This week’s Shoe Design of the Week, is by Irish fashion journalist, Lorna Claire Weightman from StyleIsle.ie

As a fashion lover, Lorna was looking for a stand-out  bridal shoe that would not only be the talking point of her wedding, but also she would be able to wear again. Read on to find out what inspired her unique wedding shoe design.

Tell us a little about yourself
Lorna Claire Weightman, Dublin, fashion journalist who started out as a blogger and graduated to magazines and telly! I am a shoe fanatic that would give Imelda Marcos a run for her money!

What inspired your shoe design?

My beautiful shoes were for a very special occasion – my wedding! I knew that I wanted to design a pair of shoes that I would wear again, and that would not be a stereotypical wedding shoe! I love gold and silver tones, and felt that sticking with this palate, I could create a pair that would look good on any dancefloor! I paid a visit to the Upper Street studio where the fabulous team helped me create the perfect pair. I didn’t know just how many options, both fabric and style, I had to choose from so I was so grateful for the advice! The result was an amazing pair of platform peep toe shoes in Luxe silver two-tone snakeskin, with a slight platform for comfort.

What did you think of your shoes when you received them?
I was so overwhelmed! Never did I think I would possess a pair of shoes which were solely created for me, fitted to my little feet and be so special. I think I may have been more excited about the shoes than I was about my wedding dress.

Have you worn your shoes yet? What did your friends think?
I wore the shoes on my very lovely wedding day on November 24th. I had told all of my friends that my shoes were extra special and when they saw them they were all in awe. They were so taken aback that customers can design their own shoes from start to finish so I think I may have introduced a few new ladies to this concept!

Thank you very much Lorna for sharing your wonderul wedding shoes with us. They looked stunning with your wedding dress and you can look forward to wearing them again and again.

Designing your unique bridal shoes at Upper Street means there are no limits – tear up the rule book and be as individual as you like.  As well as uing your choice of material, we can offer special orders such as inscribing your shoes and adding a blue lining. What better way to help make your wedding day the most amazing day of your life?

For bridal inspiration visit our bespoke bridal shoes gallery and view our bridal blue shoe gallery to see more colours, design and embellishment options and then create your own personal design in Upper Street’s 3D Shoe Designer. Browse our full range of colours and materials in our Swatch Store and you can order swatches for that all important perfect match.

Upper Street - the made-to-order luxury shoe label where you can design your own individual shoes and have them delivered right to your door.

This week’s Shoe Design of the Week is from lovely bride Isis, whose wedding took place in the House of Commons the same day the anti-austerity protests were happening. She told us how her Upper Street shoes saved the day after their cab couldn’t go past the police barricades a couple of streets away from the House of Commons.  We couldn’t help but fall in love with her wedding story and the fact that her shoes played such an important part in her special day.

Tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Isis and my hometown is Santa Cruz (a surf town on California’s Central Coast).

I am a lawyer. My career brought me to London a little over five years ago, and now it’s home, though travel remains my passion (I just came back from honeymoon in Zanzibar).

What inspired your shoe design?

I designed my shoes for my wedding. I wanted shoes that were special – so special that I could wear them again. I couldn’t imagine when I would have another opportunity to wear the white satin shoes I kept seeing in the bridal shops, but I did love red.

I started playing with shoe designs on the Upper Street website and was drawn immediately to the red snakeskin. My (now) husband had bought me a red crocodile bracelet from Aspinal last Christmas; my bridesmaids were wearing red and we were having intense red rose floral arrangements. I wanted to make sure the shoes looked the way I imagined, and that they were comfortable (I was walking myself down the aisle and was terrified of tripping!), so I came in to the Upper Street studio. Lisa not only helped me finalise my shoe design, but helped me try on a variety of styles and browse through the shelves of archived shoes.

What did you think of your shoes when you received them?

I was excited! Our wedding celebrated London (the city where we met) and was thus a mix of traditional and modern. On the traditional side, I wore the veil my husband’s mother wore at her wedding, my engagement ring was from 1910, our ceremony was in the House of Commons, and a vintage Routemaster bus took us to our reception. Our reception was more modern: American style cake from Hummingbird Bakery, margaritas, and keeping with my husband’s Scottish roots, lots of whiskey and bagpiping. I thought these shoes provided the right contrast to my yards of bridal white.

