One of our readers recently emailed us asking: “My son plans on wearing a white cotton poplin suit 2 button suit for his beach wedding in Mexico. While the wedding itself is on the sand and he will be barefoot, the reception will be held at a villa on a hill and will include a seated dinner and dancing. What shoes would you suggest? Must they be lace up dress shoes or are any type of loafer/slip on ok?”
First of all, let us start off by saying… fun, fun, fun! 
Wish we were there! To answer this question simply, as the occasion is formal, lace up shoes are preferable (they always are in formal settings – especially since the reception is indoors). We recently wrote a blog post about what shoes to wear for different occasions that touched on this:
“For more formal occasions, go for lace-up shoes rather than slip ons. Closed laced shoes are also preferred over open laced shoes.If you’re wondering what the difference is, closed laces are what you call shoes that have a V shape where they get tied together. Open lace shoes have more of a parallel shape where they are tied together.
Remember that when you are wearing dressy shoes, the laces should be tied horizontally as opposed to the criss-cross pattern most commonly associated with athletic shoes.”
Hope this helps!
