Gemma Kenward Shoes @gemmakenward - Tumblr Blog

Expecto Patronum!

Who here is a Harry Potter fan? I don't know many people who don't love a bit of Harry Potter and there's some die hard fans out there especially one bride in particular! Her wedding was a full on Harry fest but she wanted to have a little something which was a nod to her Harry potter fandom hence why she got in touch with me to hand painted her wedding shoes.

I myself love Harry potter and have been dying to paint a pair of hand painted wedding shoes with a Harry Potter theme ever since I started this business and finally here they are! Painted with the Deathly Hallow symbol complete with that awesome quote from Dumbledore and Snape 'After all this time?' 'Always'. There's also Snapes iconic stag petronus and even a golden snitch on there too. I couldn't be happier with the customised Harry Potter wedding shoes and I hope I get to paint more in the future.

Blue Hand Painted Wedding Shoes for a Greek Wedding

We painted a pair of blue wedding shoes for a bride getting married in Greece. These are perfect for a 'something blue' for your wedding, if you go in for the tradition of 'Something Borrowed'.

Which of course we do! The bride asked up to paint the shoes with feathers and flowers from a pattern she had seen in some china which complimented their Greek theme. We also personalised the bridal shoes with the names of the bride and groom and the date of their wedding.

Photo credit to: Gabriele Basilico - https://www.facebook.com/gabrielebasilico83

Alternative Brides! We have some Nightmare Before Christmas Converse For You!

Every bride is different. I know that more than most with all the fantastically adverse and alternative requests we get. Star Wars? No problem! Dr. Who? I have a ton of tardis painted shoes up my sleeve. Harry Potter? Absolutely. Marvel and DC superhero theme shoes? Yes, I can do that no problem, in fact I have! However there was one alternative cult classic I had to paint and here it is!

Tim Burton is somewhat an inspiration to me. I've mentioned before I'm a bit of an animation nut. I'm a big fan of Tom Burton's films Edward Scissorhands and Sweeny Todd but it's the animated films I love and the best of them all is the Nightmare Before Christmas. It's somewhat of a tradition of mine to watch this film on Christmas Eve even though it's truely a Halloween film.

These high top Converse are painted with Jack Skellington and Sally with a quote 'Simply Meant To Be' the bride wanted on the sides. Hi Tops are always very cool and made cooler by Tim Burton's characters from the Nightmare Before Christmas film.

I also personalise clutch bags for weddings too!

"Where do you put your lipstick on the big day?"

"Where can you stash that chalk all the wedding blogs recommend you have on hand in case of wedding dress spillages?"

"Where will my money and bank card go?" (You may not need it as your guests will probably keep you in drinks all night but what if you need some cash?)

"What do I do if I get a prosecco headache mid afternoon at the reception? If only I had some paracetamol!"

The father of the brides pockets aren't big enough for a phone, makeup, chalk, tissues, etc etc etc! So where are you going to keep all your 'stuff' close to hand. Of course you can appoint a bridesmaid that can have everything to hand or even keep it behind the bar at your reception but is that practical?

These are all questions I have asked myself and one of our brides came up with the perfect solution. Well, I suppose it's not rocket science to think of taking a clutch bag for your wedding day but she made it extra special by asking me to hand painted clutch bag to match her shoes. Genius!

We painted the brides clutch bag with black and white gerberas to match the brides flowers. We also painted her wedding shoes to match the bag too!

I Have a Confession to Make...........

........I'm a huge Disney fan. That's not the confession because Disney can be cool, right? Toystory, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles etc etc, it's okay to like those films because the animation is amazing and they're incredibly funny. However it's not so cool to like the Disney Princess films. They're not great for feminism. They're much better than they used to be in that sense but anyway, I'll get off my soapbox because I'm not your average Disney Princess loving girly girl but I am a sucker for a Disney fairy tale story. Plus I almost took a different turn in my art career and was interested in animation at college and then at art school, so animation fascinates me.

So what does this little secret pleasure have to do with wedding shoes? I painted some Disney Princess shoes of course! Yet some more which I love doing. This pair of wedding shoes even have the Disney Kingdom castle and Cinderella's pumpkin on the heels in shades of blue. There's a little fairy dust sparkling up the shoes too.

Are you struggling to buy your future bride/groom a wedding present?

