My Dream Wedding Shoes... and Why I Didn't Get Them

In the quest of having the most perfect and memorable wedding ever, it must be said, that a bride's shoes must never be overlooked. This is my belief anyhow. It is this belief that has had me on a quest to find the Valentino shoes that Jessica Biel wore to their Spring 2012 show in October of 2011. You may remember this post and then my reminder in my wedding shoe post about how much I was/am in love with these shoes. To say that I was/ am obsessed would be an understatement. That is how much I wanted these shoes... and in the end, I had to let them go.

It's actually a pretty great story, how I found the shoes. After writing those blog posts mentioning the Valentino booties, I, as a last ditch effort in finding them, tweeted to @MaisonValentino in the hopes that they could help me identify these shoes and where I could find them. Imagine my surprise when I got the email that said that Valentino was following me on Twitter, which means someone is going to Direct Message me... which is exactly what happened.


Turns out that these booties, in the minty green color, were in fact Valentino and were launched in stores in December-ish. In my search, I gave up too easily or rather thought since I couldn't find them between September and November, that they didn't exist in my realm. Caitlin, who was helping me on the Valentino side, had done some emailing and was going to try and help me locate a pair of these in my size. She too is getting married and told me that she knows exactly how it feels to be absolutely in love with a pair of shoes. This melted my heart. In any event, she took my email address, told me the wheels were turning on her side and that someone would be in touch. At this point, I was giddy at the thought that these shoes were coming into my life.


A day later, I received an email from Brendan at the Boston Valentino Boutique. He had been asked by the Valentino US CEO, Wendy Khan, to reach out to me regarding these shoes. Yes, he said the CEO. I Googled her and everything. That's her.  He sent me these two pictures. They did not carry the green color in the boutiques here but they had the pink and black; to me, they are just a gorgeous.

Brendan said that they could get the size 7 into the Boston boutique and that I could come and try them on (in the pink blush color). I cannot explain to you how excited I was about these shoes. It's strange but I had assigned some sort of importance on these shoes and them being my wedding shoes, without even having a dress yet. I was emotionally attached to these shoes because I guess I never thought I would ever find them. Now, they were so within my reach... until Brendan told me how much they were, a cool $1,000. This will tell you how much I love these shoes because that price did not immediately deter me.

I excitedly told the fiance that I found them, the shoes of my dreams! He vaguely recalled me talking about them and when I told him how much they were, well, let's just say we had a bit of a disagreement. We agreed that I could ask our mothers to chip in on the shoes three ways; this was our wedding afterall.  Both of our mothers agreed that we could chip in on these beautiful shoes, that this was a special event and I can always wear shoes again. I emailed Valentino back and told them I would be in to try the shoes on. This was on a Friday. The shoes would be in on Monday.


In the three days that followed, I changed my mind, literally, hundreds of times. One moment, I would tell myself that I deserved them, that this was my big day and who am I kidding, I love shoes! The next moment, I would say that these shoes are more expensive than the photo booth we are renting and let's say, my save the dates. Wedding aside, the shoes were more than the Illustration class that I want to take this Summer. I was having some major inner turmoil all last weekend over these shoes. Normally, I would scoff at the designer price tag but like I said before, I had emotionally attached myself to these shoes and was going to have them.


After a very long weekend, and a few more stressful discussions with the man, I decided that I was not going to get the shoes. I really couldn't have my mother and his mother spending their hard earned money on a pair of shoes, especially when we have the rest of the wedding to pay for. I made the decision. I emailed Brendan at Valentino to tell him I wouldn't be coming in for the shoes. I felt so guilty that multiple people were involved in finding these shoes for me and that effort was exerted for shoes that I guess had I really thought about it, were always out of my reach. Brendan was super gracious and told me not to worry about the shoes and best of luck. His email made me feel less guilty... over a pair of shoes.

I know it's silly, that I am even writing a blog post about a pair of shoes that I didn't get, that I am ashamed to say that I cried over. They are beautiful shoes, and maybe someday when I am not paying for a wedding, they will cross my path again. Both my mother and the future MIL were both kind of disappointed that they couldn't help me get the shoes. They were more on board than I thought they were, and actually rather excited. At the end of the day, I guess I just didn't feel right about it. My mother claims we will find another pair of Valentino shoes, once we have found the dress. I told her we could look haha. I don't know what shoes I'll wear on my wedding day but I am pretty sure no matter which ones they are, they'll be special.

* A special thanks to all at Valentino who helped me find these shoes. You were fantastic!