For a wedding by the beach, a coral motif is always in fashion. New York baker Gail Watson piped coral branches in royal icing on fondant-covered tiers. Cotton fabric pinned around the cake board echoes coral's other famous hue. Sand-color fondant blankets the board.

These masterly cakes, made by Wendy Kromer, have romantic seaworthy roots: They are styled after "sailors' valentines" -- keepsake boxes, decorated with intricate shell patterns, that nineteenth-century mariners gave as gifts to their beloveds. The originals inspired our mosaics of gum-paste shells, arranged in concentric circles, rosettes, and monograms.

On each tier of this modern creation, by Wendy Kromer, a different wave design (three in all, impressed with double-thick rubber stamps) graces the fondant panels. Every panel is bordered in bamboo also made of fondant. Under the icing, a swirly vanilla-and-mocha marble cake is in keeping with the theme. The wooden cake board, edged in pieces of real bamboo, mimics the shape and look of the cake.

Confectionary pearls of graduating sizes and scallop shells formed from gum paste are brushed with luster dust to mimic the natural opalescence. Impressions in the ivory fondant were made with an embossing tool. Sugar sprinkled on the tops of the tiers and the cake board sparkles like white sand. Cake by Gail Watson

Novelist Marcel Proust famously described the Madeleine as "a seashell cake so strictly pleated outside and so sensual inside." The lemon-flavored cookie-like tea cakes are tied around buttercream tiers with gold ribbon -- every other one finished with a bow. Cake by Wendy Kromer.