Have you worn your shoes yet?

I was married in October. The guests (and groom) loved the red touches. The red added a lot of warmth to a fall wedding. Despite all our planning, we couldn’t have planned for the massive anti-austerity protests on the day of the wedding – there were police barricades surrounding the House of Commons in all directions, and the bridal party ended up having to abandon our cab and navigate through several streets of riot police. The shoes got me through the protests and down the aisle – and back up for a fantastic party afterwards!

Thank you very much Isis for sharing your gorgeous wedding shoe design, story and beautiful photos with us. We’re delighted to have played a part in making your wedding day so special.

Being able to design your bridal shoes at Upper Street means there are no limits – tear up the rule book and be as individual as you like.  As well as uing your choice of material, we can offer special orders such as inscribing your shoes and adding a blue lining. What better way to help make your wedding day the most amazing day of your life?

For bridal inspiration visit our bespoke bridal shoes gallery and view our bridal blue shoe gallery to see more colours, design and embellishment options and then create your own personal design in Upper Street’s 3D Shoe Designer. Browse our full range of colours and materials in our Swatch Store and you can order swatches for that all important perfect match.

Upper Street - the made-to-order luxury shoe label where you can design your own individual shoes and have them delivered right to your door.

This week’s Shoe Design of the Week comes from South Manchester and is lovely bride Francesca. We absolutely loved her story and we are sure you will too. She looked stunning on her wedding day! So keep reading to find out more about her experience with Upper Street.

Tell us a little about yourself

My [New!] name is Francesca Chiorando Meredith, I’m originally from South Manchester, but have spent the last ten years traveling up and down the country for various University degrees and jobs, until deciding to settle back home with my new husband! Since moving back up North I have been working with my family, but before that I trained and worked in fashion. I always have to have a project on the go, recently it was our wedding, and we have also been refurbishing our new house ready for married life… I love to have something to research, plan and design, and I love learning new things! This year I gone from screen-printing wedding invitations one night, to knocking plaster off walls the next day…it’s been an interesting year!

What inspired your shoe design?

Having worked in fashion [and being a bit of a control freak] as soon as I heard about Upper Street, there was no WAY I wasn’t going to buy their shoes for my wedding! I did try to talk myself out of it for a short while, as obviously the wedding costs were spiraling, I even bought a crappy pair of high street shoes at one point…but I just couldn’t do it… shoes are important to me, and even if no one sees them (which they did!) I know they are there. There is no way I could’ve worn just any old pair of high street shoes for my wedding. As some of my friends like to say, I am a little contrary, I’ll always like the thing that no one else likes…I think just to be awkward, so the idea of having bridal shoes that I designed, and that no one else would have, was amazing.

I played around with the design for quite a while on the online designer (which is just brilliant) I designed about 10 variations of the same shoe: I knew a few definites, it would be 4.5 inches, it would be a platform, and it had to have an ankle strap or T-bar (I’ve had an obsession with ankle straps since I was five!)

In the end, after visiting the lovely girls in their studio in London, they offered to make me a special shoe with a T-bar that is slightly different to the one they normally did. I love the idea of a T-bar, not only is it super cute, but it means you can throw yourself around without any risk of the shoes coming off!

I wanted to design a shoe that wasn’t obviously a bridal shoe, but was bridally enough, I wanted something that I could wear again… I couldn’t bear the thought of typical bridal shoes; I can’t stand satin, and low heels…eeek!!

What I didn’t expect was to design the shoe I ended up with, on paper it sounded awful: 4.5inch platform in white snakeskin and gold leather?? Yeugh! But they are gorgeous! A lot of my wedding was understated, quite a plain dress, Pachelbel to walk down the aisle, a lot of it whispered simplicity, but these wonderful little shoes, hiding underneath my dress, ready to pop out screamed excitement!

What did you think of your shoes when you received them?

I adored my shoes on sight! I immediately tried them on and started prancing around in them! There were a few slight fit issues, and when I contacted the girls at Upper Street, they could not have been more helpful! I sent the shoes back and received a perfectly fitting pair within a few weeks. I was so impressed with their service and contact, which is absolutely invaluable, especially where stressed out brides are concerned!

