Fantasizing about the sunset, the fresh sea air, and your darling? Make your beach wedding dreams a reality with these top ten ways to have a seaside ceremony to remember.
Talk to the Local Beach Council
Before you rent those tiki torches, check out local ordinances regarding your beach wedding. Find out if there are guest maximums, if food and alchohol are allowed, if there are restrooms nearby, if you can light a bonfire, if you can pitch a tent, the tide schedule, and other mandatory information.
Have a Great Backup Plan
Good luck or no, if it rains the day of your sandy nuptials, your dream day will be a bust. Make sure you have a sturdy alternate plan in case of rain. Secure a location away from the waves and have a tent prepared, just in case. Include alternative plans and directions in your invitation.
Prepare Your Guests
Send a save-the-date announcement up to six months in advance so your family and friends have a chance to prepare for the special location. In addition, when you send your invitations, remind guests to bring extra clothes in case it gets chilly.
Decorate Wisely
Sure, you want to line your “aisle” with luminaries and put up that trellis laden with flowers – but will your decorations go flying into the wind 2 minutes into the ceremony? Be sure and test all your ceremony special touches before the Big Day so you know what to expect in terms of wind, seaspray, and sand.
Use the Ocean as Inspiration
When choosing the layout of your ceremony, remember you have chosen a location with a million years of spiritual pretext. Incorporate the spiritual influence of the ocean into your ceremony with beach-inspired readings, poems, and vows that reflect the power of your surroundings as well as the power of your love for one.
Seaside Wedding Ceremonies
The setting sun, the roaring waves, your true love. Have a dream wedding ceremony on edge of the ocean using our ideas for unique ways to include nature in your promises. Oceanic Readings. Incorporate the sea’s power into your ceremony by using readings and poems that reflect your love for the waves as much as your love for one another.
Rites of the Ocean.
You may want to incorporate your surroundings into your ceremony. For example, instead of a unity candle, each of you pour sand into one container symbolizing both the endurance of time as well as unity. Or, if you’re having your ceremony around sunset, create vows that have to do with new days dawning, planets revolving around the sun, or the promise of a new day with each sunset. For your vows, make a circle of seashells for you both to stand inside.
Creative entrances and exits.
Since this is an unusual wedding environment, why not use your imagination when deciding where to walk down the aisle/ have guests seated/ leave the ceremony? Try making a grand entrance from behind some sea oats, or leading all your guests to the appointed wedding spot on the beach. After the ceremony is finished, you and your new husband can take a walk on the beach while your guests are bustling to the reception.
Honoring your family.
Instead of presenting mothers with flowers, give shells instead. Ask your father to walk down the beach with you for a way before the ceremony begins, and then turn around for a gentle stroll right up to your guests and groom. Adorn mothers and fathers with Hawaiin leis at the beginning of the ceremony, a welcome symbol you can use to symbolize welcoming them into a new family.
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