Kate Friedman
Lead designer at Ellie Wren Custom Wedding Shoes
Every bride dreams of her wedding day – the dress, the flowers, the bridesmaids’ dresses and, of course, near and dear to our hearts – the wedding shoes. Buying wedding shoes online can be daunting, but shopping for your bridal shoes online gives you so much more in the way of fun and unique wedding shoe options. Planning a vintage wedding – google vintage wedding shoes and… BAM! dozens of options at your fingertips!
For a lot of brides though, the off-the-shelf bridal shoe still doesn’t capture their vision, or the bridal heel is too tall or in the wrong color. That’s where Ellie Wren really shines – our custom wedding shoes options allow you to pick shoe style – everything from a wedding wedge, to a low heel open toe wedding shoe, to bridal flats – the color palette and, then, on top of that, you can mix and match our adornment options to truly create the wedding shoe of your dreams.
Oh, yes. And sashes, and handbags and other wedding accessories. But custom wedding shoes are our true niche and they also generate the most concern in terms of comfort and fit, so that’s our focus for today’s post: how brides can design the shoe of their dreams and also make sure that they’re comfortable and will fit properly.
At Ellie Wren, we work one-on-one with each bride to help her design her custom wedding shoes. Each bride is assigned a designer on the Ellie Wren team and together, bride and designer review the bride’s wedding style, budget and vision and then combine all of these elements into that bride’s custom wedding shoes. When a custom wedding shoe design is completed, our design team is as invested in that design as the bride is and so it’s so incredibly important to each team member at Ellie Wren that when the bride’s wedding shoes are shipped, they meet every expectation that the bride has.
That’s the question on nearly every bride’s mind when inquiring about having her own custom wedding shoes designed. Wedding shoes have inherent challenges– from style-to-style and from bride-to-bride fit and comfort can vary and this issue is compounded when the shoes are custom wedding shoes. There is nothing worse, for the bride and the designer, both who worked so hard to bring a design to life, to find out that the wedding shoes are not as comfortable as the bride would like them to be, or even worse, that they don’t fit. To address this issue, Ellie Wren has created The Perfect Fit program – a program that allows brides to try on the very same wedding shoe that will be used in her design before the custom work is started to ensure that that shoes the bride picked will be comfortable wedding shoes.
1. Once the bride and her wedding shoe designer have narrowed down the base shoe style that the bride wants to use for her custom wedding shoes, the bride will have the option to participate in the Perfect Fit.
2. The designer will send the bride an invoice for the Perfect Fit – currently a $35 partially refundable deposit. The selected base wedding shoes will be shipped to the bride. When returned, $20 of the $35 is credited toward the bride’s custom wedding shoe design or refunded if the bride elects not to go forward. The balance of $15 is non-refundable and is used toward shipping costs and handling fees associated with the Perfect Fit program.
3. If the bride elects to move forward with the design, the exact shoes that the bride tried on are used for her design, ensuring that she’ll have the most comfortable wedding shoes fit possible on her wedding day.
Kate Friedman
Lead Designer at Ellie Wren Custom Wedding Shoes
Wedges are one of our favorite wedding shoe styles! We love their sense of style and how versatile they are in the custom wedding shoe designing process. In this blog post, we thought we'd feature one of our most popular wedge base shoe styles and showcase all of the different ways we've dressed it up for different brides over the years. We hope that these options can serve as wedding inspiration for brides looking to design their own wedge bridal shoes!
Let's start at the beginning... At Ellie Wren, we work one-on-one with each bride to help her design her dream wedding shoes. We start by getting to know each bride and her wedding style through our Design Studio. The Design Studio is an online platform where brides can see all of our base shoe options, our colors and embellishments that we've done in the past and start to pick and choose what they like best. So, for example, a bride looking for an open toe wedge for her wedding day, might select the Minka wedding wedge shown here.
At Ellie Wren, the number of ways to dress up a wedding wedge heel is pretty much infinite. Once the base wedding shoe style (in this case, the Minka wedding wedge) has been selected, we work with the bride on selecting her color palette for her wedding shoes. We have dozens of colors to choose from and color selection can be made not only for the base wedding shoes, but also for any adornments selected, including handmade buttons, bows and flowers; painted soles and glittered heels; crystal accents or lace overlays.
And speaking of custom wedding shoe adornments, the third step in the Design Studio showcases all of the different things we can do to dress up a pair of wedding wedges. Any of these options can be customized as well – we can adapt them to different colors and different base wedding shoe options.
