The Wedding Shoes: Part Two!

When we last left off, I had begun the hunt for My Wedding Shoes. Although one may think it would have been tough, considering all of my restrictions, it really wasn’t. It was one of my Bridal Lightbulb moments, for sure.

can you believe there aren't any pictures of a lightbulb with a veil on it? I Googled for at least 10 solid minutes. Mer. 

One of my closest friends, and also my Day-of-Coordinator (more on that, I promise!), was a Campus representative for TOMS shoes during our time together in college. Before her, all I knew about TOMS was that Britney Spears (one of my all-time favorite human beings, ever) was a celebrity endorser. . .which honestly, despite the wealth of knowledge I had telling me that I fell prey to propaganda techniques, was enough for me. However, as was the case multiple times in college, my dear friend’s dedication and passion lit a flame of a similar sort under me as well.

source | Britney is my homegirl. Sidenote: Twitter has for real been around since 2009?!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with TOMS: TOMS was founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, who simply went to visit Argentina and discovered that children often went without shoes. Being that it is an underdeveloped country, this meant that these children could walk miles for clean water without shoes, spend days in fields without shoes, perform hard labor without shoes; some schools even require shoes as part of a uniform, and without shoes, these children are denied educational opportunities. I don’t want to get too preachy on you, so that’s the gist of it (if you’re interested, please please please, I encourage you to check it out): Blake started TOMS after his experience, with the One for One promise. For every pair of TOMS purchased, a pair of shoes is given to a child in need. The pair of donated shoes is not just your average pair of sneakers, they are hand-crafted to fit the child’s need (perhaps the child who walks for miles every day will have a thicker sole; the child that works in the field among humidity and moisture will have ‘breathable’ fabric. . .I do not pretend to be a cobbler, these are just examples).

The Wedding Shoes: Part One

One of the things I'm most excited about are The Wedding Shoes. This was actually a really easy decision for me. It was something I had tossed around in my head for a long time and after a few encouraging discussions with Bridesmaid Y, I went for it. 

Let me start by clarifying: there was no way in h-e-double hockey sticks that I would be wearing anything close to heels for my wedding. Period. Number one: I'm tall. I'm 5'9". Mr. Palm Tree, on the other hand, is like 5'11" ("and three quarters!" he would add). Number two: I am clumsy. As in, I can barely walk barefoot without tripping, falling, stumbling, etc. Number three: I have a bunch of ankle/foot/back issues, most of which stem from a combination of my completely flat feet and my weak ankles that required me to wear high tops until I was 10 (no joke, hive, no joke). Number four: They. Are. Not. Comfortable. Period. All of the above combined meant that I was very clearly going to be rockin' flats from the get-go. 

I wasn't upset about this fact. I've been joking about it for years. "Well, I'll be in ballet slippers anyway," was my standard comment. I would also follow it up with, "No one's going to see my shoes anyway, who cares?" 

The Lulls of a Long Engagement

I have been harping about the advantages of early planning - so much so that I'm sure even the mention of the word 'planning' causes an eye or two to automatically roll.

Well, I'm here to tell you, readers (all 6 or so of you. . .ahem) that there is in fact a con to every pro, what goes up must come down, a gray cloud for every silver lining. . .

I know, that sounds ridiculously negative and very 'say whaaaaat?!' inspiring. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, really. . . but the truth is: planning a wedding in advance can cause some pretty steep downfalls.

In my experience (I know this won't be the case for everyone, it all depends on the situation and the individuals), it was kind of hard having such a 'long' engagement. Almost exactly one and a half years. It was so exciting to be able to get things DONE early. Let's make decisions! Let's book venues and vendors!

After those first few big steps, though, it really starts to feel like not much cannot be done for a very, very, what I classify in my mind as: verrrrrrrrrrry-verrrrrrrrrrry-freaking-far-awayyyyyyyy long time. I mean, we had to wait for our engagement pictures, wait to buy gifts for the wedding party, wait to get excited about the bridal shower - I started to feel like everything required a waiting period. For someone who is already incredibly impatient, this was infuriating.