At her wedding in the  fall of 2007 on Johns Island, S.C., Mimi van Wyck engaged in some fanciful role playing.

Sheathed in spiraling layers of silk tulle, she looked every inch the languid 19th-century heroine.

Her gown, by the British designer Alexander McQueen, was ethereally romantic, said Ms. van Wyck, a New York event planner who traces her lineage to New Amsterdam.

All but weightless, it reflected the wedding’s balmy setting: a grove of ancient oaks in the walled garden of the old plantation.

“Those trees were filled with Spanish moss,” Ms. van Wyck said, “and like that moss, my gown was kind of blowing in the breeze.”