There are a few problems with having a tiny groom.
One is that I had to be very conscious when choosing a dress not to buy one that was big, poufy, and “overpowering” that would make me look huge next to him.
The second one is the difficulty I faced when buying a pair of shoes.
I used to wear heels all the time. In fact, five years ago I had a pair of shoes that were my “comfy shoes.” Shoes I would put on when others had been hurting and I would sigh in relief—and they were three-inch heels. I wore them daily and walked happily in them.
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Personal photo
I recently wore those shoes again…they left me in agony.
I haven’t worn heels properly in almost five years, and in that time my feet have adjusted somewhat. It also doesn’t help that in this city I walk everywhere (an absolute minimum of three miles a day), and it just isn’t possible to wear anything that isn’t comfortable, which has led me to become a certain type of person…
Mr. Lemur is definitely taller than I am. In this shot from our engagement pictures, you can see he easily has four or five inches on me—taller but not towering over me.
Photo by Niki Marie Photography
If I wear a normal sized heel, I’m just shorter than Mr. Lemur by an inch or two. I’m totally comfortable with this, and wear heels often. Would I wear a pair of shoes like this with a six-and-a-half-inch heel?
We’ve been fielding some juicy shoe questions from one of our favorite news outlets in the past few days, and rather than report on general sentiments on our shoe obsessions, we wanted to bring the questions STRAIGHT to the hive! While you’re at it, check out some of our favorite wedding day shoe p0rn, too. Yerrr welcome. 
My custom designed shoes arrived in Chicago early last week and frankly, the welcome party is still raging on…I kid of course, but they are gorgeous. They might not be the wedding shoe for everyone, but to me they are beautiful and perfect for an adult princess or a Cinderella wannabe (as opposed to a small child). And most importantly, they fit. (phew.)
I used the Etsy shop Design Your Pedestal and I can’t speak more highly of its owner, Kate. Not only did she work with me to help create my dream shoes, but she also extended her Black Friday discount so I didn’t have to rush any decisions. And it was HER idea to incorporate our family tartan.
My initial thought was to have her make square brooches out of our family tartan to used as shoe clips, but she wasn’t happy with how they turned out, so sent me another idea where the fabric was made into a ruffle and highlighted with a sparkly brooch. Well, I loved it.
And with that I’ll leave you with some photos. The pictures don’t do really do the shoes justice, but I can’t bear to keep them a secret! And it only makes sense to share them since you’ve all been on this shoe journey with me from the beginning! Enjoy…
Since blue has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember, it was important to me that the color be incorporated within the wedding. With the color teal chosen as a main color for our peacock-themed wedding, integrated in everything from the save the dates to the invites to the bridesmaids’ dresses, I wanted to utilize teal/blue in another, not necessarily traditional way.
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Image via Zazzle.com
Everyone knows the old saying “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” so for my something blue, I decided that I wanted it to be my shoes! So of course the next logical step was to create a board just for shoes on Pinterest for inspiration. Can you guess which ones I ultimately decided on?
I have searched, searched, and searched everywhere for the perfect pair of shoes to go with my amazing dress. I was getting incredibly frustrated because it seemed like the perfect pair of shoes that I had been envisioning in my dreams was not actually a shoe that existed in the real world.
I have bought 10? 20? different pairs of shoes, looking for that illusive perfect shoe, a pretty blue shoe. And I’ve never really found any that I’ve really loved—well, that is, until now, maybe. I think I might have found a shoe that is so close to being perfect, yet so far.
The shoe is very reminiscent of another favorite shoe of mine, Badgley Mischka’s Randee, a gorgeous shoe that never came in blue, unfortunately.
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Image via The Knotty Bride / Photo by Stephanie Williams
What am I talking about? Badgley Mischka’s Cissy.
Remember when I posted about my experience in buying ruby slippers to wear for the wedding to pay homage to my childhood obsession with The Wizard of Oz? In case you need a refresher, here’s the short version: I bought some ruby slippers made from red sequins from a seller on Etsy, and they weren’t what I was expecting in terms of quality, particularly for the price. So, I sent them back.
OK! So, after sending the original shoes back, I started brainstorming on ways I could make them myself. My first inclination was to just glitter a pair of shoes with a mixture of fine red glitter and Mod Podge, but after thinking it over, I decided I wanted something with a stronger effect. After all, The Wizard of Oz and my obsession over wanting to be Dorothy as a kid is a HUGE part of who I am today (I collect Oz memorabilia, have all the books, etc.), so I wanted these shoes to be show stoppers. I traveled over to the DIY section of Weddingbee for inspiration, and there I found multiple ladies who had strassed their shoes using different sizes of rhinestones and industrial adhesive called E-6000:
DIY Peacock Bling Shoes from Weddingbee user miss_n_hope
Shopping online has somehow become both a godsend and the bane of my existence now that I am planning a wedding. Occasionally, I find something really great, like some apothecary jars, and I do a little happy dance at finding exactly what I needed. But it seems like more often than not, I order something, it shows up, and it doesn’t work. Then I have to go to the trouble of returning it, which is a big hassle. Or maybe I thought it was going to be perfect so I didn’t care that I couldn’t return it. And then it doesn’t look at all like the picture, so I’m stuck with it.
So let this be a warning to all of you who are like me. When wedding planning, you will probably have a list about a mile long of random stuff you need. Be cautious with what you buy online. Because you may not end up saving time or money. Allow me to share with you some of my failed shopping attempts.
