The Wedding Shoes {A Christmas Story}

I am of the strange hybrid of girl who loves running around barefoot in a party dress as much as I love dreaming of splurging on the most expensive of beautiful shoes. My vast collection of Old Navy flip flops shares the same closet as stacks of shoe boxes holding dust bag-clad pumps and they coexist quite happily. So, when it came to finding the perfect wedding shoe I was a bit torn between going the cheap and easy $2.50 Old Navy route or really taking this as an opportunity to buy an incredible pair of show stopping heels. In particular, I feel head over heels in love with these Christian Louboutins, as have most other shoe-loving women I know.

christianlouboutin
Christian Louboutin at Net-a-Porter, now $560 from $732

These babies made me seriously contemplate pulling a Carrie Bradshaw and ditching the dress and the fancy party for a white suit, city hall, and the most fabulous pair of shoes I’d ever own. Alas, the romantic inside got the better of me and shoes in the near $800 range were quickly cast aside.

Never fear, JCrew had their own temptations, not the least of which are these pretty pumps.

carmen
Carmen by JCrew, $265

I am loving the current trend of bright pops of color by way of sassy wedding day shoes. And what better way to ensure you can wear them over and over again, right? However, my repeated hemming and hawing about our color palette was making it difficult to commit to a striking shoe color, no matter how much I wanted to steer very clear of traditional and boring ivory wedding shoes. Sure, ivory can be beautiful, but ivory head to toe is not quite my style. I mean, why wear ivory when you can wear these ruby slippers?

red stuart weitzman heels
Stuart Weitzman at Nordstrom, $855

In the end, the shoe question became far more complicated for me than it likely should have been. I was torn between wanting to stay 100% budget conscious throughout this entire process and wanting to blow a nice chunk of green on a pair of shoes that I could love for long after the wedding. While I lust after beautiful shoes rarely do I buy a pair that is not deeply discounted and the names Christian, Manolo, Stuart, Jimmy nor Dior have every made their presence known in my humble abode. I also debated height. M is only a few inches taller than me and I worried anything too tall would make me taller than him in photos, something to which I was especially adverse. Go figure that along with expensive shoes, I also have a love for a nice 4″ heel. Flats? Pumps? Splurge? Save? Over and over and over it went through my head.

Finally, I was about to be measured for my dress and knew I had to make a decision so my hollow to hem measurement would be accurate. As I am known to do on a daily basis, I made my way to JCrew’s website one morning the week after Thanksgiving and realized they were offering one of their fairly frequent extra 30% discounts on sale merchandise. With shoes on the brain I was all over that like any card carrying shoe addict should be and there they were. The perfect shoe for the wedding, the perfect shoe for my dress and the perfect shoe to wear with any little black dress for years to come.

lulu jcrew

These are Lulu* by JCrew and now, they are my wedding shoes.They sleep peacefully in my closet waiting to come out and dance the night away in July and savoring in their sparkling bow-bedecked beauty. They are far more fun and sassy than your basic ivory, but in no way handcuffed me to any one hue. Also, at 3″ they are the perfect compromise between liking to strut my stuff in sky-scraping stilettos and not wanting to tower over my groom. Originally $265 on clearance plus an additional 30% off, they cost my father $120 with tax and shipping. Because, yes, in the end it was my wonderful father who took pity on my shoe-obsessed self, handed me a credit card and then made sure these were wrapped up and waiting for me under the tree on Christmas morning. Amazing wedding shoes as Christmas present? Best present ever, hands down.

*Unfortunately, both the Lulu pumps and flats are now sold out on JCrew’s website.