The quest for the perfect wedding shoes

One of the hardest things I've found about all this wedding planning malarkey is searching for wedding shoes. After you've found the perfect wedding dress, you have to find some beautiful shoes to match. You may think you have ages to do this, but alas you don’t. If, like me, you’re having your dress made to measure you’ll need your shoes when you order the dress and even if you don’t you’ll need them for your first fitting.

I thought it would be easy to find any amazing pair of wedding shoes to go with my dress, but from the start I decided I didn't want ‘wedding shoes’. You know, ivory satin monsters that look like something your granny might wear? Yeah, those. But here’s the tricky part. Those bloody shoes have something many other shoes don’t have – they’re designed with extra comfort features so you can wear them all day.

Wedding shoes aren't designed to be worn for a few hours on car-to-bar nights out, but to be worn all day long while you’re constantly on your feet – walking down the aisle, during the ceremony, hugging everyone and then dancing the night away. They’re equipped to handle that shit, they’re quite literally built for that. So when you start looking for cooler, quirkier, colourful alternatives on the high street you may have the same issues I did.

What the high street heels have in style, design and finish they lack in comfort and staying power. Plus, can we talk about insane heel heights for a second? I’m not exactly challenged in the height department – I'm 5’10” – but even average height girls who wear heels all the time surely don’t want to do their entire wedding day in 5 inch heels!?

I’d be a grouchy, moany cow before we’d finished the photos! So herein lies the dilemma. It is nearly impossible to find pretty, mid-height heel shoes that are comfortable enough to wear all day as a bride if you don’t want to go for bridal shoes. After looking everywhere from Oasis and M&S to ASOS and Topshop I hit the jackpot.

LK Bennett has a huge selection of shoes in different heel heights and as well as pretty bridal inspired heels, they also have a pretty amazing selection of fashion heels, in loads of colours and heel heights. I ended up going for Karim pink ombre glitter heels with a low kitten heel and an ankle strap. I love them like a fat kid loves cake and I'm so happy I found them. The best thing is they're leather, so will stretch to fit my foot and be comfy all day.

Since I got them and have told fellow brides-to-be that I found my wedding shoes at LK Bennett they've all dashed in there to see the collection themselves. If you quality, colour and a great choice of styles and heel height, you should take a look too. Beats ivory satin any day.

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By Carina Sullivan