These are the shoes I wore to the wedding of my good friends CaptainPlanet and SmokingToaster, in the fall of 1993.
It’s the only time I’ve been a bridesmaid for a non-family member, and although it was a huge honour and made me feel really happy and special, I think I was a really sucky bridesmaid, in that I don’t really remember doing anything to actually help SmokingToaster. All I really remember is being really cranky about the selection of bridesmaid dress. It was an off-the-shoulder dress with a straight skirt and I did not think it would suit me at all. But I caved in because it was what the other bridesmaids wanted and I didn’t want to be too much of a BITCA.
In the end I got about a million compliments that day on how gorgeous I looked so I guess I didn’t really know what the hell I was talking about, anyway.
These lovely red velvet shoes matched the top part of the dress and I loved, loved, loved them (which made it a little easier to stop being such a BITCA about the dress itself). They made me feel like a fairy princess, going to a ball. Unfortunately they are not the most comfortable shoes ever — did you know that velvet shoes have no give whatsoever? I don’t care though. I love them still.
As for the wedding, it was a rocking awesome time, if I do say so myself. A lot of my friends from university were there and we had a great time dancing and singing and throwing illegal confetti in the reception hall. I had just discovered that having a little wine would not, in fact, send me straight to hell, so I had approximately half a glassful and then drunkenly warned SmokingToaster that she should not, under any circumstances, try to have sex that evening, since the stress and exhaustion would just get their marriage off to a bad start.
A few months later, at my own wedding, SmokingToaster told me I’d given her this advice and I was suitably embarrassed.
Anyway, back to the shoes. I loved them so much that after the wedding, I made myself a whole second dress that was more my style using the same red velvet, so that I would have an outfit with which to wear the shoes again. I wore the new dress with these Princess Shoes to at least one other wedding, as well as a few Christmas parties. The dress doesn’t fit me anymore — actually, I think I eventually gave up hope of ever fitting into it again, and gave it away — so I haven’t worn these shoes in years. I’d love to have an excuse, though. Maybe I’ll try them on right now.
TurtleHead 
Shoes are so much more forgiving than those old dresses, aren’t they? I have a closet full of dresses like that.
Those red shoes? Gorgeous!
You’re all about the shoes these days, eh? I do have a weakness for red shoes. There’s a woman on my bus who wears these gorgeous deep red patent leather flats every Friday. They look like my size, too. I want to sneak them off her feet when she’s not looking
Momo — It’s kind of sad that the dress is gone, so the shoes don’t get out as much as they should. I need a new dress!
XUP — I’m always all about the shoes :).