I loved how beautifully the shoes were packaged, they were totally luxurious, I kept getting them out looking at them, and spending ages wrapping them back up again! The shoes themselves were beautiful, they were so well made, and I couldn’t believe how well they fit considering I had ordered them online. I just could not wait to be able to wear them properly.

Have you worn your shoes yet?

I wore my shoes for my wedding in June 2012, and they were a hit! Aside from being gorgeous, they were so comfortable that I wore them all day long, and even walked from the reception to our house in them (which took us about 30 minutes!) I danced like mad in them, and ran around, without one tiny bit of discomfort. This is pretty impressive for wearing shoes for the first time, for over twelve hours!

A lot of my friends asked to see my shoes, as they all know that I love high heels, and it was great to show them off! A few were quite surprised at how high they were for a wedding shoe, but not surprised that I had chosen them. It was brilliant to be able to show off my shoes, and explain how special they were, to have something so individual for my wedding, when so many things are often repeated. I had had a few problems with over aspects of the wedding, and so to have this part be so perfect was really lovely, and not something I had originally planned.

The week of the wedding, I was even more surprised to receive a lovely card from the girls, wishing me well for our wedding, it was so lovely of them to remember, and to show such care. It shows that to the girls at Upper Street, it’s not just about making shoes, it’s making dreams come true!

Thank you very much Francesca for sharing your gorgeous wedding shoe design, story and beautiful photos with us. We’re delighted to have played a part in making your wedding day so special.

Being able to design your bridal shoes at Upper Street means there are no limits – tear up the rule book and be as individual as you like.  As well as uing your choice of material, we can offer special orders such as inscribing your shoes and adding a blue lining. What better way to help make your wedding day the most amazing day of your life?

For bridal inspiration visit our bespoke bridal shoes gallery and view our bridal blue shoe gallery to see more colours, design and embellishment options and then create your own personal design in Upper Street’s 3D Shoe Designer. Browse our full range of colours and materials in our Swatch Store and you can order swatches for that all important perfect match.

Upper Street - the made-to-order luxury shoe label where you can design your own individual shoes and have them delivered right to your door.

This week’s Shoe Design of the Week, as well as being a stunning design, is chosen as it represents a common problem, a bride-to-be who is as tall, or taller than her husband-to-be, and doesn’t want to tower over him in high heels. Find out how Winifred from Rotterdam solved this problem and designed her dream wedding shoe with Upper Street.

Tell us a little about yourself

My name is Winifred Persoon and I am from Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Winifred's wedding invitation which inspired her shoe design

What inspired your shoe design?

I created the shoes for my wedding. I am slightly taller than my (now) husband and so superhigh heels were not an option. However, we have both fully accepted the fact that I am taller and I didn’t want to wear flats with my wedding dress. As my dress was really white, I wanted patent leather shoes to match. I’ve searched in many shops and a lot online, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. Until I came across Upper Street! I’ve used our wedding invitation as an inspiration to create the shoes. Really love the fact that I can wear these shoes again after our wedding, as they also look amazing with a pair of jeans or any other outfit for that matter.

What did you think of your shoes when you received them?
I loved the luxury box with the bow they arrived in. And when I opened it, it was exactly what I had imagined, or even better! The shoes are high quality and that shows, they look amazing.

Have you worn your shoes yet? What did your friends think?
I have worn the shoes at my wedding and have gotten lots of compliments! My dress was long, but everyone could see them when I was getting out of the car, or when I was seated during our ceremony! While at the end of the night others were kicking off their high heels, I was still dancing away comfortably in them!

Thank you very much Winifred for sharing your gorgeous wedding shoe  design and beautful photos with us. We’re delighted to have played a part in making your wedding daya so special.

Being able to design your bridal shoes at Upper Street means there are no limits – tear up the rule book and be as individual as you like.  As well as uing your choice of material, we can offer special orders such as inscribing your shoes and adding a blue lining. What better way to help make your wedding day the most amazing day of your life?

For bridal inspiration visit our bespoke bridal shoes gallery and view our bridal blue shoe gallery to see more colours, design and embellishment options and then create your own personal design in Upper Street’s 3D Shoe Designer. Browse our full range of colours and materials in our Swatch Store and you can order swatches for that all important perfect match.

Upper Street - the made-to-order luxury shoe label where you can design your own individual shoes and have them delivered right to your door.