Tie One On

Padma Sears Connolly knew she didn’t want white wedding shoes. “I’ve always really loved bright colors,” she says. “I went with the idea that only my dress would be white, and everything else would be as bright and colorful as possible.” For her backyard wedding, she chose block heels in red, her and her husband’s favorite color, and made sure the shoes were comfortable and wouldn’t sink into the grass. Comfort was also a deciding factor for Amanda Margolin, who wore bright, floral sneakers for her wedding in the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. She was shopping in Anthropologie when she spotted the floral sneaks and their sparkly silver sister pair, purchasing the latter  for her rehearsal dinner at Doug Fir Lounge. “I didn’t know I was going to wear a sneaker,” she says. “I just knew that I didn’t want to wear a super-high heel.” Jamie McCool wanted to avoid the traditional high heel, too, but she still wanted a little lift. She found her white Nike wedge heel sneakers on closeout at the factory store and had them lettered with her new married name. Her shoes were a surprise to her husband, who works at Nike and collects sneakers, and Jamie says she plans to break them out annually on their anniversary. “Flowers are pretty, and it’s nice to have nice china, but the things that people remember are the little touches,” says Jamie.