Now that we’ve gone over how Ellie Wren works to help brides design their own wedding shoes, we’d like to focus on all the different ways that we’ve done the Minka wedge wedding shoe to dress it for different brides with different wedding styles and wedding budgets. Get ready to be amazed by the transition that this white dyeable satin wedding shoe is able to undergo with a little bit of imagination and wedding-inspired magic!
This category of wedding wedges is one of our all-time favorites. When we think romantic wedding shoes, we think of neutral wedding tones: ivory, cream, champagne, light gold, blush and maybe a slightly bolder plum. Other elements that routinely come to mind are lace overlays and flowers. Each bride's own personal choices were incorporated in the custom wedding wedges below, so for example, the wedges with the cameo brooch were created for a wedding in an old manor while those with the Swarovski crystal leaf design were made to match the brides bridal sash. All that being said to emphasize that while a bride may see a wedge here and fall immediately in love (isn't that the best way!), our design team is very good at taking wedding inspiration from one design and adapting it for the specific bride. So, without further ado, here are some of the ways we’ve transformed the Minka wedding wedge into dreamy romantic wedding wedges.
Wedding shoes don’t have to be white, ivory blush or champagne! Plenty of our brides opt to do their wedge wedding shoes in a variety of brilliant colors. Shades of coral, fuchsia, yellow and emerald green all come to mind. Some brides decide to let the color speak for itself and opt to keep the custom adornments simple, while others want sparkle and bling! Here are some of the ways our brides have taken the Minka wedding wedge and made it stand out!
When the leaves start to fall, wedding wedges are the perfect option for navigating the ground as it starts to get colder. A little more stable and often more comfortable than a heel, they're perfect for walking along gravel paths or posing for wedding photos of the 9th-Hole green. We've designed dozens of pairs of shoes to honor the seasons like autumn. Using colors like burnt orange, copper, gray, pine and navy blue, wedding wedges can be designed to be a very classy autumn wedding shoe option. And let's not forget about Christmas and New Year's Eve! Weddings around those times of year are also popular and great times of year to consider a wedding wedge!
And, finally, for brides that want to go big on their wedding day, bridal wedges are a great option. Why? So much surface area to dress up! In this collection, you'll see all the ways we took the Minka wedding wedge and made it a showcase wedding shoe.
That’s the idea! Inspiration is a great starting point. But, don’t forget, that we can customize any of these wedding shoe designs in just about any way a bride would like. For brides in the wedding planning mode, pinning them to Pinterest to come back to later is a good place to start. For brides that are ready to start testing out ideas, our design team loves a good wedding shoe conversation!
Ellie Wren, since 2011, helped to launch the custom wedding shoe industry into what it is today. Ellie Wren works one-on-one with each bride, helping her to design her dream pair of custom wedding shoes. Whether brides are looking for something traditional, like lace wedding wedges with pearl accents or something totally new and different, like the weather-inspired custom wedding shoes that we created for Ginger Zee, Ellie Wren’s design team has the vision and the skill set to bring almost any custom wedding shoe design to life.
Kate Friedman
Lead designer at Ellie Wren Custom Wedding Shoes
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue! Ever wondered about this tradition and where it comes from? We did a little digging and it turns out that this tradition is based on an old English rhyme wishing good luck for a couple on their wedding day. Each “something” offers something different. The “something blue” specifically represents love, purity and fidelity – all factors in the foundation of a good marriage. It’s an interesting tale and for brides wanting to read up a bit more on this topic, The Knot has a really good post. And guess what they have as the featured photo? Something Blue Wedding Shoes.
One of the best things about doing custom wedding shoes is getting to work with a variety of bridal styles. When asked, most brides list “comfortable” as the number #1 factor in choosing a wedding shoe, so we often recommend flats, low heel wedding shoes or wedges from our base shoe collection. That being said, many of the high heel base wedding shoe options that we offer are made with additional padding in the soles for added comfort. Combined with a platform to take the pressure off the ball of the foot, a high-heeled wedding shoe option can be a good fit as well. For brides getting married on a beach – no problem! We also work with plenty of sandal and open toe wedding shoe styles.
Once the base shoe style is selected, the question becomes what shade of blue? Something blue wedding shoes don’t have to be royal blue (although that’s a popular choice). Lately, we’ve been working with a lot of brides that have chosen navy blue and dusty blue. And, in the past, we’ve worked a lot with cornflower blue, baby blue and teal. Our personal favorite? Robin’s Egg Blue. At least right now – that might change when we work on the next pair of blue wedding shoes and fall in love all over again. Robin’s Egg Blue is this gorgeous very pale shade of blue that worked incredibly well with silver accents – like a silver crystal covered heel or a silver brooch on the toe. Yep! The adornments can be customized as well, so let’s talk about that step now!
