How Eric Saved My Wedding Shoes

Who would ever thought that finding the right wedding shoes would be so much harder than finding the right wedding dress? Well such was the case with me. I didn't think that what I wanted: chocolate brown, 3 inch high heels with a peep toe would be such a tall order to fill... but it turned out to be near impossible. I soon learned that I would have to be somewhat flexible. After looking in a few bridal stores and being dismally disappointed with their tacky, strappy, 2 inch heel options I turned to the Internet. I was worried that finding the exact size would be difficult online, but when I started looking I had a few months of breathing room to find the right shoes.

I first ordered these babies, and boy were they gorgeous! Even though I really wanted chocolate brown shoes to match one of my wedding colors, I fell in love with the ruffle (which really matches my dress) and decided I could go with ivory. The smallest size they had was a 6, but I was hopeful that it wouldn't be too big, and I could put in some of those heel pads.

But sadly, the 6 was way too big, and I would have been falling out of them the whole day, so I regrettably had to return them.

So after searching online for a few more hours, I narrowed it down to 5 shoes, and after more diliberation I bought these shoes. Thankfully I read the reviews before I bought the shoes and found out that they run big, so I bought a size 5 rather than a 5.5.

I waited and waited for the shoes to arrive, and then finally after contacting the seller I realized that I had accidentally messed up my address when filling out the shipping information, so it took an extra week and $10 to get them delivered! And when they finally arrived, they fit amazing, and were so beautiful, and they were dyable so I could have them dyed chocolate brown like I originally wanted. I had called around Idaho Falls already to find a place that would dye them. After several "Nos", I found the Royal Shoe Shop who said they could. So one day during lunch I walked the few blocks over to drop them off... turns out they don't dye shoes anymore. But I explained that I had called a few weeks earlier and was told that they could do it, and the owner reluctantly said, "yes." I'm glad he agreed, because then I would have had to find some place in Salt Lake at the last minute. For all the thousands of brides out there that dye their shoes, I'm surprised how many places won't dye shoes!


But he finally agreed to do it, and I thought that was that. I came back the following week and this is what they looked like:

Maybe you can't tell, but they were a light brown, almost pukey purple color. I thanked the man, left, and cried all the way to Rexburg where I was coming to pick up Eric to go down to Utah for the weekend. I was upset because they were hideous, but also because they were ruined and I would have to once again find new shoes, and this time with only 3 weeks until the wedding.

While in Utah I made a stop at David's Bridal, hoping that they would have some shoes in stock that I would like. I looked through their whole collection and found a few that I liked, but I would have to have them shipped asap to have them in time, so they could dye them. While I was talking with the sales associate, she mentioned that their dye was for sale for only $4. I decided that I would buy some dye, try to redye my shoes the right color before spending another chunk of change on shoes.

When we got back home, I gave Eric the task of redying my shoes, I was too terrified it wouldn't work. And I watched as my shoes slowly darkened to a nice chocolate brown.

I was surprised and delighted that it worked! For the price of only $4, my shoes had been saved. Eric was my hero, well he is always my hero, but that night he was showered with praise, kisses and hugs for saving my shoes :)

He was quite proud himself of the job well done, and can you blame him? See them for yourselves.

My husband (then fiance), the hero.