There are those moments when words fail even me. Finding the photo below, was one of them. And so I ask you, dear readers, to give me your best captions. There’s no prize aside from the fun involved, but I hope you’ll all play along at home, anyway.
One thing is certain when you’re getting married: you’re going to spend a lot of time standing on your feet. Because of that, it’s vital to have comfortable shoes on your big day. After all, sore feet do not improve the post-wedding festivities in any way, shape or form.
Unfortunately, more and more brides seem to be solving this dilemma by wearing fashionable high heels for the ceremony, and then changing at the reception into decidedly non-superfantastic footwear for the party. Sneakers with lace and sequins added are still sneakers, and the less said of flip-flops at formal events in my hearing, the better.
The upside of this practice is, of course, an ability to boogie the night away and still leave the party under your own power. I cannot deny this as a positive thing. Alas, the downsides are myriad. Extra expense, unfortunate glimpses of those monstrous wedding sneakers, and a pool of gown that was hemmed for three-inch heels cascading across the dance floor tripping all in its path really do cancel out the comfort factor for me.
There is, however, another and better way to handle the question: wear low-heeled or flat shoes that you can be comfortable in all day and all night long.
The good news is that flat shoes are very fashionable just now, so there are plenty of pretty, flirty, elegant flats to choose from, like these sigerson morrison beauties.
available from Barney’s New York for a mere $345.00.
The even better news is that there are more budget-friendly shoes that are both flat and fabulous, such as these gorgeous gold Nine West shoes
available through Amazon for a whopping $49.99.
When comfort and fashion are both served by making one purchase instead of two, why fight it?
I’m of two minds where wedding performances are concerned. As fun as they can be, some of the skits friends and family decide to put on are atrocious and leave everyone feeling just a little embarrassed. Today’s example, which to me via Julie, is one of the better wedding dance numbers I’ve seen. Compare their take on OK Go’s A Million Ways to the original.
Think you can dance? Being a nearly lifelong dancer myself, I’d recommend you pick up a tome along the lines of Dance Composition Basics: Capturing the Choreographer’s Craft. Your wedding reception choreography will be original and rock the socks of all who witness it.
In other news, good luck walking down the aisle with daddy if you’re dreaming of tying the knot in a Lutheran Church in Stockholm.
Some pastors are refusing to allow the practice they say is sexist, a pastor said on Friday.
“In Sweden we have worked hard in many different ways to eliminate everything that is unequal,” a Lutheran Church vicar in the Stockholm region, Yvonne Hallin, told AFP.
She said she would not allow the custom in her parish, and noted that Stockholm’s bishop issued a recommendation in 2003 that pastors discourage it.
Sure, many people find the custom sexist or even icky, but I don’t necessarily see that as a reason to ban it altogether. Those who feel it’s offensive likely won’t incorporate it into their wedding ceremonies. Those who still think it’s sweet should march proudly down the aisle arm in arm, if their particular faith allows for that sort of thing.
It should be noted, however, that dad walking the bride down the aisle is primarily an anglo-saxon tradition and was apparently not part of the Swedish wedding ceremony until it was popularized there by US television programs. The bishop’s 2003 recommendation was based on the notion that a church wedding service should be strictly religious and should not incorporate modern, secular practices like aisle walking.
As was discussed in my recent post about the well dressed pate, it isn’t always easy to find classy, upscale headgear. I myself have a larger than average head and am often dismayed to find that I cannot squeeze into the nicer off the rack hats I come across. Now, let’s fantasize that you’re to attend or participate in an outdoor wedding in a traditionally hot clime in the height of summer.
What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?
One infrequently explored option is the parasol — perhaps infrequent because we’re NOT all lucky enough to have a well-stocked parasol shop nearby. But if the only thing holding you back is the inconvenience of finding a pretty umbrella to provide you with the shade you need to survive, Bella Umbrella is about to come to your rescue.
For the bride, an ecru lace canopy with a light wooden handle.
Seal has announced that he’s recorded a duet with wife Heidi Klum. The song is one he wrote for their May 2005 wedding. I think that’s sweet…and I sure hope she can sing.