The final (and arguably the best) step is taking your something blue shoes to a new level with custom adornments. Some brides want sparkly while others are trying to design for vintage, traditional, fairy tale or country wedding themes. Some brides are into lace wedding shoes, while others are into bows and floral designs. We can mix and match and make the unique – truly Cinderella worthy! And Cinderella worthy doesn’t have to mean breaking the wedding budget. We design with brides across all budgets.
Oh, and let’s not forget about our ‘maids! Once a bridal shoe is selected and designed, it can be really fun to make the bridesmaids’ shoes to match. One of our favorite ideas is for the bride to select the shade of blue and then allow here bridesmaids to select the style – it’s the perfect way to let some bridesmaids be sparkly in a pair of towering open toe platforms while others focus on comfort in a low heel wedding shoe. Through our relationship with Dyeables.com we can not only help you with the design, but work our connections for a whole wedding party discount!
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine the wedding shoe possibilities when looking at just the elements. Some brides have a knack for putting together a show-stopping design (and btw, that’s a totally subjective description) and others need some bridal inspiration. To get them started, we put together this little gallery of something blue wedding shoes, but for brides wanting to dig a little deeper, they can always check out our Be Inspired wedding shoe gallery. Not everything in here is blue, but remember, we can always customize! Anything in the gallery comes in blue if a bride wants it to!
This is just start of a beautiful collection! We’ve also put together a Pinterest Board of all of our favorite something blue wedding ideas from Etsy (each image is a link taking you to the listing). In there, we’re looking at something blue jewelry, flowers, wedding table décor and perhaps our favorite, the ombre blue wedding dress. Stunning! Looking for more – see it here!
From left to right (top row/bottom row): Something Blue Hair Comby by BridalBunny; Something Blue Garter Set by MadeForHerCouture; Something Blue Wifey T-Shirt by FizzKiss; Something Blue Journal by BlessTheBrideCo; Aquamarine and Rose Gold Necklace, Bracelet and Earrings by ChicMaddies; Something Blue Petticoat by GownsByGaetana; Something Blue Swarovski Crystal Bracelet by RebekaJewelry; Something Blue Crystal & Pearl Hair Comb by TorontoBridalJewels.
About Ellie Wren Custom Wedding Shoes
Ellie Wren, since 2011, helped to launch the custom wedding shoe industry into what it is today. Ellie Wren works one-on-one with each bride, helping her to design her dream pair of custom wedding shoes. Whether brides are looking for something traditional, like lace wedding wedges with pearl accents or something totally new and different, like the weather-inspired custom wedding shoes that we created for Ginger Zee, Ellie Wren’s design team has the vision and the skill set to bring almost any custom wedding shoe design to life.
Every week brides email us with their custom wedding shoe design ideas and lament that they can’t have a high-heeled wedding shoes because they are as tall, or taller, than the groom. For whatever reason, many brides think that a low heel wedding shoe is synonymous with a plain wedding shoe. And to that we say, “Bah! You are one lucky bride – you get to be comfortable and beautiful!”
]]>Every week brides email us with their custom wedding shoe design ideas and lament that they can’t have a high-heeled wedding shoes because they are as tall, or taller, than the groom. For whatever reason, many brides think that a low heel wedding shoe is synonymous with a plain wedding shoe. And to that we say, “Bah! You are one lucky bride – you get to be comfortable and beautiful!” Flexibility is what makes designing your own wedding shoes such a great option for so many brides. Our designers work one-on-one with each bride, helping her to pick the elements that make up her dream wedding shoes. We have over 60 different base wedding shoes (many of them low heel wedding shoes) to choose from, endless color options and hundreds and adornment designs. Let’s take a look and see how brides can combine low heel wedding shoes with our custom wedding shoe adornment options to create the wedding shoe of their dreams.
Typically, low heel wedding shoes have a heel height that is 2 inches or less (check out how we measure heel height). Brides often think that by having low heel wedding shoes, they’re giving up their options in terms of color and style. And that might be true in the ready-to-wear bridal shoe market, but not with a pair of Ellie Wren custom wedding shoes. Right now, we have over 15 base shoe styles that qualify as a low heel wedding shoe – everything from a kitten heel wedding pump, to a wedding wedge, to a wedding sandal. Any of these styles can be done in any color and added to with our custom wedding shoe adornment options.
