Beach wedding theme - Give your guests the gift of forgetting

Just think about what a beach wedding theme could do for your friends and family...

As your guests arrive at your reception, they are greeted with a flower lei. An acoustic guitar beckons them from a distance to slowly dance over to the flower covered table with the umbrella drinks and coconuts. They marvel at the sand, the seashells, the cups made from pineapple halves, and for just one moment....they FORGET that it's 30 degrees outside in blowing snow!

This is the beauty of your generously conceived beach wedding theme idea. Not only will you have a great time creating a fun setting for the day, but you'll be saying to your guests, "This is going to be a fun night. Relax and have a good time."

NOTE: After you read this page, you might benefit from our unique beach wedding ideas page. It will show you how to see things from a different angle so you can create a beach wedding theme that appeals to the five senses. Once you know how to do this, you can use it with other themes as well.

With just a few steps that most people don't even consider, you'll go from merely putting up a few beach wedding decorations to creating a beach wedding theme that your guests won't forget. If you read nothing else, read that page.

Note for those planning destination weddings: make sure your beach destination wedding location is private if you don't like the idea of an audience that grows with each minute of your ceremony. Many destination wedding locations are filled with vacationers that have nothing better to do than stare at your ceremony. Yes, we've even seen tourists taking pictures of themselves next to reception table place settings. Anyway, it's something to consider.

So let's put this beach wedding theme together with some ideas that you can pick from or expand upon. Consider the elements of the beach that we can use - sand, sun, wind, sea, flowers, fruit, seashells...

Sand

No beach wedding theme would be complete without it, but it has drawbacks. It's heavy, messy, and gets in shoes, and your guests may not like it under their feet. So...

Use it in:

Centerpiece bowls filled with sand, possibly seashells, and flowers or candles.

Favor sized pails that hold sand, candles, or candies.

Your own clear or colored glass bowls filled with sand. Add a tealight or pillar candle, buried in the sand to create a luminary effect.

Sand candles

Sand and shell tealight holders

Beach in a bottle

Beach theme wedding favors

Sun

Okay, how about light? Bring some light into the room with these ideas:

* Put mini white lights in trees or bushes.

* Hang paper lanterns from the ceiling.

* Consider these tiki torch centerpieces for a unique table decoration.

* Here's a way to bring the sun inside - with pictures. Get pictures of you, friends, and family at beach locations. Display them however you want, like...

...on individual tables in photo album wedding favors or picture frame wedding favors.

...on a fold out picture easel or board.

...on boards throughout the room.

...on display tables containing other elements of your reception - gift table, buffet tables, wherever you like.

...on a slide show that runs on a screen while your guests arrive. (You can make this on your computer.)

Consider displaying some pictures of the sun, like paintings or posters. Travel posters can be easy to find at local stores, or check with a travel agent.

Wind

Your guests that talk too much will have to supply this. Just kidding. This is one of the advantages of having a beach theme wedding that is not actually on the beach. Your hair won't turn into a wind-blown mess.

Sea

This is a tough one but you can have your DJ supply wave sound effects during slow times at the reception. Call him in advance so he can create something if he doesn't have the sound effects already.

Fill pedestal bowls or fish bowls with water and goldfish or betta fish. Give them to the kids when you're done. Hint: If you use betta fish, only get one male per tank. They are fighting fish, so putting two together is not the picture of love that you want for your wedding.

Flowers

• In centerpieces

• In drinks

• On tables

• In the bathroom in an accessory basket

• In people's hair

• In flower or silk flower leis

• How about decorating with mini palm trees? Little ones are not that expensive.

Fruit

Use these like you use the flowers.

Pineapples can make stand alone centerpieces, make vases for flowers, and cups for guests.

Decorate guest tables with a centerpiece bouquet of arranged fruits.

Have a buffet table of edible fruits that would go with a beach wedding theme and some caramel and/or yogurt dipping sauces. Strawberry, kiwi, melons, pineapple, and apples all work well for this.

Seagulls

Bad, bad, bad idea.

Seashells

Beach wedding theme decorations include:

• Pedestal bowls with seashells and sand.

• Candles with shells.

• Conch shells (the kind where you can "hear the ocean")

• Shell spreaders.

• Shell necklaces -HINT- These are a great, very inexpensive alternative to flower leis for your guests. By the way, this is what you get at a lot of luaus now instead of fresh flower leis.

Sea lice

One of the often forgotten benefits of living in Ohio is that there are absolutely no sea lice. (Please don't email us to tell us about some nasty critter that lives in Lake Erie - we just don't want to know.)

Happiness and fun

Supplied by you and your fun loving guests.

Don't forget to pick some good beach music for your beach wedding theme. Everyone's different so we'll leave this one to you. Some ideas include Jimmy Buffet or your favorite reggae artist.

Food

This is your call. Seafood is not everyone's favorite. A safe bet is to serve what you want and include some variety that would go with a beach wedding theme.

* Fruits work well.

* Cocktail or fried shrimp is a safe idea.

* Roasted pork loin/chicken/shrimp

* Jellos

* Fruit based drinks

Try this - instead of worrying too much about the type of food, incorporate the beach wedding theme into your napkins, tablecloths, serving trays, and cups. Then you can serve whatever foods you want.

See if your caterer has bamboo or basket type serving trays.

Beach wedding theme favors

You can have lots of fun decorating and entertaining with the great selection of beach wedding favors available these days. You can take the simplest do it yourself wedding favors and turn them into beach theme favors with beach theme favor labels or with the impression from a beach theme self inking stamp.

If you can think of an element of a reception, there's a way or a favor that will carry your beach theme.

Custom cake toppers can be cut with a palm tree or other icon/logo.

Napkins can be printed, embossed, and stamped with beach designs.

There are coasters with glossy beach theme art tops, swizzle sticks with beach theme icons, and beverage glasses with beach designs.

Place card holders, votive candles, centerpiece candles, bottle stoppers, bottle openers, spreaders, wine charms, mini photo albums, and even starfish shaped soap are among the items available in our store alone that can turn your beach wedding theme ideas into reality. For more on favors and other reception items respectively, see our pages on...

Now that your beach wedding theme is off to a good start, here are some other pages with helpful elements for beach wedding theme planning.