Swaying palms, a lapping sea, and serene sunkissed memories: the carefree ambience of a beach wedding puts a beach location at the top of the list for sun-seekers and bohemian lovers. Use soft pastel tones to up the romance, or shout-out-loud oranges and tropical colours to get that feelgood festival flavour, and remember – less is more. So get the detailing right to set the mood and incorporate cute coastal references to keep it all on topic.
Fabulous Floral Flourishes
Effortless to create because it needs little dressing up, but brimming with lavish luxe appeal thanks to its perfectly formed domes of tiny flowers, the soft-hued hydrangea ticks all the beach wedding boxes when it comes to wedding flower power. Scatter their petals down the aisle, take a sprig for a buttonhole, a dome for a bouquet interspersed with shells or framed by sea grass, and incorporate them throughout your ceremony and reception decor. Their pastel tones make them wonderfully romantic.
Party lovers that want to capture the flavour of a full moon party wedding fiesta, should opt for bold, tropical florals instead, like birds of paradise, orchids and frangipanis.
Aisle Style
Contrast the expanse of the beach by framing your aisle and shaping your ceremony area. And who says it needs to be theatre style – why not create a circle of love around your wedding arbour.
Frame your aisle with palms, shells, or flowers – taking care to incorporate your choice into other aspects of your decor, and if you’re holding your wedding by night, light the aisle up with a string of light bulbs, lanterns or candles.
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Wedding Arbours
Driftwood makes for the perfect beach wedding arbour. Easy to make and cheap to hire if you don’t want to construct your own, wire-wrap your chosen wedding flowers in sections around the arbour’s sides, or cover it completely to create a magnificent floral arbour.
Drape wisps of silk crepe for a bohemian beach feel, or shape into pinned-back curtains.
Seating
Go minimal; ditch chair covers in favour of decoration that matches you arbour and aisle; sashes of silk crepe, tiny flower domes, or vases hanging on the back of each seat.
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Centrepieces
Spray paint plastic sea creatures in metallic gold and scatter on each table display, make driftwood runners for each wedding table and dress candle holders with shells, nautical rope or tropical flowers.
Signs & Fun Beach Twists
Embrace the beach theme throughout your signage using driftwood, surfboards or weather-beaten wooden crates for the largest pieces, and shells, nautical knots or cocktail umbrellas for placeholder settings and food labels.
Why not offer paintbrushes to brush off sand from guests feet, a box of flip flops for guests to wear, notecards for guests to write messages of advice or well wishes before posting them into an oversized bottle, and favours in a palm tree packaging.
Cake
Recreate the waves of the sea in layered watercoloured icing, and crown it with kissing seahorses or sugar star fish surrounded by frangipanis, or go nude with an exposed sponge, filled with fruits and embellished with flowers.
You could even offer sugar sculpted creates or sea creature or beach ball cake pop favours…Hydrangea World
This feature was written as an advertorial in collaboration with Hydrangea World.
Credits
From top to bottom, left to right:
- Shell bouquet via Wedding Party Blog
- Pink hydrangea bouquet via
- Birds of Paradise bouquet via Pinterest
- Circular aisle via BeautifulWeddings.com.au
- Palms and arbour via Pinterest
- Shells framing aisle via Pinterest
- Hydrangea vases and arbour via Destin Beach Photography Company
- Lit aisle by night via Pinterest
- Hanging hydrangeas via onewed.com
- Floral wedding arbour via jenarichardsweddings.com
- Silk draped arbour via Pinterest
- Wedding lanterns and ‘four-poster’ arbour via darot.net
- Chair vases via sigaram.co.in
- Hydrangea domes via
- Starfish via Pinterest
- Candle vases via bodasyweddings.com
- Metallic sea creatues via verilymag.com
- Palm tree favour boxes via iidaemilia.com
- Driftwood via Pinterest
- Hydrangea vases on tableclothed table via webwedtalks.com
- Coral in vase via Pinterest
- Nautical rope candles via confettidaydreams.com
- Starfish candle centrepiece via Pinterest
- Nautical knot placename holders via myweddingfavors.com
- Crate order of the day via Pinterest
- Surfboard seating plan via ideastand.com
- Cocktail umbrella placename holders via myweddingfavors.com
- Starfish placename holders via blog.kingandprince.com
- For sandy toes sign via Pinterest
- Beach wedding sign via Pinterest
- Message in a bottle via Pinterest
- Blue starfish cake via Pinterest
- Gold starfish cake via Pinterest
- Nude sponge cake via Pinterest
- Pink seahorse cake via Martha Stewart
- Sugar sculpted sea creatures by Sarah Hardy
- Beachball cake pops via Pinterest
- Sea creature cake pops via Pinterest
Author: Kate Lovell
Our very first writer for The Gay Wedding Guide with over 300 articles written. Unfortunately, she no longer writes for us as she left to focus on other copywriting and projects but she'll always have a dedicated place in our hearts here at The Gay Wedding Guide.