Today we’re going to focus Benjamin Walk’s Abby wedding shoe and show you different ways that we’ve dressed up these best-selling low heel wedding shoes to match each bride’s personal wedding style. We’ll show you different design across different wedding budgets as well, to demonstrate that great wedding style doesn’t have to break your wedding budget.
Let’s get started with the basics -- the Abby wedding shoe is a classic d’orsay style kitten heel peep toe. That’s shoe-designer speak for these classically fashionable low heel wedding shoes:
The Abby shoe is a 1 ¾” heel (make sure to check out how we measure heel height) and is available in U.S. Sizes 5-11, 12 (medium width) and 6-11, 12 (wide width). It’s kind of the ultimate wedding shoe option because its available in so many different sizes. And, if that’s not enough, its sister shoe Nadia, is exactly the same except that it comes in a 2 ½” heel. So for brides looking for a little more height, we can do anything you see here on the Abby wedding shoe, also on the Nadia shoe!
As much as brides love the Abby low heel wedding shoe, as wedding shoe designers we love it even more! It makes for the perfect palate for so many of our different custom wedding shoe designs. It takes a beautiful brooch on the toe like nobody’s business, but it’s also a great candidate for handmade flowers, a handmade bow, our lace heel cup or a row of buttons down the back. And its smooth sole makes it perfect for a painted sole, a glittered sole or “Save the Date” messaging. All-in-all, the number of different custom wedding shoe designs that we can create from this one pair of low heel wedding shoes are endless, so let’s get started!
For brides that are working on a tight budget, we’ve created a few simple designs that up the ante just enough to personalize the Abby low heel wedding shoe, but to keep them under $100. These designs include a simple color change or the addition of simple elements, like a row of buttons down the back or a simple crystal adornment on the toe. Keep in mind, any design you see can be done in any color which makes this low heel wedding shoe option endless!
With a little more room in the budget, brides can opt for some additional custom work. A price point between $150-$250 is where custom wedding shoes can really start to get creative. In the images below, you can start to see where we dressed up the Abby low heel wedding shoes with even more elements of bridal style. Take for example, those champagne wedding shoes, featuring a gold-tone lace applique on the toe heavily accented with champagne crystals and ivory pearls. For brides that aren’t into neutral tones, never fear! We can do this design in just about any color set. If lace wedding shoes have your heart, we’ve done some really pretty designs covering the back of the shoe in a lovely scalloped lace pattern. And, as for our personal favorites, those antique pink wedding shoes featuring a trio of handmade flowers are, we think, the cat’s meow. And let’s not forget the classically beautiful royal blue wedding shoes featuring our classic rhinestone cluster on the toe.
Keep in mind this price point includes a consultation with one of our designers. Actually, all of our price points do – we’re the bomb when it comes to customer service (just check out our Etsy reviews). As I mentioned, our design team is dedicated to working one-on-one with each bride to help her come up with the custom wedding shoe design that suits her best. This includes questions like:
For brides that really want to get creative and have a budget over $250 for their wedding shoes, there are more ways to transform the Abby low heel wedding shoe! Take for example that super fun glittered sole with the personalized message on the bottom. Perfect for pre-wedding photographs. This, of course, was combined with some custom wedding shoe work on the upper of the shoe, including a handmade bow and a brooch on the toe. For brides that are going for a more romantic wedding shoe look, we’re also able to do a lace overlay on the Abby shoe, like the second and fourth pictures below. Here we paired the delicate lace overlay with a row of handmade satin buttons and an ever-popular rose gold crystal trim across the toe. Then again, if you’re more of a bohemian bride, check out that pair of rouge wedding shoes with the handmade followers and polka dot feather accents.
To get started designing custom wedding shoes, brides should visit Ellie Wren’s Design Studio. Here they’ll our collection of base wedding shoe styles, our color palette and all of Ellie Wren’s custom wedding shoe adornment options. With a few simple clicks, brides can select the custom wedding shoe elements that appeal to them the most and communicate those to a member of the design team. This is just an initial step, so that the design team can get a sense of the bride’s bridal style – brides should not feel that they have to design the final shoe in this step. The Design Studio will also prompt brides to share some information about their wedding – the date, their budget, details about the flowers, the dress and the location. All of these wedding day details can serve as inspiration for a truly unique pair of wedding shoes. Once this information is submitted, a member of the design team will reach out to each bride and work one-on-one with her to refine her selections.
For brides that are still in the early stages of planning and still thinking through their options, Ellie Wren can still help! Be sure to check out our Be Inspired page where we post dozens of custom wedding shoe designs that we’ve done in the past. Brides can also follow us on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook where we actively share wedding ideas, wedding inspiration and information about deals and specials. Or, to just stay in touch, brides can sign up to receive our monthly newsletter, Inspired Bride.
