The Perfect Wedding Shoes: what should a bride wear with her dress?
Is your wedding dress the most important fashion statement you’ll make for your wedding day? We’re biased, so you won’t be surprised to hear us say, “Yes, it is.” However, there is a second decision that brides often spend a lot of time mulling over: the perfect pair of wedding shoes.
Many of the same considerations you need to keep in mind when buying your wedding dress also apply to buying shoes to wear on your wedding day. You need to think about comfort, practicality and personality.
The perfect wedding shoe is comfortable
The most important thing you should consider is comfort. You’ll be wearing your wedding day shoes for many hours on end. Ten or 12 hours, easily. Maybe more. The last thing you want is to be desperate to take them off only a couple of hours into the day because they are pinching your toes or causing some other discomfort.
Not only will your feet be killing you, the pain will be etched on your face. Not the best look on what is one of the happiest days of your life.
We suggest you start your shoe search by looking at your current shoes. Firstly, because you might find that you already own a pair that will actually do the job really well. And secondly, because you’ll be able to see at a glance what kind of shoes you usually enjoy wearing. That’s obviously what you find comfortable, so find something that is similar to what you usually wear.
If your current collection of shoes doesn’t include lots of pairs of four-inch high heels, then don’t, whatever you do, decide that a pair of four-inch high heels is what you want for your wedding day.
To begin with, four-inch heels are tricky for a novice to walk in. They can also become very uncomfortable after a while, especially if you’re not used to wearing them.
But what if you discover that your shoe of choice for day-to-day use is a runner? Surely you couldn’t possibly get away with wearing a pair of trainers on your wedding day? Who would do such an outrageous thing? … Actually, quite a few brides do. You’d be surprised.
The secret wedding shoe
Many brides choose a ballgown-style wedding dress with a full-length skirt. A long, full skirt like that is going to completely cover your shoes. You could be wearing a pair of wooden clogs under there for all anyone would know by looking at you.
And if that’s the case, why spend a fortune on a pair of shoes you’ll wear once and nobody will even see?
You might baulk at the idea of wearing trainers simply because they aren’t special enough for such an important occasion, but that’s just a perception. Besides, as we’ll discuss later, who says trainers can’t be made to be special?
If comfort is the most important thing, then well-padded trainers are certainly something to consider, especially if they’re going to be hidden in any case.
But what if your wedding dress isn’t full-length? Well, trainers are still an option, but we’ll get to that below. So are four-inch heels, if you wear them daily and feel confident that you can be on your feet in them for many, many hours. But we’d still suggest not going that route.
From experience, we know that a good pair of flats or low block-heel shoes are very good alternatives. Two ranges we suggest you look at are the Rainbow Club and Paradox London. Both companies ship to Ireland, but since Brexit you’ll have to pay the customs and duty, and it’s not unknown for packages from the UK to end up being returned to the sender for unexplained reasons. Fortunately, both ranges are also stocked by retailers in Ireland, and that’s the more reliable route to go. (By the way, we don’t have any commercial relationship with either brand. We just know from experience that they make great bridal shoes.)
Practical bridal shoes aren’t just comfortable
High-heeled shoes aren’t always the best option for wedding day shoes. Image by Yashodhara from Pixabay
So what if the shoes you want to wear for the formal parts of your wedding day aren’t the most comfortable? You plan to swap them out later on anyway. So you’re going to wear that divine pair of four-inch heels for the first part of the day and then slip on something more comfortable after the formal wedding photographs and the reception. At the latest, you’ll take them off after the meal. Or after the first dance.
Dancing in high heels isn’t a skill everyone has. It can be particularly demanding if you’ve been on your feet for ten hours already. So there’s a chance you’ll want to have something less punishing on your feet for the first dance at least.
However, if you have a full-length wedding dress, you’ll be faced with a problem: the dress itself. Because unless you change into another pair of equally high shoes, you’ll suddenly find yourself an inch or more shorter.
Your dress will have been fitted to suit your shoe height. That means if it has been altered to accommodate high heels, you’re going to be left with an extra-long hem when you step into lower shoes. Have you ever seen a bride at a wedding holding up the skirt of her dress in the crook of her arm? Chances are she isn’t wearing the same shoes she started the day in and now her dress has become a trip hazard. She may even be barefoot, which isn’t always an elegant look at a formal event.
In other words, if you have a full-length dress, the height of the shoe you fit your wedding dress for is the height you are stuck with for the rest of the day. So why not fit the dress with a super-comfortable pair of shoes in mind that you can wear without a hitch all the way through to the early hours of the night?
You can wear multiple pairs of shoes on your wedding day
If your wedding dress isn’t full-length and your shoes will be visible, then you probably will want something extra-special on your feet. In fact, the dress and the shoes are working together to create your bridal look, so the shoes are probably just as important as the dress. In fact, the shoes might even be more important than the dress. Though, obviously, it hurts us to say that.
We’d still counsel against high heels. That said, you aren’t as restricted in terms of changing shoes as you would be with a full-length dress. So you could easily change them at some point. In fact, you could wear multiple pairs of shoes during the day.
Personality before perception
What’s your style? Go with what you feel good in. Image by nihan güzel daştan from Pixabay
Whatever style of shoe you decide on, make sure it shows your personality.
Just like your dress, your wedding shoes should be about you, not about what you think you should wear based on the expectations of other people and what they might think of your choice. Your shoes should be a reflection of you, on this of all days.
So let yourself be guided by your own general preferences. In fact, the best thing somebody can say to you is, “I knew you’d be wearing those kind of shoes.” It doesn’t mean you’re boring or predictable. It means you have such a clear sense of your own style that others recognise it immediately. It shows that you are confident and happy in yourself.
If that means you are going to wear the most outrageously colourful and blinged-up pair of personalised trainers the world has ever seen, because that’s who you are, then go for it. Or maybe you’re drawn to the more subtle wedding trainers by wedding specialists such as Rainbow Club? (See, we told you trainers can be worn by brides.)
You’re not just limited to formal shoes or trainers, of course. Simple sandals, engraved cowboy boots, elaborately decorated Doc Martens, we’ve seen it all. And in each case, it was a true expression of who the bride was.
If there’s one thing we impress on our brides, it’s this: you are special and unique. Your wedding day shoes should echo that. Just like your dress.