What's happening in the world of hand painted wedding shoes?

Hand Painted Purple and Silver Colour Scheme for a Wedding Shoe

As we gear up for the 2014 wedding season we are starting to notice a recurring theme to the enquiries which are flooding into our busy mail box: 'We'll leave it up to you'. Whilst this is music to our designer, Gemma Kenward, ears it poses us with a few quandaries. The biggest being is what's trending in the world of weddings and hand painted loveliness on the shoes. Should fads and fashion really impact on something so personal to a bride on her wedding day?

Hand Painted Vans (trainers) for a wedding in October. Personalised with vintage pearls and butterflies.

Colour: Colour schemes are by far the predominant factor that dictates a theme and fluidity to a wedding. We've seen them all, every combination and every clash or harmonious pairing.

We even stumbled across a rainbow wedding via one of the many wedding blogs we follow to keep us informed and our nosiness sated (that's what us blog readers are really searching for - inspiration and a chance to be nosey). There was Marie's wedding with burnt orange and brown - we particularly loved the brides bright orange nail varnish! Then there was Hayleys wedding. She asked the guests to wear either black and white to her winter wedding and then added that extra splash of colour with the bridesmaids crimson red dresses. Then there was Jo's who ran with a beach theme so naturally there were soft creams, blues and sandy colours. The list goes and on and on. Neither seem out of date or indeed ultra trendy. So what colour is fashionable this year? A lot of brides are asking us if we can paint gold and silver onto our shoes, more so this year than any other. The answer of course is yes. Green has also been asked for a lot lately, often matched with a metallic colour or a soft pink. Pink and green are best friends in our colour palette. This of course depends on the location of the bride too. An australian enquiry into a pair of shoes is completely different to an english enquiry................ goodness, the list goes on! But what we are sure of is colour. We haven't been asked for a subtle pair of shoes to be painted yet and we doubt we will be.

Comfy court shoes hand painted with flowers and tattoo-esque flourishes.

Style: Of course every pair of shoes we receive have lots of style but what are our customer sending us?

Platforms? Ballet pumps? Trainers? Sneakers? Flip flops? Mary Janes? Toms? Converse? Jimmy Choo's? Expensive or affordable? Used or brand new? What are you gorgeous brides buying this year? And the answer is.......... (wait for it)........ it's court shoes! Comfortable but with a heel for height and sophistication without almost breaking your neck when you take to the dance floor for your first dance. Of course we have had a lot of orders for flats which mostly consist of Vans, Converse or Toms but the majority of our brides have requested hand painted court shoes. In fact, we have a lot of Rainbow Club and Dune court shoes sent to us of which you will see a lot more of in the coming months as they get customised and photographed for our website.

'Nothing Else Matters' Metallica lyrics painted onto a pair of wedges.

Design: We wouldn't have a business if our shoes didn't have a design because that's what we do!

We design the shoes specifically for you to personalize day. We do like to put our own stamp on the hand painted shoes so they are recognizably Gemma Kenward shoes which means we add flourishes here and there, especially down the heel. We are asked for all sorts of things but the most popular this year has been butterflies, song lyrics and painting a little something on the underside of the soul too. The song lyrics have been particularly exciting especially when it comes to painting Metallica lyrics onto a pair of wedges. That was fun especially when Gemma put on the Black Metallica album full blast to paint to. Along with lyrics we are asked a lot of musical notes which we love to draw and paint onto shoes. So far we've had requests for Moomins, Badgers silhouettes, paw prints, bunting and much much more to paint this year and we're looking forward to lots of other designs that make you brides such an eclectic and interesting bunch.