Tuesday Shoesday – Bloggers’ shoes from the UK Blog Awards 2016

If you can cast your mind back to the last few times that I’ve been to a blog awards event, you might remember that I have a bit of a post-ceremony tradition. I love to share photos of the bloggers’ shoes in a Tuesday Shoesday post. Not only do I love chatting with all the fabulous writers and photographers that I meet at the event, but I’m also really interested in their outfit for the event and, in particular, their choice of shoes. Here are a few of my previous ‘Your Shoes’ blog posts after the Cosmopolitan blog awards and the very first UK Blog Awards back in 2014. Anyway, this year is no exception and no sooner had I arrived home from the event, I was tweeting my new pals to see if they wanted to get involved in my next Tuesday Shoesday post. Thankfully, all the bloggers I chatted to replied to my request and sent through photos of their own (rather fabulous!) shoes for me to share with you today. Oh and I’m thinking about compiling another ‘Your Shoes’ blog post for everyone to join in with so please email me [email protected] or tweet me @Cassiefairy if you’d like to show off your shoes in my next post!

The first bloggers to send me a snap of their shoes were the couple behind award-winning blog Hey! Dip Your Toes In. This inspirational website is packed full of glorious photography, appetising recipes and I-want-to-be-there-now travel posts, so it comes as no surprise that Eulanda and Omo won the award for Best Food & Drink Blog in the UK. They totally deserve this accolade – you can tell just how passionate they are about their blog and the experiential lifestyle they live. And it didn’t stop there; this fabulous duo made it a double-whammy by winning Highly Commended in the Travel category too!

I asked them to talk me through their footwear choices for the event and I’m pleased to report that they (like me!) cited comfort on the dancefloor as one of the main reasons that they chose these particular shoes; “We typically like to coordinate when we go to big fancy events, however, we’d just gotten back the day prior to the event from a 15 day press trip. With his in mind, we really couldn’t be bothered with making a fuss at coordination attempts. We knew there would be dancing, and rather than risk a night of tender toes and tears of regret, we opted for the old faithful shoes. Omo wore his wedding shoes, and I wore my graduation shoes. Both pairs are super comfortable, and have seen hours of fire on the dance floor! Our shoes happened to be the same shade of caramel, which is really our version of ‘nude.’ Honestly, there were no other options. Comfort rained supreme on this day, and we were able to dance for hours on end after the ceremony was over. A night well done for us!” And trust me, they sure did tear up that dancefloor – I’ve seen the photos! Congratulations again to Hey! Dip Your Toes In – you deserve to dance the night away after scooping two awards!Next up are Laura from Devine Bride and Maggie from Planes & Champagne, the lovely ladies who sat with me during the awards ceremony and actually had to persuade me out of my seat when my name was called. Thank goodness they were there! Laura told me all about her plans for her gorgeous wedding blog while we chatted at the event and I can’t wait to work with Devine Bride in the future on guest posts and more. While Maggie was already off on another plane straight after the ceremony, Laura stuck around in London and was able to zip a photo of her classy black shoes over to me straight away. She told me that she decided to wear her bargain shoes over and above some much more expensive shoes in her collection because they’re super-comfy.

“I wore these shoes to the UK Blog awards last Friday as I was nervous about going and meeting new people, and these shoes never let me down! They are one of the cheapest pairs I own (£14.99 from New Look via ASOS last summer), but one of the best.  I have lots of more expensive shoes that I have blagged through various jobs in the past (Russell & Bromley and Louboutin, no less), but I always revert back to these. I love the heel height and the comfortable suede.  They are a simple classic court shoe and go with just about anything – I’ve even worn them with jeans.  I actually planned on wearing sparkly sandals to the UK Blog Awards, as I was a little intimidated by the attendee information stating that the dress code was formal/cocktail dress, but I had already ruined my wedding pedicure from the week before and was coming to the event straight from work.  I had a brilliant night and have put it down to putting my best foot forward, in my favourite (comfortable) courts.”

Even though she’d already jetted off to another part of the world, Maggie from luxury travel and lifestyle blog Planes & Champagne emailed me with a photo of her UK Blog Awards outfit and told me how she’d treated herself to a new pair of shoes for the event. Luckily (and unusually for new shoes) they didn’t pinch at all; “In honour of attending my first bloggers event and awards ceremony last Friday (the UKBA 2016), I absolutely had to treat myself to a pair of new shoes. I purchased these black kitten heels from Zara which is my go-to shop for affordable luxury. At only £29.99, my trusty LBSs (little black shoes!), were too much of a bargain to leave on the shelf. I’m also a massive fan of kitten heels because you can last the full evening in them without so much as experiencing a foot twinge so it’s a win-win situation.”

