My Cheap Wedding Shoes

by Susan
(Watford)

After wrestling with my budget for what seemed like weeks I decided that I wanted to spend a little more on my dress. This meant I had to save money elsewhere to make the budget balance. After a few days re-shuffling and a worn out pencil from doing and redoing my sums I decided that I could save a few pounds on my shoes.

I went down the shoe route as my dress is long and completely covers my shoes. So I figured that very few people would be able to see them on the day (unless I get carried away on the dance floor and start doing the “Can-Can”).

I was conscious that I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy my shoes from a specialist wedding supplier. So I did a little research (as you suggest) online and I found lots of very good value wedding shoes available from online suppliers.

I found a few stores that had Ivory shoes that looked great so I took your advice and checked out their sizing details carefully and their refund policy. I did have a few questions so I emailed them to the 3 stores I had shortlisted and within 2 days two of them had responded with answers to my concerns. The third store didn’t respond so I just crossed them off my list.

I must admit I was a little hesitant about ordering my wedding shoes online without having tried them on, but I took the plunge and within 5 days they arrived and fitted perfectly. However I then decided that as my dress had some ornate detailing around the hem it would be nice to make my shoes match. During my original searching I did look to see if I could get the shoes to match but I didn’t have any luck so I decided to get plain shoes and get a little creative.

Again, I turned to the internet and ordered several packs of jewellery style fake pearls and sequence etc. As I didn't know exactly what I was going to need I ordered several styles. I had considered adding the decorations with one of the heat glue guns you often see advertised in hardware shops etc. but I found that the price for the glue gun meant it would not be cost effective.

In the end I only used a small amount of tiny fake pearls which I stitched onto the shoes to form little flowers to match my veil and the detail on my dress. However, me being me didn't realise that the pearls were not an exact match to the decorations on my veil and dress. So I added a few pearls to my veil and to my dress and hey presto, everything matched!

It was a lot more straight forward than I thought it was going to be, (once I got over my initial fear), and they look fabulous. So much so I am currently investigating DIY jewellery kits.