My Surprise Special Delivery...

Since I don't have any actual wedding pictures back yet, I will start off by telling you a story about our wedding day. It's a story I will always remember, and one that will always remind me of just how lucky I am.

You know how some brides change dresses? So they wear a big, fancy one for their wedding ceremony, and then they change into something super snazzy for their reception?

Well... I wasn't one of those brides. One dress was expensive enough, thank you!

I was, however, a bride who planned on changing her shoes.

You've all seen my previous post about my Kate Spades that a small army of people helped me locate. Well, those beautiful brown and green shoes are what I was initially planning on wearing under my wedding dress. They were completely non-traditional and loud, but they were our wedding colors (chocolate brown and apple green), and I adored them.

Then I came across a woman by the name of Deborah Thomson. At that point, all initial plans flew right out the window!

Deborah recently started up a business of hand-painting shoes. She takes things that are important to you (dates, places, animals, etc.), and paints them onto shoes. I had seen a picture of the very first pair she had painted for a bride and they were STUNNING!! So... Three weeks before our wedding, I contacted her. My hope was to have a pair of her shoes to wear for our wedding ceremony, and then to change into my Kate Spade's and wear those for the reception.

Deborah said that three weeks time would be tight, but that if we got the process started immediately, she would be able to have my shoes to me in time for the wedding. So, I sent her my list of important items, and she got to work.

I was SOOO excited when Deborah finished them and told me that they were in the mail to me... I COULD NOT WAIT to see them!!!

So, I waited.... And I waited....

She told me that it would take three days for them to get here, so she thought they'd be here the Tuesday before the wedding. When Thursday rolled by and my shoes still hadn't arrived, I e-mailed her. She said that according to the tracking information, they were in the US, and that they should be there the following day. When they didn't arrive on Friday... I was heartbroken.

It turns out... They got stuck at customs!! (They were coming from Canada.)

Now I realize that these were shoes. Just shoes. This wasn't a life or death situation... but it still made me sad that these beautiful shoes (which were sort of a surprise for Steve) weren't going to be here in time for the wedding. I cried.

As we were getting ready for the rehearsal dinner on Friday afternoon, I finally broke down and explain to Steve what was going on with the shoes and why I was so upset. He listened, gave me a big hug, and reminded me that I still had my Kate Spades to wear and that they were the original plan anyways. The shoes from Deborah would still come... They would just be a little late. He made me feel a lot better about the whole thing, so we got dressed up and headed off to our rehearsal dinner at the church.

Saturday morning rolled around and I was READY TO GO!! I was so excited and ready to get married!! All the girls met up at the church for hair and makeup at 11:00am, and then we started pictures around 2:00pm. Steve and I did our pictures first since we wanted to have just a few minutes of alone time before all the craziness started. Then we brought all the family and wedding party outside and did all of the additional pictures.

At one point during the family pictures, Steve walked up to me with a gift bag in his hand. He said he had "a little something" for me and told me to open it.

I hesitated.

Let me explain why.

The gift bag he handed me was black. It had a bunch of hot pink tissue paper spilling out of the top of it. It honestly looked like something that came from Victoria's Secret. Now... Steve's not a lengerie buying kind of guy. His little bald head turns red just walking by the front door of Victoria's Secret. That's why this bag caught me so off guard.

I asked him twice if he was sure he wanted me to open it in front of our ENTIRE family. He said yes. So I went for it.

When I opened the gift bag, there was a black box inside.

A black SHOE box.

It took a few seconds for it to hit me.... SHOES! Then I opened the box and saw that they were THE SHOES!! Steve had somehow managed to get his hands on my beautifully hand-painted shoes from Deborah Thomson!

This is where the tears started. I could NOT believe it! I think it's one of the only moments in my life where I have actually found myself unable to speak. I kept opening my mouth to say something, but all that came out were inaudible squeaks. I seriously think only a dog would've been able to understand the sounds I was making at that point!

As Steve was helping me put on my new, beautiful shoes, I asked him how in the world he managed to pull this off. This is where the story gets really, really good....

After seeing how upset I was that the shoes weren't going to be here in time for the wedding, Steve took it upon himself to contact Deborah directly to see if there was anything she could do. Deborah (who just so happens to be one of the nicest people I have ever worked with), immediately started painting a second pair of shoes for me, and worked all night to have them done by Saturday morning. Early Saturday morning... just hours before our wedding... my soon-to-be-husband rented an airplane and flew to Detroit to meet Deborah (who lives just across the Canadian border in Windsor, Ontario) and pick up the shoes she worked so hard to have finished for me!!

Here is a picture of my shoes on the dash of a Cessna 172, making their way from Detroit back to Columbus...

I know that they are just shoes. But to me, they are so much more than that. Those shoes made my day! Not just because I had gotten something that I was really hoping for... But also because every time I look at them I am reminded of the story behind them. They remind me that I am an extremely lucky girl to have married a man who will go to great lengths to make me happy!

They also give us a great story to share with friends and family!

I know our photographer got some really great, detailed pictures of these shoes. As soon as we get our pictures back, I'll post a few.

If any of you are interested in finding out more about Deborah Thomson's work, you can check out her work at www.figgieshoes.com. She just started her business just weeks ago, (I was the third bride she painted shoes for) and it is already taking off!! She's recently added a few other hand-painted items to her collection... including baby shoes! She is amazing!!