What on earth do you get your other half as a surprise for the big day? I know it's something I'm struggling with as I plan our wedding for net year. Well, I had an enquiry not so long ago from a groom who had the best idea. He asked if I could hand painted a pair of wedding Toms for his future wife as a little surprise for their wedding day. It was the best kind of enquiry as the groom was so sweet deciding on the designs and knew exactly what his fiancee would like.

We decided upon painting some pink butterflies on the brides Toms along with the usual scrolls and flicks as well as their names and the date of their wedding.

They are a perfect gift for a bride who knows they won't be able to entertain the idea of having to wear high heels all day long especially when it comes to party time at your reception. I know I'll be kicking off my heels way before the music starts!

Tale As Old As Time

What better way to celebrate your special day by incorporating your favorite Disney film into your shoes as you walk down the aisle and dance the night away.

What even better way to share the Disney Princess theme to your wedding party and have a pair of shoes personally designed and hand painted for your flower girl. These little teeny tiny shoes definitely have the 'awwww' factor!

It seems there has been a Disney themed wedding request for shoes a lot this year. No surprises it coincides with the much awaited Beauty and the Beast film which hit the cinemas. Each Beauty and the Beast themed bridal shoes we have painted have been different though, whether we paint Mrs. Potts or Chip onto the shoes or just go the whole way and paint on Belle and The Beast onto the shoes we have made them individual to each bride to suit their Disney Princess wedding.

These shoes for instance have just that; Belle and The Beats on one shoes and Mrs. Potts and her beloved Chip on the other. The flower girls shoes almost mirror this too, with touches of sparkle and magic painted onto each pair.

I can't say they were easy to paint but I love a challenge! I think my favorite part of the shoes is Belle's golden dress, which I thought turned out great, if I do say myself.

We also painted on some pink and ice blue hearts and added the bride and grooms names and the date of the wedding onto the sides of the shoes to make them extra personalised for the bride.

Who wants to see some Disney Beauty and the Beast Personalised Wedding Shoes?

Hand Painted Disney Beauty and the Best Wedding Shoes

When I was younger and testing my arty skills I adorned my walls with Disney characters as well as a few other much loved animated characters (Beavis and Butthead, Sylvester the Cat, Homer and Bart Simpson etc). I suppose I had some practice in drawing Disney characters from years ago which made the design of these particularly special wedding shoes for a bride getting married at Disney World a little easier but obviously on a much smaller scale!

I have painted a pair of Beauty and the Beast themed bridal shoes before however can't share them just yet as the bridal couple wanted to keep them underwraps until their big day this summer. This pair of of customised Disney wedding shoes have literally taken over my life the last month. It started with the design and painting and then sort of escalated when I sent them all finished, painted and beautiful to the bride. She was so thrilled with them she shared them on a large global Facebook group called 'Disney World Junkies'. And all of a sudden - BAM - my inbox started to fill up with enquiries and I'm wondering what on earth is going on until the penny drops..... the post went viral. Well, sort of viral because I have no idea what sort of numbers constitutes viral.

These gorgeous wedding shoes with Disney's Miss Potts, Chip and Lumiere painted in soft dusky pink hearts have been liked 3000 times (and counting!) with thousands of comments and what feels like a million enquiries.

I can't wait to the share the other Beauty and the Beast Disney wedding shoes I painted for this summer and fingers crossed they have the same success!

I Found My Treasure in You Personalised Wedding Shoes

Quite a lot of the time we receive white wedding shoes to hand paint for our brides which of course is great as they are a blank canvas to work on. We do however are asked to personalise colourful wedding shoes like this pair of ice blue shoes.

We painted these bridal shoes with pink roses and a little painting of the Eiffel Tower in Paris enclosed in a heart as the bride and groom got engaged in Paris. There is also a gold key which is painted on the side of the shoes with a ribbon heart.

Not only were these shoes blue when they arrived but we were asked to paint a quote form the bride and grooms first dance at the wedding form the a song by Wretch 32 called 'I found my treasure in you', which in our opinion is a great first dance!

These shoes demonstrate all of the things we can custom paint on your shoes to remember your big day. There's of course the Eiffel Tower in there from the couples engagement, lyrics from the first dance, the date of the wedding, the name of the bride and groom customised on the back of the heels and the pink roses from the brides flower bouquet.

How to really sparkle on your wedding day in hot pink and diamante shoes

Attention all shoes addicts with a penchant for pink and sparkles! Do we have a treat for you?!

