Where we last left off, I had my wedding shoes in hand and was blissfully happy with them. They fit all my style requirements, they were budget-friendly, and they were comfortable. Done and done. Right? Well, not so fast...
The week after I found THE shoes, I (foolishly) took one more look at the DSW website, just to "check in", if you will. And I found these:
Hello, beautiful. Where have you been all my life?
They.Were.Perfect. Everything I had ever wanted in a wedding shoe. They also came in these amazing colors, all of which would work for the wedding (at least in my opinion):
Perfection. The only problem? They were $80 online. Not astronomically priced, but I just wasn't sure.
On my next excursion to Macy's, however, they greeted me again. Without my even having to look, they just popped up in the front row of the shoe department. Gorgeous, but in the wrong color! They only had pink and orange (I asked). And, also, they were $120 in the store, which put them firmly out of my price range. I continued my shopping and tried to put them out of mind.
However, over the next few months, I continued to check in on them at the usual shoe websites. The price didn't go down, and I refused to try them on at Macy's and risk falling in love with something I couldn't have. I toyed with the idea of ordering them from Zappos or somewhere else with free shipping, but I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. They were $40 more than the shoes I got at DSW. Part of my brain was nagging me that $40 really isn't that much in the big picture of wedding planning, but my mantra about this whole budget thing is "Everything adds up." An extra $40 for shoes, $100 for a cake delivery fee, $30 for prettier stamps for invitations, and before you know it you're thousands of dollars over budget. So I reined myself in and tried to convince myself that I was over the Anne Klein Kaleis.
Then, a month ago, I was in Macy's again. Just for fun, I perused the clearance rack (as I so often do). And, what did I see? The Anne Klein Kalei, in black and yellow, in my size.(!)
I was giddy, I tell you. Positively light-headed. They were on sale for $46 (almost the same price as my original wedding shoes!). I'm embarrassed now to admit that I ripped it off the shelf WHILE another woman was looking at it. Not glancing over it, but like .5 seconds away from grabbing it herself. Yes, I poached the shoe. Not my proudest moment.
I stole around the corner to try it on. As I stood up and walked over to the mirror, I smelled trouble. The shoe slipped and slid around on my foot. I'm usually pretty true to size, so I was more than a little disappointed. I asked the salesman if they had the same color a half-size smaller and after the longest shoe search EVER he informed me they did not. I searched the racks and found a 9 1/2 hidden amongst the size 7s (clearance sale, people: do not just look in your size's section. Clearance items tend to stray). Unfortunately, the 9 1/2 was hot pink. It just would not do. I tried it on anyway, just to make sure. I reasoned that I could always order them online once I knew how they fit, since it was clearly past their season and they were likely to be on sale. But the 9 1/2 didn't quite do it, either. The back rubbed my ankle to the point that I knew a blister would form in less than an hour of wear. The toe pinched, and not because they were too small. The rose was somewhat more...blah...in person than I had seen it online.
I put the shoe back on the rack and walked away, bidding a silent goodbye to my loves. They had let me down, and I could never go back to them. I was deeply saddened by the loss of my dream shoe. But, there was a silver lining: I had found the "dream" shoe, I had had my fling with it, and learned that my first love was indeed my true love. When I got home, I took my neglected Liz Claibornes from their box and smiled. They were there all along, just waiting for me to come around. And now I can happily get married, in *my* wedding shoes.
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