A master of the grand romantic gesture
For his beach-loving bride
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Photos by Logan Wallace
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C.T. Shaw is a detail-oriented guy who's been known to carry on more than one conversation at once.
He hired a firm of professional sand sculptors to design the perfect beach-wedding backdrop.
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You’d think a guy who once built golf courses for a living would be an expert on sand. But it
took a brainstorming session with Oak Island wedding planner Amy Frazier for C.T. Shaw to come up with
the idea of sand sculptures.
He didn’t want to interrupt the view of the ocean with an ordinary arch or arbor.
“I thought that was kind of common.” And he did want something that would represent the “wind, water &
fire” theme he and fiancee Holly Leonard had chosen for their oceanfront wedding. They had rejected such
notions as kites and banners before hitting on the idea of a lighthouse of sand.
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Holly Leonard
and C.T. Shaw
October 6, 2007
Oak Island, NC
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Team Sandtastic, based in Tampa, Fla., created the sculptures. The dolphin represents Holly, who has
a small dolphin tattoo on her ankle. C.T. has a shark -- a tribute to pro golfer Greg Norman -- tattooed
on his back. The shark is holding a ring as a reminder of how C.T. proposed to Holly. While beachcombing
on Sanibel Island, Fla., he casually handed her a "found" shell in which he'd planted the engagement
ring.
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Holly walks down the sandy aisle with her father, Richard Leonard.
Bottom left: Holly's nephews Caden and Brody Lien were assigned to doggy duty.
Bottom right: Usher in casual-dress shirt and sandals escorts Holly's mother, Merilee Leonard.
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Unlike most couples, Holly let C.T. take the lead in planning their
wedding. While she managed the food, drink and decorations for their reception, C.T. was the one
obsessing over details.
“I was very lucky,” Holly said about her groom. “He’s very organized.”
This fact – and the first name he doesn’t normally use – led her to call him “The Clyde-zilla.”
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Like the engagement ring hidden in the seashell, the sand sculpture was
one of C.T.’s dramatic surprises. “He sprung that on me,” Holly recalled.
The couple’s engagement lasted just one year. In fact, they chose their
wedding date as the Saturday closest to exactly a year after the day Holly said “yes” to C.T.’s
proposal on the beach at Sanibel.
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Holly and C.T. used tiki torches to illuminate their sand lighthouse, a novel twist on the Unity Candle
theme. Rev. Susan Darnell officiated and Holly's sister Brooke Lien was matron of honor.
Oak Island, of course, is home to the real Oak
Island lighthouse, which marks the mouth of
the Cape Fear River.
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Holly and C.T. met in Florida where he was building a golf course and she
was working in a beach resort. They had been a couple for several years, following his golf course
jobs up and down the East Coast, before ultimately settling down near Wilmington.
They chose Oak Island because it allowed their wedding to have an ocean
sunset as a backdrop. They timed their vows to match the best colors in the sky.
October was a perfect time for the couple, aside from the sentimental date.
The beach house they rented cost only a third of its peak season rate. “It’s sweatshirt season on
Oak Island,” C.T. said, and a great time for Holly’s family from Minnesota to come enjoy the balmy
Carolina climate.
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Holly worked with wedding
planner Amy Frazier to create
centerpieces featuring live gold-
fish swimming under floating
gerbera daisies. When the party
was over, the goldfish found a
good home in a friend's fish tank.
Other flowers in Holly's
bouquets and decorations
included orchids, bird of
paradise and Chinese lanterns.
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In their planning, Holly
and C.T. relied heavily on
two primary resources.
Wedding planner Amy
Frazier "put me in touch
with a lot of my vendors,"
Holly said, and helped her
with designs for decorations.
Amy also took care of the
necessary permits for having
the wedding on the beach.
The couple also used the
Cape Fear Wedding website
"quite a bit" C.T. said.
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The Leonard-Shaw wedding is a good example of a growing trend in our
region: wedding ceremony and reception held entirely at a vacation rental house on the beach.
The couple hosted a luau for their guests the night before the wedding.
For the reception, they hired a steel-drum player from Chapel Hill to play Caribbean island tunes.
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The space under the house was their banquet room and dance floor, decorated
with light strips and Japanese lanterns.
“We re-live our wedding a couple of times a week,” C.T. said, praising the
work of their photographer and videographer.
He and Holly have undertaken new careers and recently moved into a new house.
As friends visit, “Our wedding album and video are part of the tour.”
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