Coastal Cocktail Hour

Cocktail hour on the porch is the easiest party there is, because nothing about it has to be cooked. Ours starts at five, when the light goes gold over the dune grass and somebody carries the ice bucket out. There is a bottle of rosé sweating in ribbed glass with a gold handle, two crystal flutes tied with blush bows, and a pair of tall glass dispensers on a wooden stand — one cucumber lemonade, one hibiscus iced tea, so the people who are not drinking still get something beautiful. The cheese board goes on the tiered porcelain stand where it takes up less table and looks twice as generous. Hand-blown ocean animal glasses — a crab, a seahorse, an octopus — get handed out and immediately claimed, because everyone wants a different creature. Sand dollar coasters go down on the glass tabletop. The embroidered crab tea towel and cocktail napkins are folded once and left where people can reach them. The Sterling Check wine cooler holds the second bottle, and the Courtly Check bunnies stand watch over the lemons and limes. Add white hydrangeas, a wicker rocker to sink into, and let the evening take as long as it takes.