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The following was written by Fable-friend Marcy Gardner who attended a wedding using Peter Reynolds' The Blue Shoe as the theme. The happy couple, Tim Dawes and Bri Johnson, are big fans of our animated short and Marcy is a freelance writer for Animation World Magazine, as well as part of the production team at WGBH's ZOOM. Last year Marcy wrote the article Once Upon a Napkin...The Blue Shoe. The Blue Shoe Wedding The cookies are iced (in the shape of little boots and shoes); the wedding rings (inscribed with the words "The Beginning") have finally arrived after being lost in the mail, and the carved wooden boot and shoe rest safely atop the wedding cake. Preparations are set for the first ever Blue Shoe Wedding.
As we amble along the road of our everyday life, once in a while we stumble over something that jolts us and reminds us where we were going in the first place. I call them my "oh yeah!" moments. The first time I saw The Blue Shoe
And so I sent Bri home with a copy of the film after a day of wedding dress shopping (she and The wedding ceremony was simple, held in the church where they first met and taught. Bri and Tim serenely profess their love, two soul mates that have found each other in the unlikeliest of circumstances. The gold bands they exchange hold a secret message inside - "The Beginning," like the close of the film.
 The reception is held on a green, grassy hill overlooking the ocean. There is an Irish band playing reels and jigs (and later in the afternoon a caller comes in to guide us in some Contra dancing.) Guests munch on blue shoe and green boot cookies and admire the boot and shoe that  Tim has carved and placed on top of the wedding cake. A joyous and festive afternoon of celebration ensues, with guests eating, dancing and cavorting on the beach. Towards the end of the afternoon Bri and Tim gather their families for the screening of the film. We all quietly stand and watch in a grove of shady trees. I look around and see that others are as moved by the film's message as we have been. I present Bri and Tim with a painting of the boot and shoe that Peter has made for them. Over the drawing are the words "The Beginning," just like their rings, and their lives together.Many months later their home is a veritable boot and shoe museum. My eye hops from the blue shoe on the front porch (and old woman's shoe Tim found and spray-painted blue), to the green teapot Bri recently gave Tim on the anniversary of their first date. They have adopted the blue shoe and green boot as part of their own personal mythology - to serve as a reminder that life can sometimes take you in surprising directions. What you couldn't imagine being the right choice, ends up being the rightest choice two people could possibly make. Bri and Tim are still giddy, laughing and joking with each other, very much in love, the human boot and shoe, green and blue.
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was one of those moments. The story of the boot and the shoe made me think of my own journey, but also that of my two very close friends Bri and Tim; two people who have come from very different spaces in life and time to be together. They may seem an odd pair, Tim is twice Bri's age with two grown children, but they are perfect for each other. I have spent many Sunday afternoons with the Bri and Tim-often arriving ruffled, confused and trail weary. But when I leave I feel as though I have learned something about love, and the package that I thought it ought to come in....Sometimes love just shows up in places we wouldn't quite expect.
Tim were getting married in a matter of weeks.) We were both grumpy and rumpled after trying on one hideous wedding dress after another. Bri was frustrated -- she really wanted the wedding to be an expression of her life with Tim, not just some generic pageant that would feel strange and uncomfortable. The next day she called to tell me that they had decided they must show the film at their wedding, that it was the perfect way to express to their families and friends how they felt about each other. And so their wedding began to form around The Blue Shoe. Bri made the wedding invitations with a picture of a boot and a shoe. Tim carved a wooden boot and shoe to go on top of the wedding cake. Together they baked cookies in the shapes of boots and shoes.
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