Ellie Wren, since 2011, helped to launch the custom wedding shoe industry into what it is today. Ellie Wren works one-on-one with each bride, helping her to design her dream pair of custom wedding shoes. Whether brides are looking for something traditional, like lace wedding wedges with pearl accents or something totally new and different, like the weather-inspired custom wedding shoes that we created for Ginger Zee, Ellie Wren’s design team has the vision and the skill set to bring almost any custom wedding shoe design to life.
]]>It’s been some time since this blog has seen some fresh content, but while we may have been quiet on the surface there has been a lot of exciting custom wedding shoe news bubbling up underneath! Today we are so very pleased to announce that Ellie Wren has teamed up with Benjamin Walk to bring truly unique custom wedding shoe designs to more brides around the world. The combination of Benjamin Walk’s long history of great wedding shoe style and Ellie Wren’s experience in transforming classic wedding shoes into one-of-a-kind originals is sure to lead to some really amazing wedding shoe things!
Custom wedding shoes can mean different things to different brides, but at Ellie Wren we believe that’s exactly the point. We work with brides on all different kinds of bridal styles, color choices and senses of wedding fashion. So, whether you’re a bride looking for a truly unique pair of custom wedding shoes (perhaps emerald green wedding wedges with pearl buttons or navy blue peep toes with a matching bow on the back and a special message on the sole) or a bride looking for something more traditional like an ivory peep toe with a beautiful brooch on the toe, we’ll have you covered. Through our (now combined) efforts, Ellie Wren and Benjamin Walk will have thousands of stylish wedding shoe options in countless colors that can be further customized for each bride at her request with hand-dyed laces; sparkling crystals; handmade flowers, bows and buttons and hand-painted details. Best of all, this partnership will enable us to do all of this across all wedding budgets and serve more of each bride’s wedding needs, including outfitting her bridesmaids, maid-of-honor, mother, soon-to-be mother-in-law and flower girl with fabulous shoes.
To get started designing custom wedding shoes, brides should visit Ellie Wren’s Design Studio. Here they’ll see Benjamin Walk’s collection of wedding shoe styles, the color palette and all of Ellie Wren’s custom wedding shoe adornment options. With a few simple clicks, brides can select the custom wedding shoe elements that appeal to them the most and communicate those to a member of the design team. This is just an initial step, so that the design team can get a sense of the bride’s bridal style – brides should not feel that they have to design the final shoe in this step. The Design Studio will also prompt brides to share some information about their wedding – the date, their budget, details about the flowers, the dress and the location. All of these wedding day details can serve as inspiration for a truly unique pair of wedding shoes. Once this information is submitted, a member of the design team will reach out to each bride and work one-on-one with her to refine her selections.
Brides looking for more traditional wedding shoes can skip the Design Studio and visit Benjamin Walk’s sister-site, Dyeables.com where they can browse through hundreds of different styles, all of which can be ordered in any color with a few simple clicks. These options are also great for outfitting a wedding party. Brides can do something fun like picking the color but letting the bridesmaids each pick out the style of shoe that suits them best.
For brides that are still in the early stages of planning and still thinking through their options, Ellie Wren can still help! Be sure to check out our Be Inspired page where we post dozens of custom wedding shoe designs that we’ve done in the past. Brides can also follow us on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook where we actively share wedding ideas, wedding inspiration and information about deals and specials. Or, to just stay in touch, brides can sign up to receive our monthly newsletter, Inspired Bride.
Benjamin Walk, since 1896, is the leader in bridal, prom and evening footwear. Each year, Benjamin Walk designs and produces base shoe designs and fabric dyes that serve as the foundation for Ellie Wren’s custom wedding shoe designs. Benjamin Walk’s careful ye toward bridal fashion brings brides, bridesmaid, mothers of the bride, mothers of the grooms, flower girls and altar boys a wide variety of style choices – everything from delicate wedding sandals and stylish wedding wedges to towering peep toe stilettos and classic wedding pumps. Their dye room experts can create any color to match any wedding element – from wedding bouquets to bridesmaids’ dresses.
Ellie Wren, since 2011, helped to launch the custom wedding shoe industry into what it is today. Ellie Wren works one-on-one with each bride, helping her to design her dream pair of custom wedding shoes. Whether brides are looking for something traditional, like lace wedding wedges with pearl accents or something totally new and different, like the weather-inspired custom wedding shoes that we created for Ginger Zee, Ellie Wren’s design team has the vision and the skill set to bring almost any custom wedding shoe design to life.
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