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| #1. Easy off "dress shoes"! Perfect for cold weather weddings, and eventual bare feet on the dance floor! |
The wedding was at the newly rebuilt Larkfield Manor, in East Northport, and the rebuild was a smashing success.. the place is BEYOND stunning! I was marveling at the tile work alone, but the overall presentation is very high-end, and high-class, and truly needs to be seen to appreciate it! I, along with my date & very sweet friend, Jocetta (who is my barefoot dance partner supreme, too), arrived for the cocktail hour, and it was frigid out, having snowed about 3 inches. I usually wear dressy flip-flops, with no suit jacket, to wedding receptions when it's warm enough out to do so, but obviously a winter wedding isn't the case. However, I plan ahead, and shop accordingly! LOL.. I found "warm enough" dress shoes (photo #1) that look like dress shoes, but slip on like clogs.. No socks (yuck), or laces (annoying) to deal with. They look great with black slacks, and are off in a nanosecond when it's time to roll barefoot! WIN-WIN!
Shoes always stay on for cocktail hour, but when we get to our table for the actual reception portion, and have an actual place to leave our shoes, then all bets (and shoes!) are off. Once barefoot, we stay barefoot all night, except for trips to the bathrooms, because, as I've stated before, people are such freakin' slobs, it's ridiculous.. So, the bride, groom, & wedding party were introduced, the bride & groom had their first dance, then that first romantic, couples' join-in dance, and then it was time for the party music to begin. I said to Jocetta, "Ready to rock?!" and she answered with, "Are we taking our shoes off?", and I responded, "Of course we are!" ..and poof! Off go the shoes, Jocetta & Al are rollin' barefoot again! And now the funny stories start..
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| #2. Yep, these awesome bare feet, coming to a wedding video screen near you! :) |
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| The emcee had fun with my bare feet, so we had fun with their "flip-flops for sale sign! :) ...The song set ended, and the emcee addressed the crowd, as I headed over to the bar, still barefoot (of course) to grab Jocetta & myself a round of cocktails. As I was walking back, the emcee was saying, "We have flip-flops for sale at the DJ booth for you ladies, or (notices me walking with drinks in hand, and points at me) you can just go barefoot like my big, crazy friend over there, with the bare feet and painted toes!" (EVERYone turns to look.. What? Painted toes?!!! LOL!!) I did a little victory pose to acknowledge the pointing out of my bare feet to a room of 200 people, to much laughter, and then kept walking to our table ..So Jocetta & I decided a funny pic would be of that sign (photo #3), up at the DJ booth.. because, unless you have a medical condition, or you're a nervous germ-a-phobe, if you're buying flip-flops at a reception, you're a party amateur!! Just go barefoot! Let me repeat: Simple life rule: "JUST. GO. BAREFOOT!" ..Unless you have bad, uncared for, feet! LOL! Then keep your shoes on unless you fix that sh*t! Hah! ..But the emcee pointing out my bare feet to everyone would only lead to more fun, smiles, and laughs! Read on.. The night continued with amazing sets of party music (much credit to "Tommy Tunes" DJ company), interrupted only by things like dinner, cake cutting, toasts, speeches, etc etc, but Jocetta and I stayed barefoot the whole time, and probably danced the most, out of the 20+ years that I've been attending weddings! Even my sister said, "You guys danced the ENTIRE time!" ..Danced so much that, honestly, my legs ached the next day like I had done the Cow Harbor 10K run! ..Zumba my ass, someone should market "wedding reception dancing" as a fitness craze! ..After one of those music sets, we headed back to the table to grab some much-needed water, and towel off my dripping head (pleasant, I know). The table closest to the dance floor had a group of girls sitting at it, in their 20's, all barefoot with shoes off, and the one, who's seat was closest to the aisle, noticed my bare feet as we were passing, and stopped us, exclaiming, "Oh my God! I love that you're barefoot!!" ..Me, I absolutely love "people" moments like that, and hearing that phrase more times than I can count, so I said, "Thanks! Come on, put your feet in here with ours for a pic!!" So she did, and as she did, noticed that my toes were painted metallic, exclaiming even louder, "OH MY GOD! Your toes are painted?!! I love THAT even more!!" ..(I'm telling you readers, you just can't make this shit up, it is just SO silly and ridiculously fun!).. I snapped a pic, complimented her on her very cute feet (photo #4), and we continued back to our table. But there would time for one more great, super-cute moment.. So, last month's blog told of two funny, true-life stories, about how bare feet at wedding receptions led to some VERY funny, "tickling feet", incidents.. LOL! I thought last Saturday might go that route.. It didn't, but still really cute, and kinda' hilarious! Jocetta had gone to use the restroom, and I was sitting there by myself, resting for a few minutes from the dance cardio insanity (I'm the size of an NFL player, I need a few minutes!), and an older woman (maybe late 50's/early 60's), with short black hair, who could have been related to either the bride or groom, was walking by. She was walking back to the corner table, where there was also another couple, who had been making fun conversation about my bare feet, with Jocetta & I, while we waited on line for the photo booth.. This woman, walking by, with the short black hair & long dress, was barefoot also, and I made eye-contact with her & smiled, because that's what us barefooters tend to do: We notice when others are happily barefoot, and we smile because we know we are on the same wavelength! :) ..She stopped and said to me, still smiling broadly, "We all can't stop talking about your feet and your toes!! You are quite the conversation piece at our table!".. We both laughed, and she continued, "Do you paint your own toes?!" ..I laughed again and said, "No, I'm not that flexible! I have a pedi place called U2 Nails that I go to all the time!" ..Then (get ready), she asked, out-of-the-blue, "A pedicure?! That's great!! Do you have ticklish feet?! The scrubby part always kills me!!" ..I busted out laughing, and responded, "Funny you should ask! I pretty much have the most ticklish feet out of anybody that you'll ever meet on planet Earth!!".. Now we both laughed, literally out loud, and very loudly, and she said, as she patted me on the shoulder, what I am calling the random-stranger-line-of-the-night, "That's good!! I LOVE a man with ticklish feet!! I just LOVE ticklish feet, in general!!" LMAO!! ..I couldn't stop laughing at such a great, off-the-cuff, comment, as I said to her, "Then I am telling you, you would absolutely LOVE a video of me in the pedi chair!" ..She laughed yet again, probably at the visual in her head of me getting my feet tickled, and said, "Have a great night, it was nice meeting you! You've been making us laugh the whole time with your bare feet, so thanks!!", then high-fived me (I think I got about four, maybe five, high-fives, that night, because of my bare feet!), and went back to her table to sit by who I assume was her husband. ..And now that I think about it, based on her statements, I guess we can assume he has reeeeeeeally ticklish feet! :)  in a fun photo with us.. :) All in all, a perfect night! Frozen outside, warm inside, bare feet, dancing, drinks, amazing food, amazing people, amazingly funny moments! A reminder of the joys of love & life, both of which are made better by the fun of going barefoot! TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF! It's OKAY! |
