Here are some great ideas to consider if you are planning a wedding at the beach.
More and more couples are going off to exotic locales and getting married on the beach. It is one of the most romantic settings. Here are some ideas for the wedding and reception to help you keep with this theme.
Beach Theme Invitations
You could get the theme off to a good start by putting a small amount of sand in each guest’s wedding invitation. Another idea is to have the invitations resemble a postcard with a photo of the bride and groom at the beach with the words, “Wish you’ll be here...” You could also take a photograph of that wording written in the sand.
Beach Wedding Decor
To decorate guests’ chairs on the beach, you could string garlands of shells, starfish or coral between their seats to connect them. Use charms of sandals as wine or champagne glass markers at the reception. You could also have white galvanized buckets holding bottles of water for your guests to take as they need throughout the ceremony and reception and give each person a palm leaf fan to stay cool. You could also place four large rattan poles upright into the sand and drape white gauze over top as a canopy for your guests to sit under. Gauze is only about $5 a yard and comes in a variety of colors if you do not want white.
At the reception, use decorative pieces of driftwood as place card holders and thread either a beautiful ribbon or natural raffia through a sand dollar to use as a napkin ring. On each table use candles that smell like tropical fruit such as mango, papaya, coconut and kiwi.
Line the base of your gift table, head table or buffet table with real grass skirts – the raffia ones in natural, not the cheap green paper ones.
Other Details
For your wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses if you want a long dress, consider a loose fitting and fluid scarf dress with an empire waist, and either halter, strapless or off the shoulder. It can be made of chiffon, mesh or silk, either a solid color or a subtle print of flowers or paisley. Look at dresses by Mary L Couture for inspiration.
Most people would think to dress the wedding party entirely in white, but you could also have your bridesmaids and groomsmen wear shades of ocean green, sky blue and sand beige.
Avoid having your wedding in the afternoon, instead choose early morning or dusk to avoid your guests having to sit in the hot sun, and there will be less people using the beach.
For your wedding cake, think key lime or pineapple.
You could set the wedding march to a reggae beat and use Caribbean type instruments for your wedding music, such as a steel drum or a bamboo flute. In fact, a nice touch would be to have the bride’s arrival announced by a conch shell horn.
You could decorate a lobster trap with tropical flowers and use it as a money box or, for something more elegant, have envelopes left in a mother of pearl bowl. A captain’s log book would make an interesting guest book.
Disposable cameras have become so popular at weddings, that they now make them in various designs, including a beach theme. You can find the beach ones at Westport Style.
Fun wedding favors to give your guests would be a small bag of tropical flower bulbs like plumerias, or saltwater taffy.
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