Something Blue: Choosing Blue Wedding Shoes and Heels (shoes + jewellery)

Something blue is one quarter of the old rhyme "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," and it can be almost any object a bride carries or wears on the day. Garters, ribbon sewn into a hem, a blue stone in jewellery and blue wedding shoes are the four most common choices in Australia today. Shoes have become one of the most popular options because the colour sits where it will not compete with the dress, yet still shows in photographs when you sit down or lift your hem. There is no rule requiring the blue to be hidden, so a visible azure heel satisfies the tradition as well as a discreet sole would.

There is no fixed rule. The tradition does not assign the four items to specific people, so a bride's mother, her bridesmaids, her partner or the bride herself can provide the something blue. In practice, brides most often choose their own blue wedding shoes while shopping for the rest of the outfit, since shoes need to be tried on and fitted rather than gifted as a surprise. If you want someone else to be involved, asking a bridesmaid to help pick the shade at a fitting keeps the sentiment without the guesswork of a surprise size.

Yes. Wedding shoes are one of the simplest ways to complete the tradition, because the blue sits inside the shoe or across a heel and strap rather than on the gown itself. The White Collection stocks blue wedding shoes from Badgley Mischka, Bella Belle, Jewel by Badgley Mischka and Harlo Australia in shades from a pale sky blue to a deeper azure blue. Choosing the shoe as your something blue also means you get to see and photograph it, unlike a ribbon sewn out of sight into a hem.

Yes, and blue stones in jewellery are one of the more traditional choices, predating blue wedding shoes as a popular option. Lola Knight's bridal range includes a blue topaz bracelet in silver and two drop earring styles, Margot in silver and Lulu in 18ct gold, both built around a blue topaz stone paired with freshwater pearls. Blue topaz earrings are searched more often in Australia than the shoe-specific terms in this guide, so pairing a blue topaz earring with a white or ivory shoe is at least as common a way to complete the tradition as choosing a blue shoe outright.

The current range runs from a pale sky blue, seen in the Federica pump, through to a deeper azure blue used across most of the Badgley Mischka and Harlo Australia styles. Sky blue reads almost silver in photographs and sits closest to a bridal colour palette, while azure blue is a true, saturated blue that shows clearly against both ivory and white fabric. If you want the tradition to be visible in photographs, azure is the safer choice, and if you want it to read as an accent rather than a statement, sky blue is the softer option.

Yes, and the shade of blue matters more than the shade of your dress. Azure blue and sky blue both sit comfortably against ivory, cream and true white gowns because the contrast comes from the colour itself rather than from matching undertones the way white-on-white or ivory-on-ivory pairings require. The one detail worth checking is metallic trim. Cher's crystal buckle style uses a metallic satin finish, which reads slightly warmer than a plain satin shoe, so bring a swatch of your dress fabric to compare the two together near natural light.

The current blue wedding shoe range at The White Collection runs from $240 to $585 in Australian dollars. Federica, in sky blue, is the entry point at $240, Autumn and Kamilah in azure blue sit at $375, Cher is $440, Bonnie is $475 and Athena's crystal block heel is the most expensive at $585. As with the rest of the designer range, price tracks the amount of hand applied crystal and pearl work rather than the heel height.

The White Collection stocks blue wedding shoes online across Australia and in our Haberfield showroom in Sydney. Buying locally rather than importing from an overseas bridal site means Australian dollar pricing, domestic shipping timeframes and the ability to exchange a size if the fit is wrong, which matters more on a satin shoe than a leather one since satin does not stretch. Autumn's azure colourway is currently on preorder for most sizes, arriving mid-September, while the rest of the range ships immediately.

Yes. The blue range can be tried on at The White Collection showroom in Haberfield, Sydney, alongside the white and ivory versions of the same styles where they exist. Trying the azure and sky blue shades side by side is worth doing in person, because the difference between them reads much more clearly under natural light than it does on a screen. We recommend bringing a swatch or photograph of your dress fabric so we can check the blue against your actual gown rather than a showroom sample.