: Gold Pleated Pumps ($42)
So they're not the blue shoes that I love, but they're pretty. I also feel like the gold would look nice with my ivory gown. And they're only a 4" heel! How about that?

Ugh. So hard to decide!

So that's why I have a poll. I need a second opinion. Or third. Or fourth. Or ninth....