Wedding Shoes and the Vintage Girl: Do I Dare?

Good morning!

Sorry for the publishing hiccough yesterday...it looks like there have been some tweaks to the security policy on the network at work, and would you believe it-- all of blogger was verboten! Forbidden as heck! Kept bouncing me back like I was trying to see the Burt Reynolds Cosmopolitan centerfold! At any rate, things seem to be back to normal now, accept my apologies. I had planned to talk about wedding shoes yesterday, and here I am with the same thing on the brain today. Hope you can bear with me for some fireside wedding chatting, because it's on my mind, son!

My dress is full length and kind-of-hoopskirted, but this does not mean I am not OB.sessed at the moment with what kind of footwear should follow under this full-width skirt. 

Things I need my wedding shoes to do:

1. Be flats (I am a hairsbreadth under six feet tall, there is no earthly reason I should be in heels on this, of all days, and we need danceability to be a factor!).
2. Be available in a size 10.5 or 11 (you have no IDEA how many shoes this knocks out of the running).
3. Be between $20-$100ish (ain't nobody got time for a $300 pair of even the most perfect kicks).

Let's talk about some of the contenders.

The Safest Choice (Metallics):

Steve Madden (top) and Michael Kors (bottom)

While my dress is super traditional and an ivory color, I don't think I want plain ivory or white shoes to go with it. Too plain, as you might have noticed from my ENTIRE taste in anything, is not gonna work for me! They may be the safest of all the shoes I've thought about, but they also would highlight the vintage rhinestone jewelry I plan on bedecking myself in. I've been digging around in my jewelry box, and there is an embarrassment of fifties' and sixties' paste diamond costume jewelry. It's like old cameras-- if I see one out, and it's less than $10, I usually buy it, which means I have just fistsfuls in my dresser. Now, if I can only figure out how to artfully combine the pieces so I don't look like Trashcan Annie wearing her finest in ye olde junkheap. I don't plan on rouging my face QUITE as much as the seventies'-does-thirties' model in the above advertisement for Yardley's cosmetics, but I do want to have a similar classic, painted on mouth, almost porcelain doll type look to the makeup, and I think put together with these shoes and glittering accessories, this could be a really cute combination.

The Pump Up the Volume Selections (Revlon Red/New Wave):

Jessica Simpson (top) and Matisse (bottom)

I'll tell you, it has been no hardship whatsoever looking at shoes like it was a paying job-- the only occasional trouble I run into is sizing that ends at a 10. Women of the world with normal sized feet and heights under 5'7'', I know you don't know where I'm coming from-- it is hard out here for the larger-than-normal sized gal! And the worst of it is some women who guard a secret, gloating feeling over the daintiness of their feet (in spite of it being entirely related to genetics, like the size of one's head). Watch this video of Kathie Lee "innocently" pointing out that her size 7.5 shoes are just as cute as co-host Hoda Kotb (purportedly, they look bigger to me) 9.5 sized shoe. Kathie Lee, you are on my bad list! Hoda, you just stepped up a couple rungs with your big-footed self. But anyway, both of these shoes are miraculously in a size 11, and too cool for school. I like how the red bow'd ones have a little bit of princess to them, highlighting my red, red lipstick on the wedding day; and polka dots more of an attidutinal "Yes, I wore polka dot flats to my wedding" gist to them. Both are great, and I would wear either with any non-wedding, civilian outfit if given the chance.

The Heartbreak Kid:

Judge (top) and Justice (bottom)

These truly amazing pair of shoes came up as I was browsing Top Shop's online catalog. Yes, they are $130 apiece, which is approximately six and half times more than I usually spend on shoes, but a) they have them in a size 10.5 and b) HAVE YOU SEEN THEM. SERIOUSLY. They are also about 1,000,000 times better than any I've ever seen in real life. Now, the obvious comparison could be drawn to Pee Wee Herman's shoe of choice in the famous Tequila dance off but?! AND?! Those are the kind of shoes that change lives. Add to the fact that is my secret wish to have a Soul Train dance line at the reception, and there you have it, a match made in heaven.

My overriding concern in all of this? What the shoes will look like with the dress! I feel like online shopping is as non-fail-safe as in person, because neither in the physical store nor in the world of the internet will I have my wedding dress with me...we'll just have to see how they look when they get here! I'm thinking seriously about ordering two of these, seeing which one is more suitable, and saving the others for a rainy day (or a perfect weather day...these kicks are too good to go out in the rain).

So! What do you think? Which shoe do you think would look the best mostly-concealed-under-a-large-skirt but OCCASIONALLY visible in such a way as to make a statement? Which would you wear even in a non wedding setting and with what? Let's talk! I need some advice like whoa.

Hope you're having a good week so far! I will see you kids back here tomorrow for Photo Friday (barring any unforeseen internet issues). Til then.