Eddie Murphey and fiancee Tracey Edmunds have announced that they intend to shun Hollywood glitz and have a “small, casual” wedding instead. Edmonds said of planning the wedding: “We keep checking in with each other. Like, ‘What do you think about this?’ So we’re getting a little closer, figuring it all out. It’ll come together really soon.” It’s great to hear that they’re working together to make it happen.
And in the world of deeply strange wedding news, the Lancashire Evening Post reports that Patricia Catterall, a Chorely market stallholder who runs Pat’s Market Cheese Shop was recently hired to make a six-tier all cheese wedding cake.
It weighed thirty pounds and cost two-hundred twenty pounds.
The base layer was made of Brie de Meaux, topped with Lancashire cheese, Cornish cheese, Wensleydale with cranberries, cheddar with shallots and chives, and Cornish blue, finally topped with a traditional wedding couple topper.
A more traditional sweet wedding cake was served at the afternoon reception, with the cheese creation being saved for an evening reception.
Catterall says she’s already been hired to do other cheese cakes.
All I can say is if Mr. Twistie had heard of this before our wedding, he might have tried to get it duplicated. Yeah, I might have gone for it.
Everybody seems to have an opinion on this one. Pretty much everybody seems to think their personal logic on the subject is - or at least ought to be - universal. Way too many people find the opposing view not only incorrect, but offensive as well.
What’s the question? Children as wedding guests.
I’ve wandered around more bridal sites, bridal blogs, and bridal message boards in the last two months than I had in the rest of my life put together, and this is one of the nearly universal sore spots that keeps coming up.
On the one hand, there are those who insist that a wedding is no place for a child and so to allow them to attend will make a mockery of the occasion and all the bride’s hard work will be destroyed by an unruly child. On the other stand those who insist that weddings are about families and families are about children so any marriage that fails to include little Egbert at the wedding is doomed from the outset. I wish I could say this was an exagerration.
Me? I stand squarely in the middle.
I love kids. I love having kids around me. I wouldn’t have missed having the smaller guests at my wedding for anything. One of the best shots in my wedding album is of a group of kids playing ring around a rosie, and clearly having a grand time. An eleven-year-old boy caught my garter with an Air Jordan move that still makes me laugh to this day. I also have fond memories of attending many weddings as a child.
Generally, I’m not a huge fan of spending bondo bucks on invitations, as most of the people who receive them have no plans to mount them in a keepsake scrapbook. Every so often, however, I find myself tempted by invites that are just too, too pretty. Blue Magpie invitations, with their lush fabric enclosures just recently caught my eye, even through their $30 price tag makes my face pucker.
The invites only come in two sizes, but the nice people over at Blue Magpie will work with a bride and groom to pick out the perfect fabric. In fact, they will do their best to find the colors and patterns their clients desire, or work with fabric sent to them by a client.
Beyond fabrics, Blue Magpie is always willing to explore different printing options, custom artwork, and embellishments like invitation backings, hang tags, additional ribbons, and crystal accents. As impractical as they usually are, I love all the little hangy bits that one often finds on more complicated invitations. Do I love them at $30 a pop? Only when I’m receiving them in my mailbox!
The recent discourse on appropriate dress over at the Shoe Blog put me in a mind to contemplate hats. At my own wedding, I asked my mother and her ladywife to pick out some stylish headwear for the ceremony. I suppose they are lucky that I had not yet discovered the French wedding hat tradition, for I no doubt would have requested that they spend obscene amounts of money outfitting their heads.
According to photographer Bertrand Celce, who snapped the photo below, the wedding hat must be “original, classy, and elegant.”
Whoever invented this tradition was inspired, and a wedding without hats would not be a real wedding…or at least wouldn’t deserve that we try our best for the best of all days. Don’t forget that the groom and the bride often met at a previous wedding a few months before. And this particular hat on that particular face wasn’t neutral on that special day. Is there a better reason to care for the hats?
To see more of these uber fantastic hats, many of which are architectural wonders that stimulate the mind as well as the eye, have a peek at this blog entry by Tom Sanford. I think that I shall have to find myself a gorgeous and eye-catching hat to wear at the next wedding I attend so I can begin spreading the wedding hat tradition among my friends and peers.
