Okay … sand dollars aren’t as wild as “Marie Antoinette” or “peacock blue” or any of the other moods I’ve been dreaming of lately.
Instead, they’re sort of an old-faithful. A visual center to certain kind of East coast, laid-back, thoroughly Yankee wedding. But aren’t they beautiful?
It’s funny, though. As I played with colors and images that complement the modest little sand dollar, I found it was kind of demanding in what it liked to be paired with. There’s a certain kind of deliriously-blue beach wedding that calls to me in a different way, but this isn’t that.
This is all about colors where the saturation’s dialed way back. There’s an earthy feel here, and maybe preppy, too — but the preppy looks better if you dial the colors back to “stun.”
Semi-Monochromatic Nantucket Style Beach Wedding.
In fact, I think sand dollars look their best in a palette that doesn’t depend on blue at all. After all, the colors you see swirling around the Atlantic aren’t so much blue, really. There’s a lot of sand and green, and dusky violet.
Hydrangeas are charming in this context, but I think they’re at their most beautiful here in purples and greens, not the usual bright blues.
The fun thing about sand dollars is that a crafty DIY-er can do almost anything with them. You can slap tiny ones on invitations with a bit of ribbon or raffia, or glue them to the top of earthy gift boxes. If you or a friend has pretty handwriting, you can write your guests’ names on the top of sand dollars and stack them all up on end in a sand tray, with a few pretty starfish tucked in for contrast. And then, people have been known to paint the really large kind with table numbers. Which is only the start.
How else could you outfit this dreamy, sunny East-coast wedding? Try a lobster trap as your gift box, creel baskets for condiments, and a small wooden boat as a picturesque cooler for your drinks. And while capiz shells might not be native, with their delicate coloring, they look absolutely gorgeous when you hang them from raffia garlands of starfish and seashells. And bare-branch arrangements look just as beautiful as pastel hydrangeas in simple containers.
What ideas do you have for a Nantucket-style, sand dollar wedding?
{ 0 comments… add one now }