If you are struggling to find the right wedding shoes to suit you and your wedding you need look no further. These hot pink wedding shoes we painted for a bride in the UK are everything that's right with brides who want to stand out and stray away from the traditional white wedding shoes.

The magenta bridal shoes were personalised with white text to reflect the bride and grooms names and wedding date as well as white gerberas which were in the brides floral bouquet.

The bride also asked us to 'bling' up the heel with swarovski diamantes, diamonds and crystals.

Along the sparkly heel theme we also picked out the diamantes and added a diamante heart on the side of the heels to compliment the pink and white gerbera flowers.

We Don't Just Hand Paint Wedding Shoes.....

We can also add diamantes and applique lace to your bridal shoes too!

Check out these Rainbow Club court shoes we customised for a bride. The mother of the bride wanted to give her daughter a gift to remember her wedding day by. She asked us to hand paint the brides shoes with the names of the bride and groom as well as the date of the wedding but she also wanted some applique lace she had found added to the shoes too. To which of course we did for her and we were so happy with the results!

The hearts painted on the shoes were in navy and the hearts picked out with the same navy and silver, The lace added texture and interest to the wedding shoes to make them individual to the bride.

It just gives the rest of our bride and future customers an idea of the added extras you can add to your order, all for no extra cost too! Just supply us with the lace and we will do our very best to realise your vision of the prefect customised wedding shoes!

The Song for Your First Dance as Man and Wife is One of The Memorable Moments From Your Wedding.........

First song moments are hard to document as it often happens at the beginning of the night when your photographers has packed up the day and all you have is dark or grainy pictures guests have snapped with their phones. So how could you capture that memory for years to come when you think on your special day? We are biased of course but here's one answer to that question - Why not have the lyrics from your first song painted on your wedding shoes?!

I've been to many a wedding. You get to a certain age where it feels like you are going to a wedding every weekend of the summer but I do love a good wedding and get all smooshy and loved up when I watch the first dance between the happy couples. I can take or leave the first kiss at the alter, I can appreciate a good speech from the groom when he tells us all how much he loves his bride - but the one part of the wedding which my eyes may well up at is the first dance. I don't know why, I just do!

I know how difficult it must be to chose the perfect wedding song so when you do it's got to be - well perfect! And it's a big thing chosing your wedding songs so much so we often paint the lyrics our brides take to the dance floor to as a little momento from the day. We have hand painted lyrics from The Kings of Leon to Metallica.

The shoes featured here also wanted to incorporate their strong ties to London hence the London skyline custom painted along the shoes with the London eye and Big Ben.

The shoes were painted in a pinky coral colour and also a light grey for the bricks of the wall with 'I Do' painted on the back too.

Competition Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Sam won the competition we ran in January to win a pair of hand painted wedding shoes and sent us the most beautiful pair of Irregular Choice bridal shoes for us to personalise for her.

The design maybe simple but very effective with just a few hearts painted on the sides of the shoes with the date of the wedding, the bride and grooms names and their sons name. The glitter on the heels shows through the paint which is a lovely touch.

I'm also in love with the thickness of the heel which I bet will make them mega comfy for Sam for her wedding day.

Customising the shoes with your own design is also a great way to include special family members into your big day. Sam chose to have her sons name written on the inside of the shoes. We have had many brides this year ask her to do something very similar for their children names.

For your chance to win a pair of our customised wedding shoes which we hand paint with whatever typography and illustrations you would like, keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook page.

Have you seen these Disney Fairytale Princess Wedding Shoes?

These shoes painted for a bride in Canada are not to be missed! The bride loves all things Disney and her husband to be contacted me asking us to hand painted his beautiful brides wedding shoes for him.

As you can see from the photos of the bridal shoes here the design was very bespoke and specific. Paul and Shannon had a clear idea of what the shoes wanted to look like and we all worked together to get them perfect.

First and foremost Cinderella had to be painted on the heels of the wedding shoes and what does everyone relate to Cinderella? Her glass pumpkin carriage of course. I wanted to add that to the design and Paul and Shannon asked for Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears silhouettes to be included complete with the iconic ears and polka dot bow. The Disney castle was also a must and Tinkerbell had to be on there somewhere zooming along the length of the brides shoes with fairy dist in her wake.

Finally but certainly not least we painted some purple flowers to bring the whole sketch together.

