Choosing Your Wedding Shoes

Shoes from Alan Pinkus' wedding range

Bridal shoes should be a synch to cross off your to do list - right?  Wrong!  I've been hearing all sorts of horrible stories about how hard it has been for brides to find a pair of wedding shoes.  Why?  Because white and elegant strappy shoes are out of fashion right now - chunky straps are in.  And whilst they may look hot on a nightclub dance floor, they aren't the right look for a wedding dress.  I've put this post together for you to help make finding your splendid shoes just a little easier.

Traditional Wedding Shoes

Traditional wedding shoes are very difficult to find right now.  But nothing completes your look quite like a pair of traditional wedding shoes.  They are hard to find - but the effort is well worth it.  I recommend tracking down the shoe brands that carry a sizeable wedding range.  Alan Pinkus (see photo) is one such designer and his shoes are available in most capital city Myer stores in Australia as well as online.  The range includes a variety of colours and heel heights. 

You can also get your wedding shoes custom made for around the $300 mark and up.  A pair of proper wedding shoes can easily cost you from $180-$250 and up.  So it isn't ridiculously expensive. You get to pick the heel height, style, colour, diamantes etc.  But you don't get to try the shoe on before it gets made. 

Comfort vs Style

You will be on your feet most of the day - photography shoots, talking to guest, and dancing.  The wrong pair of shoes will leave you in pain and make all of this very difficult.  If you aren't used to 6-inch heels - then your wedding day is not the day to start wearing them.  Remember that you will be a little bit out of your comfort zone already with your wedding dress - hey it isn't every day that we wear a dress with a train is it!  So don't add to your discomfort with shoes that make you feel like you are about to trip over.

Are the shoes you are looking at suitable for dancing in?  If not you can consider buying a second pair to change into like many brides do - but make the right decision now and you can save yourself that added cost. 

TIP: Bring band-aids!  Just in case those shoes do rub a little - you can pop on a band-aid and sail through the rest of the day and night pain-free 

Coloured Shoes

This choice is very popular with brides right now.  They are choosing bright colours that will pop with a white dress like royal purple, electric blue, or bright red.  Electric blue is by far the favourite choice as it sorts out the "something blue"!  You can also feature your shoes in your photography shoot - it makes a cute photo to have the bride lifting up her dress enough to allow her bright shoes to show!

But be careful - we've seen brides who have gotten it dreadfully wrong - black thick straps are more suited to work than under a wedding dress! 

Boot-Scooting

If you are having a country wedding then a cute pair of boots may be the way to go.  And they are quite practical too if you have to traipse through a farm yard!  But if you are having a city wedding, your boots are best left at home!

Ordering Online

If you can order shoes from anywhere in the world - but remember that comfort is very important on your wedding day.  You have to try a pair of shoes on to know if they are suitable for you.  Especially as a lot of wedding shoes are made out of materials that don't stretch.

Using Social Media to Organize Your Wedding with Pinterest

Have you discovered Pinterest yet?  If not then we suggest you hop on over to http://pinterest.com/ and check it out as it will revolutionize the way you are researching ideas for your wedding.  It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out, or only have a few tasks left – Pinterest will be able to help.  And it is all free!  And free is a word we brides-to-be love to hear as we watch the costs for our wedding tally up!

So what is this Pinterest and why should you care?  Some brides will create a vision board – especially those who have a creative background and do something like this on a regular basis for their jobs.  For those of you not familiar with a vision board – it is a collection of mostly images, but also fabric, colours, words, ribbon, and anything else that you can stick onto a board.  They can be very specific – with pictures of the exact dress you want, the exact ring you want, the exact bouquet you want.  They can also be not so specific – a collection of pictures that have a feel that you’d like to recreate – or even just a collection of pictures you really like and want to keep to look at in the future as you refine your vision for your wedding.

Without knowing it, you are probably already creating a vision board.  The collection of images you are ripping out of or post-it noting in wedding magazines would make up a vision board if you glued them to a board.  Vision boards can be used as your own personal tool to keep your ideas together, or as a very powerful communication tool.  If you are trying to communicate a vision to your wedding suppliers – nothing is as powerful as an image for describing what you are after!  And they can be invaluable if you are using an overseas or interstate wedding planner.

But much of the inspiration that brides get these days is not something they can glue down on a board – the Internet is a very popular tool for brides-to-be – and this is where Pinterest comes in.  When you set up an account with Pinterest, you can create boards and give them names.  And then you are ready to start pinning photos to your boards!

A good starting point is to search Pinterest.  There are thousands of brides out there who have already created boards that you can search (this is where social media comes in).  If you really like someone’s content you can follow them so you are notified of their new posts – but this isn’t necessary.  You can make great use of Pinterest for your wedding and never interact with anyone.  So if you have a colour theme in mind for your wedding – chances are you aren’t the first and someone else on Pinterest has already done the hard work for you. Just search for something like “purple wedding” and up come lots of gorgeous wedding photos and ideas featuring purple.  If any catch your eye, then you can pin it to your board.  How great is that!  All the hard yards are done for you!

Not everything is on Pinterest – yet!  But that isn’t a problem.  You can pin content from other sources as well.  The easiest way to do this is to install the Pinterest toolbar button.   It is super easy to install with a simple drag and drop.  Read more details at http://about.pinterest.com/goodies/ under “The Pin It Button”.  When you are done, whenever you see a website with a picture you just adore, press the “Pin It” button in your toolbar and up will pop a box for you to select the picture you want to pin.

Best of all it is seriously fun!  The best thing to do is give it a try – it is very easy to pick up.  And just a bit of a warning - you could become addicted very quickly!

Have fun brides-to-be!