Cape Cod Nautical Rehearsal Dinner at Shining Tides with Custom Lobster Details

Last weekend, I got to photograph a beautiful rehearsal dinner and only that. How lovely it was, on Saturday night to realize a whole other day of weekend awaited me. And how lovely too to spend Monday looking through these photos and finding so many joyful gems.

Jane, the mother of the groom, put together such a special and beautiful event. Shining Tides in Mattapoisett is an elegant waterfront venue in a big old converted summer house surrounded by a wraparound porch and blooming white hydrangeas. There is a rolling lawn and a tiny beach and the harbor just beyond is dotted with red and blue sailboats. The weather was ever-so-slightly overcast and the perfect summer temperature as guests gathered on the lawn for cocktails and cheese and the most exciting array of passed hors d’oeuvres. (Mini fish and chips in tiny newspaper cones seemed to be a guest favorite.)

As the sun began to slowly dip toward the ocean, everyone moved onto the enclosed patio for a lobster boil with corn and potatoes and all the fixings. The tables were set with sunflower and hydrangea centerpieces and sweet little wooden buoy table numbers. Custom lobster bibs and wet naps announced that the wedding was “Claws for Celebration!” (One lobster donned a bow tie, the other, a flower crown and veil.) After the buffet opened, I loved watching as some guests taught the others to properly crack their lobster, all with their special lobster bibs tied over their brightly colored summer formal wear.

At a wedding, so much time and thought and love goes into planning “the big day.” But how wonderful it is to get to enjoy your guests for not just a few hours, but for a whole weekend of cracking jokes and cracking lobster. What a pleasure to lean into those extra moments, with less pressure and more mess and just as much joy.