You know, sometimes I wonder if other blog writers are having trouble coming up with material. Why else would the New Orleans Bride Magazine ask on their “Wediquette Wednesday”, Is it OK to go barefoot at the reception?.
And even moreso, how could they come up with the answer they did?
Seriously. Have you ever been to a wedding in which the women, and a lot of the kids, didn’t take their shoes off? Wedding shoes may be stylish, but nobody has ever accused them of being comfortable.
The original question is pretty insulting:
Question: Not really a question, just a peeve I have seen at many receptions — ladies taking off their shoes and running about barefoot in a venue. It is dangerous, and it is unsightly. Ladies come in [wearing] high, platform, beautiful shoes and after 10 minutes they are barefoot.
As a venue manger, it is unnerving to see this, as you never know when someone [might] drop a glass and someone steps on it. Plus, it is just kinda gross to have people barefoot in a restaurant. I have not seen any blogs about this, but in conversation with other wedding professionals it comes up a lot. Is there a wedding etiquette [rule] on this topic?
It’s unsightly? How does going barefoot expose any more of the foot than these expensive wedding shoes?
My Glass Slipper
(And who says a foot is unsightly anyways?)
If a glass is dropped and broken, you clean up the glass. Simple, eh? I even tried searching for an instance in which somebody was injured stepping on glass at a wedding. Couldn’t find anything . . . except this story, Groom cuts his foot while breaking glass cup during chuppah ceremony. It was a Jewish wedding, and in the part of the ceremony where the glass is stepped on and broken “the glass of the broken cup cut through his leather shoes and slashed his foot.” Well then.
And exactly how is it kinda gross to have people barefoot in a restaurant? Are people walking through the food? If not, keep your phobia to yourself.
So, that’s what the Wediquette answer was, right?
Wrongo.
Here is their answer:
Answer: The short answer is no, it’s not OK to go barefoot at a wedding, unless it’s on the beach or poolside.
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me.
Like I said, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding in which somebody didn’t take their shoes off. Just go to flickr and search on “wedding barefoot” for loads of such pictures. And hey, at my daughter’s wedding, it was me.
The Father/Daughter Dance
The answer goes on to say:
It is of course unsightly and also the barefoot individuals are opening themselves up to not only a cut on broken glass or some other sharp object, but also a possible viral infection. Not to be uncivilized, but what if another shoeless guest struggles with a foot fungus?
What’s with this “unsightly” thing again? And viral infection? Where did they get that from?
And when it comes to a foot fungus, if you are a guest with a foot fungus, keep your shoes on. And also make extra sure that your feet are fully enclosed. If you are wearing cute little high-heeled sandals you are still spreading the spores you’ve been so diligently incubating in your footwear, whether you are actually barefoot or not.
And then the Wediquette answer goes on to suggest a basket of flip-flops or other sandals:
Guests with tired, aching tootsies can help themselves to the baskets; no one has to worry about spreading or getting germs or infection.
Are these people incapable of logical thought when it comes to bare feet?
If you are dropping fungal spores, they’ll be in the air and picked up by the other sandal-wearers.
Besides, they are all much more likely to spread various diseases by shaking hands (or kissing Aunt Gabby). So where is the call for everybody to be wearing gloves, or elbow-bumping instead of shaking hands?
Unthinking prejudice raises its head again.
Anyways, here’s that link again: Is it OK to go barefoot at the reception?. There are two good comments there as I write this; maybe they need some more.
Oh, and let me finish with a picture from my brother’s wedding. It had a 1960s theme, hence the John Lennon glasses (and my bare feet). (And we scored a lava lamp at the wedding, too!)
Groovy, man!
Ahcuah 
I am Methodist, so open to correction; but isn’t the glass broken in symbolic recreation of the destruction of the temple, usually wrapped securely in sufficient cloth to avoid that situation? Most I have seen could have been broken barefooted (on holy ground) without danger.
I don’t really know, either. The Wikipedia article for Jewish Wedding does show the glass in a napkin or cloth, so you would think you could even break it barefoot if you wished. And here’s what is says about the reason:
I went to a Hindu wedding reception a long time ago where the bride/groom broke a glass or bottle, but at that ceremony, it was to see who would be boss in the marriage – the one who broke it got to be in charge. I don’t know if they wrapped it or not.
I could have commented there but it is not worth the hassle registering yet another stupid account.
As a child, whenever a glass broke it was a terrible drama, even after meticulously cleaning, sweeping, vacuum cleaning and wiping the floor I was told to not go barefoot there because there might be tiny little undetected and extra dangerous shards of glass that would forever get stuck in my tender, vulnerable feet and hurt terribly.
But maybe that was just part of my upbringing and my parent’s way to teach me to be extra careful with glass. I guess all parents know when to play drama to their children to teach what they consider important lessons of life. (I did learn that my feet were tender and vulnerable and I should better not walk barefoot – which I only later learned was not true at all, if only I walked barefoot enough …)
Nowadays when a glass breaks, I clean it up and continue walking barefoot. No drama at all.
“Ladies come in [wearing] high, platform, beautiful shoes and after 10 minutes they are barefoot.”
One of the greatest signs of total indoctrination into a cultural ideology is the ‘ability’ to complain that a person who isn’t juggling beautifully painted chainsaws is breaching the current social equity that says you should do so at all times.