My Wedding Blog: Barefoot Brides

March 06, 2018

Ditching the shoes and basking in the glorious freedom of wearing bare feet on the beach has become a popular trend for summer weddings in the US. I’m pretty sure Kiwi brides and grooms have been doing this for years so all there is left to do is embrace it!

I do like the idea of the whole bridal party getting amongst this. The groom and his groomsmen must not though allow themselves to get carried away with the beach theme and wear shorts or worse, short pants. I can’t imagine anyone being okay with any member of the bridal party wearing shorts (unless of course you are setting off to a tropical island). Let’s leave it at bare-feet only. On that note, a tux is also too dressy for a beach wedding. There must be a middle ground.

For the bride and her bridesmaids they can’t really go wrong. A flowing white dress in the gentle coastal breeze… assuming your wedding is not on the west coast so there’s less chance of brutal iron sand getting whipped up by wind and lashing your legs! Yes, just a warm, gentle breeze and clear skies. Again, I pessimistically look at the weather forecast and beg you to have a back up ceremony venue because nothing says anti-romance like a wet sand wedding.

So to break it down, we have the bride wearing white to symbolise innocence, the ring to symbolise eternity and barefeet: a symbol of youth? Lightheartedness of traditionally such a serious life-event? Am I looking too much into this? Surely brides are simply doing it for the whimsy and after all it’s the most socially acceptable situation in which a lady can go without footwear while still looking glamourous. Have fun with it!

- Georgina