Ivory Bridal Shoes
Many brides dream of a traditional white wedding. So although colored wedding gowns and colored bridal shoes are more the norm today a white wedding is absolutely perfect for brides who want their wedding to have a soft, dreamy feminine look, and still remain attractive to the groom's eye. A white wedding gives a crisp freshness to a wedding celebration and is perfect for a day wedding.
Rather than choosing white some brides actually prefer to go for ivory. Their reasons are perfectly valid and can range from a dislike of the "bleached" look to the colour of their skin. Some skin tones do not lend themselves to the wearing of white. Ivory wedding gowns and ivory bridal shoes look creamy and can look equally as good as white wedding gowns and white bridal shoes. Ivory can add depth to some skin tones and also look really rich and sophisticated at the same time. For the bride who does not look so wonderful in pure white, ivory can be a perfectly great choice.

How to Select Your Ivory Bridal Shoes - To Dye or Not To Dye?
Your wedding gown is ivory so it follows that your bridal shoes also need to be ivory. You could buy white satin bridal shoes and then dye them ivory to match your wedding dress. But if you buy ivory bridal shoes and think that you will re-dye them to accurately match the ivory of your wedding dress this is really not such a great idea. .
Why would you consider buying bridal shoes that require dyeing in the first place?
Two good reasons spring to mind.
Maybe the bride is going with ancient family tradition and is going to wear great grandma's wedding dress which has unfortunately darkened with age and therefore is going to be extremely hard to accurately colour match. Or what about the modern bride who buys her dress from for example EBay and does not have a color or sample swatch of her bridal gown - so she will wait for the arrival of her bridal dress and then travel the "dyeing" route in her quest for the perfect shoe color to match her gown. ,
If you are thinking that it would be easier to buy ivory shoes that lend themselves to the dyeing process think again. .Because your bridal ivory satin shoes are already pre-colored by adding another shade of ivory to the shoes the resulting colour will not give you the reliable color shade you envisaged. You might just get good old reliable beige - not the rich ivory you planned. The reason for the potential problem to raise it's ugly head lies in the fact that because your bought ivory satin bridal shoe has been pre-colored (naturally) you will, by painting on an additional layer of the ivory color to the bridal shoe get a shoe which possibly will be a shade or two darker than you wanted. A much better choice is a white shoe, a clean canvas, which takes the dye and produces the effect you are looking for.

White is really not a colour - rather it is the absence of color. On this basis white trumps ivory when it comes to achieving the best results for your choice of shoe colour on the day.
Dyeing a white shoe ivory rather than changing an ivory colored shoe to another shade of ivory should give far better results, as well as being possibly less expensive should you be so unhappy with the resulting color the purchase of another pair of bridal shoes becomes necessary.
Choosing Your Color
This seems a bit drastic but you could try cutting a swatch of your wedding gown from somewhere unnoticeable. Like the hem or from an inside seam. Then take said swatch or sample to your local Bridal Store to match up with your bridal shoes. On the other hand you could bring your gown into the store for the matching process. Again the white shoe could be your alternative if matching your colour of your pre-existing shoe is not viable.
Choice of Heel Height
Should you decide to make your own gown or indeed have it made by a couturier then you need to decide on what type of shoe you want and buy it prior to heading off for your first fitting. Achieving your perfect look will depend on the way the gown falls and the length of skirt you need. So before your measurements are taken you really need to make that all important choice of shoe heel height. If you decide to buy a flat shoe or even a low heeled shoe your dress will be shortened accordingly to reflect the height of your heel. The height of heel, if you think about it, has a direct correlation to the length of your bridal gown - maybe an effect of up to two inches.
However if you plan to buy your already made wedding gown at a Bridal Store then the height of your shoe needs to adjust to your bridal gown not the other way round. Although having said that, hems can be altered so if you find that your already purchased shoe is perfect in every way - go the alteration way!

Copyright a.a.gallagher
September 2007
http://weddings-et-al.blogspot.com
http://www.weddings.zlio.com
http://www.weddingsbyannie.com (under construction)
Ivory Bridal Shoes