Real Wedding: Kathleen and James

Kathleen Schneider knew that before she even thought about her wedding dress, she wanted to pick out her wedding shoes. “The dress was easy. But I wanted the shoes to be memorable and unique,” says the business developer of her seriously fashionable wedding to James Dyson Jr. on September 1, 2012.

The bride and groom met in 2008 when Kathleen was looking for a host for a music event at a local club. Even though James, now a recruiting director, turned down the hosting gig, the couple spent the next four hours talking on the phone before agreeing to meet face to face.

They immediately bonded over their mutual love of basketball, which they discovered during their first date at a sports bar, watching the NBA All-Star game. The other passion they shared? Shoes. “My husband has quite the sneaker collection, so when it came to the wedding we knew we didn’t want the shoes to be traditional in any way; they absolutely had to stand out,” says Kathleen.

At their wedding celebration, held at Le Méridien Arlington, the groom and his groomsmen sported Converse sneakers, while the bride wore a pair of hot pink Alexander McQueen booties. “They had to be bright in color. Comfort was not a concern,” she says.

A ceremony in front of close family and friends was followed by dinner and slices of raspberry buttercream cake topped, naturally, with edible versions of the couple’s shoes. When it came to the first dance, they ditched convention and donned fedoras for a performance to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” Afterward, the bride changed into a shorter dress and kicked off her heels for a night of dancing.