SHOES!!!

I never used to be a shoe junkie. For a long time I was the type of girl who could slip on a pair of Birks and be on her way. And then I met K. K is my best friend (more like sister) and maid of honor. Once I met her it was all downhill. K is what I consider the ultimate shoe junkie...when she moved into her new house with her new hubbie she brought with her over 100 pairs of shoes!!! Needless to say that some of that shoe whoring has rubbed off on me. It also didn't help that for 2 years she lived near the best shoe store in the world (I call it my happy place) Kick on Main. When I would visit her we'd spend hours in there trying on every fabulous shoe in the place.
Now that it's time for me to start buckling down and seriously looking for shoes...I'm stumped. I have an idea about what I want, but I also know what I don't want...I don't want a frumpy old pair of white shoes that are categorized as "bridal shoes." Plus I would like to wear my shoes more than once...these would never see the light of day again.

Wedding shoes, in my opinion, need to be something fabulous. They need to make a statement, and the shouldn't fade into the background. I've seen too many great photos of wedding day shoes to ever settle for some plain white shoes.

Some adorable blue shoes...what a great "something blue"

From Leslie Spurlock Photography

Love love love this picture

From Still Motion

But finally...my absolute favorite (but I am biased...I'm the one in the yellow, K is in the white)

The other problem is that I am just slightly taller than J...which means that unless I want to pull a Katie Holmes and be all slouchy in my wedding pics, I need to go with flats or kitten heels.

Which sadly rules out most of my favorite shoes thus far....but for the sake of all things beautiful...here's a little shoe porn with a few of my favorites


You can see that I am a fan of all things sparkly. But obviously the 4" heel isn't an option...which means that I have my mission; fabulously sparkly flats! It's a tall order (please excuse the bad pun), and thus far, everything I've looked at has falled short (again with the bad puns). But I'm hopeful that my perfect sparkly, flats are out there.


Did height play a big part in your wedding shoe choice? Did you find your self limited in what you could chose or was the sky the limit?

Dressing the ladies

Last week I got together with 3 of my 4 bridesmaids (our 4th, Chelsea, was on a research cruise somewhere warm and tropical, not fair!) for a little brunch and dress shopping. As soon as I get my computer back I will be able to share the photos from that little get together.

I had a great time hanging out with the girls and it was a relief to know that everyone got a long, but after our shopping trip I realized one thing...I have no idea how I want my girls to look for the wedding!! Absolutely no idea. I keep throwing out some generalizations..."a shade of pink or gray" "anything knee length" "they don't have to match" but really I haven't given them much direction as to what I'm looking for. Partly because I don't want to seem bossy and bridezilla-ish..."you WILL wear this dress and you WILL like it!!!'...but also because I really have no idea what I want.

But I realize now that I've got to get it together and come up with some inspiration. Besides, I've spent hours and hours toiling over details that were much smaller, and let's be honest, less noticeable...why shouldn't I give my girls and their dresses the same sort of attention? Plus, we are getting together this week for another round of dress shopping and I really need to be better prepared. So with my inspiration deadline looming I went on the hunt for dresses this morning and here's what I came up with....

Mismatched bridesmaids. I know it's a bit of a trend right now in the wedding world, but I think it's a trend for good reason. The women who are standing up with me are all wonderfully unique individuals, with their own style...by having them each in a different style that is suited to their personality I am giving them the chance to shine. And besides, when you are in something comfortable that you love, you are much more inclined to boogie down, right?

This first pictures has made the blog rounds before...and why wouldn't it? It's fabulous!

The dresses are so flattering on each of the girls

It's nice to see that the mismatched look works with a smaller bridal party too...

I adore this next picture...I actually found it a few months ago and it was the whole reason I was considering gray

But, since we've chosen silvery-gray table linens I think that I'm going to have to nix the gray dress idea...I don't want the girls to look like an extension of table cloth when they are seated. So I went back to my other color choice....pink. Not pepto pink, not energizer bunny pink, not baby pink. Antique pink.

So mismatched dresses plus antique pink plus vintage wedding led me to.....

my bridal party look! This picture captures everything that I want for my bridal party look. I love the mix of solids and prints. I love how all the different shades of pink manage to look cohesive and elegant. I love the vintage feel of the whole thing. Perfection (in my opinion). The funny thing is, I remember seeing this picture a while back and thinking "hmm...that could work," but not pursuing it because at the time pink wasn't part of the mix. But now with pink in the picture...I think we have a winner!

Was picking your bridal party look difficult? Where did you search for inspiration?