Weddingbee Blog

After accepting Mr Pretzel’s creative invitation to be in our wedding, our 4 groomsmen and 2 ushers started to get curious what they would be wearing. Mr Pretzel shared with them the part of their wardrobe he was most excited about.

Custom dyed Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars.

Source

Chucks with a tux they wondered…

“No tux” said Mr Pretzel. (More on what “no tux” looks like up next)

The guys were excited. Papa Pretzel will be rockin’ Chucks and is pretty excited about the idea. Recently Mr Pretzel’s dad jumped on the “Chuck wagon” too—although his will be black instead of wedding colors.

Back to our Groomsmen/Ushers. They happily gave us their shoe sizes. I looked into ordering custom ones through Converse like Miss Scissors but wasn’t certain if the colors would be close enough to our wedding colors.

Converse.com

When my photographer told me he shot a wedding (the one pictured above) where the groomsmen had white Chuck Taylors custom dyed I decided to go that route to ensure a good match with our wedding colors. Our photographer sent me the phone number of the shoe place where they had the Chucks dyed and I kept my eyes open for deals on white Chucks.

Converse.com came through for me, sending me a coupon for their outlet stores. We have an outlet store just up I-5 from us so I made a fast trip up there to cash in. I think the salesperson must have thought I was crazy, piling up 8 pairs of white Chuck Taylors ranging from size 9 to 13. The outlet prices are already discounted and my coupon was for 30%. We scored all these shoes for just 27.99 each (normal retail $45). Woo hoo!

This weekend we piled all 8 pair of Chucks into the car and brought them to our local shoe repair place where we hit a snag. Apparently canvas fabric doesn’t take traditional shoe dye well. *cue foreboding music*

But the photo at the top of the post? How did they do it? Our helpful cobbler wasn’t sure. I tried calling he shoe repair place that the groom in the photo used and the man on the other end pretended like he hadn’t dyed those shoes. “But I talked with a bride who said you did it” I told him.

“I’ll have to see the shoes in person” he told me.

Uhhh ohhh… What.to.do? Obviously I’ll take the shoes to the guy who supposedly did the ones at the top of the post, but I am nervous. Our local cobbler is researching using acrylic paint and airbrushing to achieve the look we want but who knows what that will look like.

Sigh.

Worst case scenario? I return the white shoes and we order them from Converse.com with fingers crossed that he colors aren’t too off. I guess that isn’t too bad of an option, but it really took the wind out of our sails on this project.

On a completely unrelated note, Mr Pretzel and I returned to the Converse outlet this weekend where I scored these “Ruby red” All Stars for $19. *Swoon*

What unexpected bumps have you experienced with groomsmen’s attire? Has anyone had Chuck Taylors dyed or know how to dye canvas shoes?