Here are some of the wedding pictures:

Wedding pictures

People found the shoes we wore remarkable, so let me tell the story for all the people who weren't there.

W- had formal shoes from the time we attended a wedding in the Philippines. I had cream flat shoes that went well with the dress. But J- didn't have any formal shoes that fit. She had grown size-7 feet while we weren't looking.

Time to shop for shoes. On a good day, it's hard to find a simple, flat, dressy-but-not-too-formal style. In the weeks before a wedding (and as retailers replace their summer flats with fall boots), it's even harder.

We must've checked five or six stores before we found a shoe that fit well, had a low heel, and would go well with a dress. The shoe was too dressy for school, though. W- said, “I'm not paying that much for shoes that she's only going to wear for an hour.” The man I married is as frugal as I am.

We joked about the Chuck Taylors we'd seen in Aldo. It was pink plaid. W- looked at me. “What about the Chucks? She can pull off the look,” he said. “We can wear whatever we want,” I said. “We're not optimizing just for photographs.”

J- lit up. Sold!

We headed back to Aldo's. For fun and family solidarity, W- and I picked out our own Chuck Taylors too. I chose a gray plaid, and he chose a bright red.

J- wore her Chucks to the wedding, while W- and I brought ours in a bag. After the wedding ceremony, we changed into our Chucks and had fun.

So that's the story of the shoes. They're about choosing everyday life over stereotypical expectations, the cultivation of in-jokes, and the serious fun of love.