These are by far the trickiest shoes I have painted to date and the hours pouring over the designs and concentrating very hard to get every single element perfect when painted paid off. I'm in love with these shoes and am so proud of them. Paul and Shannon were thrilled too:

"Hello Gemma, Shannon received the package, she's very happy with them, they look great! Money well spent :-) Job well done! Thank-you again and will speak soon, Paul."

Calling all Disney Fans! Check These Wedding Shoes Out!

As soon as someone says Disney immediately you think of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. So as soon as our bride said Disney I hoped she would ask for Mickey and Minnie Mouse to be hand painted onto her wedding shoes and she didn't disappoint! The bride even asked for her clutch bag to be painted with the theme too!

The bride is getting married on New Years Eve hence the fireworks hand painted on each of the bridal shoes too.

Minnie Mouse is by far my favourite Disney character, so much so I wore Minnie Mouse costume for a fancy dress party recently. The red, white and yellow colours which is affiliated with the characters is a colour match made in heaven, especially when you throw in the red and white polka dots too.

The customised bridal shoes are a simple design but simple speaks volumes when you have such a great Disney theme with nicknames of the bride and groom, the date of the wedding and the fireworks too. Why over complicate things when it comes to Mickey and Minnie!

Horse Mad Hand Painted Wedding Wedges

Wedding wedged shoes seem a more comfortable option for your wedding to keep those pretty feet of yours happy throughout your special day. There must be some sort of science behind wedges versus spiky heels but I'm not a scientist I'm an artist!

These hand painted wedding shoes for a bride in Australia are just as dainty and pretty as any spiked heeled shoes a bride has sent us and look closely! - there's even a heart shaped hole in the wedged heel too.

The design for the brides wedge shoes was simple, flowers and horse portraits as well as the ever popular names of the bride and groom on one side of the bridal shoes and the date of the wedding on the other shoes, all hand painted in purple script.

What was different about these shoes was the size of them and also the heart cut out of the heel. I take a UK size three shoe too so most of my shoes are as dainty as this pair of wedding shoes however painting on them was completely different because of the surface area, especially as there is a bow on the side of the wedges too.

Everything had to be smaller and even more delicate. I feel we achieved this with these shoes. The purple / lilac flowers added a subtle contrast against the vivid green of the leave and I feel also complicated the soft browns of the hearses encased in a heart.

Another first for us was the horses paint inside of love hearts on each bridal shoe. We managed to paint these in the wedge heel too to show our brides love of horses. The bride and groom work with horses and was such a gorgeous addition to the shoes to truly personalise them for the couple.

Something else to note is we are already receiving orders for wedding shoes to be painted next year, which is fantastic! It's always a true compliment and humbling to be asked to be a part of a brides special day. More and more brides are asking for different things to custom paint onto their bridal shoes and of course we are as accommodating as possible. Horses? Dog portraits? Cats? Rabbits? lots of pet portraits galore for next year! Also flowers a plenty and more obscure yet amazing requests like leprechauns and welsh dragons. 2016 is shaping to be a great year! If you would like to speak with us about your 2016 wedding we would love to hear from you! To avoid disappointment get your consultations and orders in as early as possible. ~ [email protected]

Shamrocks, Leprechauns and the Welsh Dragon Personalised Wedding Shoes

Shamrocks, leprechauns, pints of Guinness, Welsh Dragon, sunflowers, dog portraits, hearts and roses all custom painted onto a pair of white leather wedding shoes. Now there's a sentence I thought I'd never say. Or even have dreamed to have painted onto a pair of brides shoes this year.

So the brief. I received a detailed note enclosed with the shoes asking for all of the above. The leprechaun was to be an illustrated leprechaun holding a pint of Guinness with a shamrock poking out of his green hat, with a cheeky grin and red hair. The bride also asked for an illustration of a dog as she loved dogs. She also detailed asking for a red rose to symbolize Great Britain, as well as a welsh dragon. We were also asked to paint sunflowers onto the shoes with green hearts and flicks and scrolls. Naturally the names of the bride and groom had to be included as well as the date of their big day. Phew! That was a lot of things to include in our design for the shoes but we managed it as you can see from the pictures we took.

I'm really happy with the final result of the wedding shoes. They are fun and colourful and reflect the personality of the bride and groom perfectly.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Gemma Kenward Shoes