Wedding season means rehearsal dinner season, too. I think our approach to what to wear to rehearsal dinners lately has been comfortable clothes that are easy to pack and a little fancy without being too stuffy. So for me...shapeless linen. Comfy flats. A little extra of my usual jewelry. And for Kristie, the best-fitting pants she's ever worn. An easy button-down. And a narrow tie. Oh, and a whole saga with her shoes! Read on for that happy ending...
PS – Alternate suggested title for this post: "Are you going to Photoshop out your mosquito bites?" (No. Because I would rather spend my time binge-watching the new season of "Orange is the New Black," haha!)
Yup, I get to be married to this person.
Her shoes! Okay, so you know we have a billion weddings, parties, and rehearsal dinners this summer. Kristie really needed a new pair of dress shoes. Her style tends to be more traditionally masculine, so she was basically looking for fancy men's shoes in her size. After an exhausting, fruitless four-hour trip to the mall, we still had nothing to speak of. It was just so hard to find ones she liked that actually fit her!
Just a few days after that, Lauren from Tomboy Toes started following me on Twitter. I checked out her profile and website, and immediately thanked whatever part of the universe led to this perfectly timed coincidence. Her company makes traditionally masculine dress shoes for women and people with smaller feet. Lauren and I started messaging back and forth, and a week later, this pair of shoes arrived on our doorstep.
"These shoes are like, legitimately well made," Kristie said, sounding a little surprised, as she tried them on for the first time. "I'm going to put that in the blog post!" I called back while brushing my teeth. (And look, it's all in here now!) They came with shoe polish, which was a really nice touch, and you can buy different colored laces to customize them. "They're even pretty comfortable," she said in wonderment. (If you know Kristie, you know that's pretty much a glowing review ;)
She loved the sneakers she wore for our wedding, but I think secretly she wishes she'd had this pair of shoes back then.
During our mall trip, it took me a few minutes to adjust to how much the dress shoes she had in mind normally cost, and what we could expect to spend. I'm happy to report that Tomboy Toes are more affordable than that projected expense, at $60 per pair (that's for the Downtown Dappers, Kristie's new shoes. The Roguish Brogue is even cheaper).
In case you're curious, here are a couple other things I wanted to share about this company: The shoes are made with vegan leather (yay!); the company is queer-owned; and Tomboy Toes sold out of 50% of their inventory in the first month. We like them a lot.
Hers:
Shirt, H&M
Pants, H&M
Tie, H&M
Bracelet, Cedar Chest
Shoes c/o Tomboy Toes (thanks, Lauren!)
Mine:
Dress, DIY
Shoes, DSW
Jewelry, Madewell
Clutch, Madewell
*A few affiliate links are used in this post
