The perfect shoes

My friend Roxanne is getting married in late August of this year.

She's one of those independent, financially-responsible woman that never spend more than they need to on things. The other day she came to me with a problem.

She wanted gold shoes for her wedding but since she's strayed from everything her mom wanted her to do for her wedding and thinks her mom hates her (she said it!) she's decided she needs to go for the white shoes her mom is insisting she get.

Being the ever-prepared one that she is, she decided to get a head-start on the shoe shopping endeavour. Much to her dismay, she couldn't find a classy, low-heeled pair of white open-toed shoes anywhere, which is why this normally responsible woman has resorted to asking all of her friends if they would buy a pair of shoes for $295. I don't think she wanted me to tell her my Stuart Weitzman Story (see my previous blog post), but I did- and I digress to my last post ("...good girls go bad").

Roxanne spent just over $400 on her wedding dress, and I just persuaded her to spend $295

on this completely beautiful pair of Kate Spade wedding shoes...I told her she'd totally wear them again because I certainly would! Now, I'm going to have to force her to wear them but can you blame me for justifying the to her? I just hope I don't have to also persuade her fiance to love the shoes too.

What is it about weddings that make good girls go bad?

I'm not talking about good girls going bad in the sense you're probably thinking... get your minds out of the gutter.

I'm talking about those financially responsible girls who suddenly feel like they need to spend thousands on a dress.

I see it every time I watch "Say Yes to the Dress" (and yes, I have made my boyfriend watch every episode with me... he pretends to like it, just like I pretend to like the neon green shorts he wears wakeboarding in the summer).

A woman goes in with a set budget and blows it by at least $1500.

I won't pretend that I disagree with the idea of spending a hefty sum on a dress if it's absolutely perfect (this coming from a girl who spent over $600 on her grad dress). I'd do it... but then again, I don't fool myself into believing that I'd have a dead-set budget. I think it's much more realistic to go in thinking I'll spend between $2000 and $4000 so that my family doesn't suffer from sticker shock.

I'm scared... very scared for the time when I buy my dress. I am very talented in the field of justification- which is why I have a pair of $300, 4.5-inch black patent leather Stuart Weitzman stilettos that I've worn a total of three times "because they're obviously sitting shoes but I couldn't not buy them when they were 40% off " (you do the math on what those babies actually cost before the sale).

I guess only time will tell... and that reminds me, I might need a few years to work on getting a loan for my dress... Oh Mommy...