I recently mentioned my dreams of beautiful shoes. Because I can’t afford my beloved Kate Spade shoes, I’ve been searching (and searching and searching) for other shoes I love. (Update: I got some AWESOME suggestions from fellow bees!! I’m waiting for them to arrive…we’ll see how it goes.) Here are just some of the shoes that I have bought (and returned) from DSW.
Image from DSW
I frickin’ love shoes. My closet is completely filled to the brim with beautiful shoes. The thing that pushes it over the edge is that I tend to be a bargain shopper. So if I find a super-cute pair of flats for $12 and they come in three different colors, I end up saying, “They’re so cheap! I can buy all three!” And as a result…my closet is completely full.
Naturally, wedding shoes have been on my mind since the very beginning of my engagement. My dream pair?
Kate Spade’s “Charm” / Photos by Ryan Phillips
Why am I such a shoe shopping failure?
(That’s all I got for an intro. Witty, I know.)
Here are some shoes I’ll never buy, but liked enough to save and share with you lovely people.
Satin stiletto heel with crystal/ image via Light in the Box
Hive, let’s talk about wedding shoes! My shoe collection is definitely not of Carrie Bradshaw proportions, but nonetheless, I do love me some shoes. I wear heels most days to work, and I like to play dress-up when Mr. Wallaby and I go out and wear some nice heels that don’t get much mileage in my conservative workplace. So wearing heels to the wedding—at least during the ceremony—is a given.
When it comes to shoes, I’m not too picky about the designer. I will happily wear a cute pair of $20 wedges from Target. But when I started looking at wedding blogs, I became crazy about one pretty little pair of shoes: Badgley Mischka’s Randall heels.
Look at those pretties! / Photos by Ever Whim Photographs / Image via Ruffled Blog
However, those heels cost way more than I have ever spent on shoes, and I felt uncomfortable taking up so much of the budget to buy a fancy pair of shoes. So I started stalking eBay, preownedweddingdresses.com, and Recycled Bride until a pair of Randalls became available in my size. They were silver, which matches the beading on my dress, and they had only been worn once—by another bride, no less. The best part was the price: less than half the cost of buying the same shoes new. So I bit the bullet and ordered the shoes, and a week later these arrived on my doorstep:
When I left the last post, I had created a pair of shiny shoes.
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As a reminder, shiiiiny!
But I thought something was missing. I wanted something that I could play around with, while being easy and cheap to make. Enter shoe clips. Whoever came up with this idea is a total genius. Now you can change up your shoes very easily.
I have to admit that I’m definitely going to be a two-shoe bride. Yes, the girl who can’t find one pair of shoes she likes wants to have two pairs of shoes for the big day.
I’d like a pair of blue heels to wear for the ceremony and for the pictures. But, we’re going to be at our reception for hours, and I’m just not sure I can handle wearing heels for that long. I have been known to kick off my shoes and just go around barefoot in some situations. Because we’re going to be inside for 90% of the day, I think it would just make more sense to have a pair of flats to change into.
I will also admit, I’d like another pair, mainly because I fell in love with a pair of shoes.
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Image via Womenstylelife.com / Bamboo Crush-42 Sequined Flat
OK, I don’t think it was this exact shoe, but it’s pretty darn close. The rose gold sequins are absolutely to die for. I love the softness of it all and the sparkliness of it; it just completely caught my eye one day while shopping for the elusive blue heels.
So I went shoe shopping, and frankly, it’s about time! To be honest, I feel a wee bit behind on my overall bridal look.
I still need to purchase shoes, jewelry, figure out all my “something’s,” and decide on a veil. But it’s not like I don’t want to go shopping (because I do, I definitely do), it’s just that I’m afraid to commit to anything. I’ve never been someone obsessed with the accessorizing of an outfit, and suddenly I need to choose items that will be showcased in my photos for years to come. This is the big leagues baby and I’m scared!
Booking vendors and even choosing and ordering Evie all went pretty smoothly because I knew I had a timeline and I was able to make quick and smart decisions without second guessing myself. For some reason I’m convinced that there are just too many options for shoes and jewelry; thus I’m overwhelmed at the thought of making a selection!
Like I said last week, I did end up checking out the Glass Slipper Collection at DSW, but I’m sorry to report I just wasn’t feeling them. Sadly, there were no butterflies or giddiness. They have a shoe that is Cinderella-inspired and it is beautiful, but it’s not quite special enough. The display was nice though, and I didn’t have to look far when I entered the store!
Please excuse the crappy photos and the fact that I’m wearing the little nylon footsie things.
So…I made it until June (remember, we got engaged in November) before I truly freaked out about anything, but when I did, I definitely freaked out.
See, here’s what went down. I found these FABULOUS shoes. Really, they were stunning. I wouldn’t take my word for it either, so here you go—these are the shoes that I just had to have:
Image via Polyvore / Aldo Lafera in suede / No longer on their website 
So anyway—I thought, OK, the girls are going to be wearing all different dresses, but wouldn’t matching shoes look great? My concern was that if I left the shoe situation wide open, I would end up with TOO much variety. I mean, I want the girls to feel like themselves and feel like they look stunning (which they all already are, of course), but I didn’t want someone to decide glitter pumps would be a good idea. Instead, I took it upon myself to ask that everybody head to Aldo and purchase the shoe. (And yes, if you’re wondering, I did purchase those lovely shoes myself as well.)