After many, many years of working together via email, collaborating on articles and missing each other at events, Alina from The Fairytale Pretty Picture and I finally met! And she was everything I’d ever imagined – smiley, kind, intelligent and absolutely gorgeous – AND she had made her own outfit, what a hero! Can we just take a moment to admire her handmade skirt here? I wish I was that talented with a sewing machine! I also wish that I’d had more time to talk with her, but the whirlwind of photos, interviews and celebrating whisked me away from her almost immediately. One day we’ll get to have a proper sit down and coffee together, but for now we’ve taken our friendship back online and she was kind enough to send me photos of her shoes straight away. Alina has been judge of the Lifestyle category for three years running so she certainly knows how to put together an amazing awards outfit.

“My shoes are from Debenhams. The reason I wore them is because I thought the skirt needed an elegant touch and their pointy end gives exactly that. The heel is comfortable and stylish. But I also needed to wear shoes that were a neutral colour so as not to take the attention away from the floral pattern of my midi skirt. There is no way that I’d travel in those to the venue all the way from Essex so I had a sneaky pair of flats in the cloakroom for when it was all over!” Have a read of Alina’s blog post about the UK Blog Awards and her amazing outfit here.

I nabbed this photo of Beth and Suzy from their blog

Next up are two ‘veterans’ of the UK Blog Awards that I first encountered back in 2014 at the very first UKBA ceremony; Beth and Suzy. Having met at that very event two years ago, this pair of talented bloggers decided to join forces and create a new magazine site together – The Olive Fox. I actually found out about the blog via Alina so I’ve read the blog many times since it launched 6 months ago. So as an avid reader, I was delighted when the blog was announced as the winner of the Highly Commended award in the Most Innovative company category.

I was laughing out loud as I read their round-up of the event – especially the ‘behind-the-scenes’ write-up of scoffing chips and rushing to the event in pumps before changing into something more a little more glitzy before breezing into the hotel. So I was pleased when they emailed me with some photos of their glamorous heels along with a sneaky peek at their ever-so-slightly more comfy trainers; “We wanted to show the glam and not so glam side of a fancy event! The trainers are mine (Beth) and I wore them to get to the event for comfort, as I have a bad knee. Then the heels are Suzy’s fancy shoes.”

And finally, Simone from double-award-winning blog Eltoria.com has just emailed me with some photos of the sky-high platform shoes that she wore the event. This talented fashion blogger scooped the award for Best Beauty & Fashion Blog AND later the same night she trotted up on stage for a second time to collect her Best Vlogger & Podcast award. Even though her River Island shoes look especially high, she tells us that they are actually really comfortable, thanks to the chunky platform sole and sturdy block heels; “Despite how high they were, they were incredibly comfortable to walk in and my feet didn’t feel as though they were going to drop off (so none of the ol’ kicking off the heels at the end of the night). What made them so comfortable was the fact that you could tie up the straps around your ankles and hence giving that extra support.” I also love the fact that they can be tied up in different ways to create two different looks depending on the occasion – I think the ballet-style lacing would suit a wedding, while the ankle-tie looks night-out edgy. And, of course, the delicate nude colour goes with any outfit and it complemented her pretty lace dress perfectly. Read her account of the UK Blog Awards 2016 on her blog and check out those awards!

And I couldn’t sign off without sharing my super-comfy pink shoes from Hotter. I wore them all night, it was the first time I’d put them on and they were as comfortable as if I’d been wearing them for years. Oh and in case you were wondering, no it still hasn’t really sunk in that I actually won an award at the UK Blog Awards 2016. I’ve got the award on my desk (just behind my laptop screen) and I keep checking it to make sure that it really does have my name on it! I still kind of feel like I collected someone else’s award but having watched the video of the ceremony today, I actually was able to watch the moment that my name was called… so I’m starting to believe it a bit more now, even if I do look VERY confused on the video!I’m thrilled that so many lovely bloggers sent me photos of their shoes to include in this post-ceremony Tuesday Shoesday post and I hope that you’ve enjoyed being nosy about their outfit choices, like me! If you too would like to get involved in a future ‘Your Shoes’ blog post please email me [email protected] with photos of your favourite shoes and tell me why you love them so much. And don’t forget to send me your blog info so that I can link back to you too!