Shoes get noticed at weddings far more than grooms expect. Photographers shoot feet: at the mandap, on the stairs, walking in. A scuffed or badly chosen shoe turns up in all of those frames. The right one does the opposite. It grounds the outfit and makes the whole thing look decided rather than assembled that morning. Here's what to wear with each kind of wedding outfit, Western and Indian, and what to sort out before the week of the wedding.
Shoes for a wedding suit: Oxford, Derby and loafer
For a wedding suit the Oxford, with its closed lacing, is the most formal option and handles everything from a lounge suit to black tie. Tan or a warm brown with ivory or champagne; black with charcoal or navy. Get them polished properly the week before rather than the night before, so the finish has settled and you've walked them in a little.
The Derby, with its open lacing, sits a step below the Oxford and suits smart-formal rather than black tie. The loafer belongs at beach and outdoor weddings where an Oxford would look stiff, and at the more relaxed events across the weekend. A good leather penny or horsebit loafer in tan or brown looks deliberate outdoors in a way a formal lace-up never quite does.
With ethnic wear: the jutti and formal sandals
The jutti, flat, pointed and embroidered, comes out of the Punjabi craft tradition and is the traditional shoe for a sherwani. Match the embroidery colour to the sherwani's work rather than to the cloth and the whole look pulls together. Good juttis from Jaipur and Jalandhar artisans come through specialist suppliers in Chennai's ethnic wear markets. Buy them early and break them in, because a stiff new jutti across a five-hour ceremony is its own kind of misery.
For South Indian ceremonies, Tamil Brahmin or Kerala Hindu, quality formal leather sandals with a back strap are right with the veshti or mundu. Not casual chappals. And in temple settings, where footwear comes off at the door, your socks become the visible item. Fine, clean, no holes. It's a small thing that has embarrassed a lot of otherwise well-dressed men.