From planning a wedding in a pandemic to having a virtual appointment to co-create her dream wedding shoes with Emmy, Bride-To-Be Ashley kindly shared her bridal journey with us.

"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue...

It was finally ME who got to figure out what each of these four things would be on my very own wedding day!  I could not even believe it! 

I don't know about you, but I had never been one of those girls who had every detail of her wedding day planned out from an early age.  I did know that I hoped to be lucky enough to one day fall in love and have a family...but I had never spent too much time dwelling on it. 

Sure enough, after years of being in several friends and family's weddings, I now find myself planning my own big day!  I was introduced to my fiance by a mutual friend.  A friend I only made due to my dog...my English Cream Golden Retriever named Oliver Dale. When he was about 4 months old, we were outside for a walk and ran into the most pawdorable American Golden Retriever puppy named Nola.  It was definitely love at first 'bite'. ;)  They hit it off immediately, and so did Nola's mom and I!  Nola is only 3 weeks younger than Oliver, so they have really grown up together!  Nola's mom, Sarah, and I became fast friends!

Five years later, as we were exchanging holiday gifts, Sarah said to me...."I really hate doing this, but I really think there is somebody you need to meet."  After I accepted the idea, she gave my now future fiance my contact information, he called to introduce himself over the phone.  We set up a coffee date to meet in person, and that coffee date turned into a three hour brunch date.  We have been inseparable since!  He proposed ten months later, on New Years Eve!  We are set to wed in December 2020."

THE WEDDING PLANNING

"All you can really do is laugh about it!"

"BINGO!  I had found the winner, I just knew it!" 

"I was searching high and low for inspiration. I am pretty certain it was an article on Pinterest that caught my eye about the 10 most stylish wedding shoes for 2020...and this pair I saw came in a block heel...and the icing on the cake is that this shoe claimed to also be one of the most comfortable pairs of stylish wedding shoes.  BINGO! I had found the winner, I just knew it! I told my mom, sisters and future sister in law, Jayne, all about the Emmy London Cinderella shoes....oh yeah, did I mention they are called "Cinderella"?!?!  Who doesn't want to be Cinderella for one night (before midnight, that is ;) ). I was all in! Little did I know, my sneaky future-in-law, Jayne, had a few tricks up her sleeve..." 

THE SURPRISE 

"I was over the moon excited!!!"

"In July, I was turning 40...another big celebration that was basically halted due to Covid.  My fiance and I were still planning on going to stay with my parents in Indiana, and my two sisters and their families were going to come celebrate.  Unfortunately, we had a Covid scare (everyone is thankfully fine now), so our trip was canceled the day prior.  We were no longer going to be able to spend my 40th with my family. I am extremely close with my family, so that was a very big deal for me.  Bob and I decided we would head over to his sister's house to have some cake.  Jayne really pulled out all the stops and had beautiful balloons and cake and some bubbly!  When I opened her gift, I was shocked!  She and her parents had contacted Emmy London and worked with their team to arrange a gift card for me for THE SHOES!!!!  I was over the moon excited!!!" 

 "It gets even better....not ONLY did I receive a gift card towards the purchase of the shoes, I actually was gifted a VIRTUAL appointment with Emmy, herself!  WOW! I really could not believe it!  The head designer and founder of the company was going to hop on a zoom call with ME?!!  No way!  This is so crazy (in a good way!)!"

"I could not believe how kind and down to earth Emmy was!" 

THE VIRTUAL APPOINTMENT 

"It's true - a few weeks later when we had set up the date, I was able to do a video call with Emmy.  I even was able to have my mother, sisters and future sister in law on the video call as well.  It was the most incredible experience!!!  I could not believe how kind and down to earth Emmy was!  She took a lot of time to listen to what I was envisioning and then to go over every detail of the shoe for me to make it exactly what I wanted!  She showed me different examples, took notes, and then sketched my very own shoe while we were watching!  It was really something!!"

TRYING ON THE SHOES

"Within days, the Emmy London package arrived with the pair of shoes for me to try.  They were so beautiful!  Along with the shoes came different swatches of different colors/styles of the embellishments/beading/etc, along with a hand-written note from Emmy, herself!"

"I was really blown away at the personal customer service!"  

"Once I had the chance to try on, I had some questions for Emmy and her team.  I sent the questions via email, and Emmy replied straight away.  Shipping the sample shoes back could not have been any easier.  All of the instructions are provided for you along with the label, and the courier service comes to you to pick up the package that needs to be shipped back. 

The next step for me was to request some additional sizing and styles, which I received from Emmy extremely quickly.  She even went so far as to create a prototype sample shoe specifically for me and the sizing that I needed.  I was really blown away at the personal customer service, response time, and constant communication." 

"I would very highly recommend the bespoke service with the virtual appointment with Emmy."

"Growing up and shortly after college, I worked in retail and can tell you customer service is everything.  I also have high standards because of that.  Emmy handled all of my needs from beginning to end.  I truly could not have felt more taken care of or happier with this experience.  I would very highly recommend the bespoke service with the virtual appointment with Emmy.  She is literally the best!!!

THE HAPPY ENDING