Design your own (bridal) shoes: Shoes of Prey

The only downside to buying my wedding dress as a sample is that it is already hemmed unusually short (for a wedding dress). Being a rather tall kinda lady, I can only have heels of 1.5" (about 4cm) max. It's actually very difficult to find nice evening shoes that are flat, or have a very low heel. So it was with great joy that I welcomed the news that Shoes of Prey have added ballet flats and 1.5" heels to their range!

Screengrabs of some shoes I designed on the Shoes of Prey site. I really love the blue, teal and silver combo.

Shoes of Prey are an Australian company (with worldwide shipping) who let you design your own shoe - toe shape, heel height and shape, decorations, colour and fabric (snakeskin, fishskin, patent, suede, hair and regular leather). If the size you order isn't correct, you can send them back and they'll replace them - for free! Pretty amazing, huh?

A nod to the bridal white, with a good splash of red drama

The company seems to be constantly expanding its range and design choices. One thing I'd like to see in the future is the addition of satin fabric to the range. While I adore leather, there aren't any vegan material choices currently.

Chic black and silver flats

Aside from gals like me that want a glam wedding shoe with a very low heel, I think Shoes of Prey would also be really fab if:
- you have terribly small or terribly large feet. They offer shoe sizes 4 to 12 as standard.
- you want all your bridesmaids in the same colour shoe, but they want different styles. Or, you could put them all in the same style, with different colours. That would look awesome with plain black dresses, I think.

What shoes are you planning to wear? What would your dream shoes look like?

Bridesmaid dresses

Both images from the Colette Patterns website

Sure, you could go for a godawful polyester number from a big ol' bridal store... or you could get the dresses made. Colette Patterns is a one-woman business working to create vintage-inspired dress patterns that you'd actually want to wear. As well as looking good, if you took this route you'd be supporting an independent craftsperson when buying the pattern, then (likely) another small businesswoman who makes your dresses; instead of a faceless corporation exploiting cheap labour. I think the dress above would be beautiful in raw silk. Or the dress below would be lovely for a casual outdoor wedding in lightweight cotton. Either way, unqiue, whimsical and sure as heck something I'd be likely to wear again.

Celestial Tenille

Both images from Celestial Tenille's facebook page

So. I rang our ceremony venue last week, to ask what I should do to get around to booking them. And, to my surprise, was told that certain dates for October 2010 were already booked! My! This put the fear of god in me, and I've promptly been rushing about sorting out Wedding Things. Now bear in mind we're going overseas for a holiday in a fortnight, we have a new little puppy needing vaccines and love and chew toys, and it looks like we might finally be settling on the property we've been trying to buy for a year, BCB just got back from a fortnight overseas for work... and you start to imagine how cuh-razy life is seeming.

But. Anyway. The fear of god thing. My GP (!) asked if I'd started dress shopping yet, and I said 'Nah, figure I'll do it middle of next year,' only to be told that many dressmakers require a six month turnaround! Argh! So I rushed into the nearest bridal salon, one that I walk past every day for work, Celestial Tenille.


Very, very impressed. Their sales assistant was lovely and friendly, and showed me swatches, and dresses going to other girls, and samples, and sketches. She explained that they don't need six months lead time because everything is made in Australia (nice for anyone with garment labour concerns). She explained the different kinds of fabrics, and how they prefer plainer dress cuts so that you can choose lots of different embellishment. I told her about my fear of god, and she joked that one's parents have to book the reception venue as soon as you're born these days. While they like appointments because then they can show you sketches of dresses that aren't on the rack, you're welcome any time to just drop by and try on a gown. Very relaxing.

That said, nothing there made me gasp (just not quite my style, and at around the $4k mark for made to measure/ semi-couture (you can mix and match dress parts, and change some bits slightly) it's more than I want to spend. But if you're after non-frothy and lovely service and a bit of a say in your gown, I definitely recommend them.

Vendors aren't as scary as you think

One option we are considering for the Best (wo)Man's suit is seeing how a hire suit might work out. The girl is fairly straight-up-and-down, and I'm thinking she could probably get away with a teen boy's suit (with a woman's shirt). I was a little concerned about how suit hire places might react to the idea.

Well, one decent thing to come out of the Bridal Lair was a chat with a lady at Spurling. She said quite bluntly that they don't have women's suits. Then cheerfully added that they do do some men's jackets that are very tapered at the waist that might work out, and to come by sometime and try them on. "The worst that can happen is that you work out that you can't put her in one of our suits, and you go look for something else."

That's the worst? Seriously? Awes. With an attitude like that, we're definitely testing the waters.

Dressing the Best (wo)Man Part II

Sophia Coppola rocks a suit hard

Some vintage menswear from Circa Vintage (I'm only a little bit obssessed...) is modelled over here. I'm digging the ruffled pussy-bow blouses.

Dressing the Best (wo)Man

I don't know that I've mentioned yet, but our Best Man is in fact not a man. It's not exactly clear what your inner bridezilla makes 'em wear, when your best man's a woman. The polite, safe choice seems to be a black dress (to match with the groom's suit). We are planning on dressing the lovely wee thing in a suit.

East Side Bride helped me out something awesome with my concerns that we'd be making the B(w)M look like she was in drag (not our intention). Check out her rather awesome advice here and here.

Given our gal is pint-sized, I'm thinking way skinny trousers are a nice way to keep the suit feminine. And way cool. Given that we are picking up the tab for this outfit,* I'm thinking of taking her into Myer Miss Shop and checking out the work/ evening wear stuff.

* The Best (wo)Man is a waitress by day, and an artist by night.