Why I Love (and sometimes Hate) J Crew

Oh, JCrew, how I love thee. It's been a love affair that's been going on since high school.  Alas, I love the clothes but hate how much money I spend there!  I think the vast majority of my wardrobe has been furnished by the Prepsters of Preppy Goodness, so it's no surprise that a lot of my wedding attire has been made possible by the fabulous Ja Crue!

For example, my bridesmaid's dresses are all from JC, remember?

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Now, today I made another important purchase, thanks to the great sales section that I follow stalk (seriously, it's a problem, I'm on the sale site at least once a day, if not more...) Today I bought my (dum dum dum,  intro music needed for this announcement).... Wedding shoes!

Or at least, I bought my first pair of wedding shoes (ok, fine, they're my second pair! But the other ones were definitely not right and I bought them during the summer for $40 so I'm not going to count them...They were also from JCrew.  I'm serious, I have a problem!)

Anyways, here's what inspired me to commit to such an oh-so-important (I don' mess around when it comes to shoes) purchase.  Last weekend, while treating myself to a little birthday shopping from my hallowed mecca, I came across some beautiful, glittery, gold peep toe shoes...In a size 7...One sale for $79.99...

They looked like these, only with a peep toe instead of a closed toe:

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So gorgeous, right? I know, I know, you're thinking in your head, Trail Mix, you idiot, why didn't you snatch these pretties up when you had the opportunity?!?! At least, that's what I am thinking in my head now...Alas, I've had a vision of yellow shoes for my wedding day since I picked out our colors and even though this gold is pretty damn close to yellow, I wasn't able to commit to a new vision on such short notice (these are major major decisions, people, it's not sensible to make them on the fly in the JCrew store while surrounded by beautiful merchandise and crying babies!)

I called my mom then and there, talked it over and decided to hold off on purchasing the shoes.  Fast forward to a week later and I was seriously regretting my decision. Luckily, JCrew has the best customer service ever and when I called, first they checked all the stores to see if they had my size in stock (no dice...6.5 and 8, argh, so close!) and then they offered to put me on their wish list in case someone returns a pair! Excellent, I have until February 1 to hope and pray that someone with a size 7 foot decides these shoes were not meant for them and returns 'em...

However, that got my shoe cravings going and when I spotted these babies on the sale section at JCrew this morning, I didn't waste a second...Here is the pair I actually (hopefully, finger's crossed) managed to purchase:

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They are like a more subdued version of the originals (the Diet Coke of the originals, if you will...)  For 60 smackeroos, I'm happy.  The heel isn't too high so I'll be able to dance the night away but still high enough to give me the few extra inches we short girls tend to crave.  They are a bit plain and little more bridal than I had originally envisioned so I'm thinking of jazzing them up with some cool shoe clips, like these ones that I found on TwistedCrystal's shop on Etsy.

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Wouldn't those be perfect? I'm waiting for the shoes to come in before I make a decision on the clips though...

Oh JCrew, how I heart you...

But just like any seemingly-perfect relationship, there have been times when the Crew and I have been on rocky ground (hence the hate part in our love-hate relationship).  Case in point: Two weeks ago, I found these seriously cute satin, yellow clutches in the sale section (I weren't lying when I said I was OBSESSED!) and at $20 a pop, quickly put 4 in my shopping bag for my bridesmaids. I placed my order and went on my merry way, so happy to have found such a bargain as part of my gift to my girls...

Well, three days later, I got a form email from J Crew very glibly apologizing for having "run out of stock before completing my order." And guess, dear readers, just GUESS what they had run out of stock of...Yup, my pretty and cheap and basically perfect satin clutches.  The bastards.  When I called to complain, the woman was very polite and agreed that this was not an ideal situation and offered to give me a 20% discount on any other clutch they had in stock, which was nice but not helpful since none of the other clutches were A) yellow or B) even remotely close to the fabulous price of $20. JCrew FAIL!

But overall, I have to say that this encounter has not stopped me from stalking the sale section at JC and I think it's safe to say that my shoes will certainly not be the last wedding purchase I make from them...

Are you into the Crew the way that I am or do you think it's over-hyped and over-priced??