[Wedding] Trust the Artist (+My Shoes!)

It took a couple mindset shifts for me to be okay with having a wedding. At the beginning, it was difficult for me (as I know it is for many) to wrap my head around throwing this extravagant party and spending so much money on a single day.

The two major mindset shifts I made? The first was to think of the wedding as a gathering of people I love, and to consider that if each of them came to visit me individually, I’d still take them out to dinner. The second, was to use the opportunity to support local small businesses and artists.

It was a theme early on in the planning to “trust the artist.” Except for photographers (which is one of the areas I know well), we didn’t shop around much for our vendors. Instead, we used what they put out there online to get a feel for their work, and then trusted they would produce the same quality for us.

One place I really let go was my shoes. I had this idea in mind: floral t-strap heels. I wanted a vintage meets bold color feel, and just couldn’t find anything off the rack that met my needs. At the same time, I was following a local painter on Instagram whose aesthetic so perfectly matched what I was seeing in my head.

She had never painted shoes, but Corinne is known for her almost sculpted paintings, and using texture and thickness in her work, so I figured she’d be comfortable working in three dimensions. She had also done some ornaments, which gave me even more confidence.

When I reached out, I couldn’t believe how excited Corinne sounded to be involved with this project. And when I met her in person at a local coffee shop, her enthusiasm exceeded what was in her emails.

We sipped lattes and chatted while she sketched my shoes. They were white t-strap heels, kind of vintage style, that I had bought on Amazon for $30. She asked me questions about the colors in the wedding, what my dress and my bridesmaids dresses looked like, and other details.

At the end, the sketch of my shoes was filled in with intricate flowers. She had some labels of where certain colors would be, but I’d need to use my imagination to see how it would really turn out. I joked that I’d take the sketch home and Photoshop in the colors, but I never did.

Instead, I just left it all up to Corinne, the artist. I could have micromanaged, and asked for daisies on the top, roses on the toes, and vines around the heel. Instead, I said “Here is the color palette, now go.” And she created something amazing.

I was complimented repeatedly on the final product. The seamtresses gushed. My guests ooh’d and ahh’d. And all of her Instagram followers left heart eyes emojis. So I’d say, it was a pretty good call to just trust the artist.

Want to see more from this incredible local artist? You can visit her website and follow her work on Instagram. She sells custom paintings and ornaments, and prints as well, and ships all over.