Beach Wedding ideas?? HELP!

Hello!

My DF and I are getting married in September this year and having a beach wedding. Just about everything is organised (except for the bridal and groomsmens clothes but that won't take long to get, it's only a basic beach wedding)... not really formal or anything. We don't want anything really formal as we are "casual" people by nature and don't feel comfortable dressing up to the max!!! I***WIM???!!!

The reason i'm posting is that I am wondering if you girls have any ideas what we can use for "beach ceremony" decorations. We are getting married by the water outside DF's parents house on the grass in front of the sand and water (so it's not too sandy that way!)... we are thinking about having just a few chairs, a bamboo aisle mat to walk down and what else?? We would like to have something in the background of the photos where we stand!? There will be about 50 ppl at our wedding...

Any ideas? Did your sister or friend or someone you know get married by the beach and use any really nice decoration setup that looked effective? I don't just want chairs and an aisle mat, i'd like something more.... I have been looking in weddings catalogues etc but nothing has given me ideas...

I'm starting to stress out about it all because 6mths is not far away!! and time creeps up on us because we are such busy ppl!
Thanks for reading :)

Hi Ren,
DH and I married on the beach... and all we had for decorations were Balinese flags... they were lined up as a makeshift aisle... it looked really beautiful. I will post a pic in Harrisons site if you would like to see.

I went to my friend's beach wedding almost 2 yrs ago and they had those tall bamboo torch things set up along the aisle with red material - like shiffon or something soft(red was the colour of the bridesmaid dresses and flowers etc..) weaved up them. It looked really pretty. They also stood on a red mat in the same material with a small bundle of native flowers in each corner to hold it down and be more decorative (mostly those stick features and a few of the flowers in the bouquets so they were fairly flat iykwim).

Good luck with it all - it'll be a wonderful day :)

I was going to suggest those bamboo torch type things as well. They're really cheap too - I think my DH picked up some at Bunnings a few years about for about $5/each.

My sister is having a beach wedding in October, and she's having silk frangipani flowers - very beachy!

What about taking some potted palm trees, for the background of where you will be standing (will the water be at your back, or will you be facing the water?). I think some companies hire potted palms, if you didn't want to buy them.

Re: chairs, I went to a wedding a few weekends ago where there were only chairs for the grandparents/preggie ladies - everybody else stood for the ceremony. It was only 30mins or so long, so fine to stand up for that long.

Thanks girls for all the excellent suggestions and ideas! I really love the balinese flag idea however I was a bit turned off it after i told Mum about it once and she said "oh Renee, I don't like those things they look tacky" so that did it for me. DF and I are now considering using them. It doesn't matter what Mum thinks does it?? It's OUR wedding after all. It did annoy me she said that but at the time i just ignored it. (so not to make a fight). I don't like it when ppl are so brutally honest, it can be offensive. (Thanks Lisa, I do like them too!)

Yeah the bamboo torch's seem like a great idea! They would look awesome late into the evening also! We'll have our sides facing the water (does that make sense?!) so we'll be side on to the crowd and side on to the water. the guests will be facing the water. i suppose we could face the water too but i don't like having our backs to the ppl. we'll talk more about it with our wedding celebrant soon...

Cherie - i agree re:chairs. only probably have 10 chairs just for the oldies and ppl wanting to sit down. should only go for 20-30mins so they'll be right.
Rae -the ribbon idea is great, might use some blue ribbon (thats our theme colour) somewhere along the way...

I like the idea of the frangipani flowers - they're so beautiful yet expensive. but worth it im sure! We are thinking of having gerberas as they are my favourite flowers and my DF has always bought me them.

You can line the walkway with tealight candles - you can get a pack of 100 for about $5 from Ikea. You can also get cheap holders from various places although you could place them in the sand just a little way down to protet them from any wind but will still give a lovely glow.

For back ground decorations, you can hire free standing candlearbras (sp?) which might look nice. We had wrought iron ones with lovely chunky candles in the back ground at our wedding (got married at a winery though). If you get married at dusk or something you can light them.

You could also hire a cheap marque and decorate with flowing scarves or other material. You can hire cheap wrought iron freestanding arches as well.

Hope that helps.

MG

Thanks MotherGoose - yeah i thought of using a free standing arch too.. with fake flowers wrapped throughout it! That's a thought... you can buy them in Bunnings i think can't you? Last time i checked you could anyway... or yeah, hire one. probably hire is best. the wedding is at 3:30pm so it won't be dark then, the sun will be bright (hopefully! thats the plan hehehe)
Thanks heaps

LISA - thanks so much for posting your wedding photos just had a look now, they are really, really nice! Very effective those flags are aren't they!
:) Thanks!

You're welcome.
We thought they looked fantastic... I remember getting out of the car and thinking wow, they look awesome.

If you can't tell by our pics, it poured down rain on our wedding day!!! So, we wouldn't have been able to use anything like candles etc anyway.

What about those gorgeous coloured lanterns youcan get. They look good day or night xo

Webmegg, yeah the lanterns are a great idea! I told DF just then and he said that sounds good! Yeah it won't be dark enough to light them but just having them there is great. i'll look in those home wares places like "Loot" and "House & Garden" perhaps??

Lisa - yeah i could see the sky was a bit overcast in your photos! I bet you still got some great photos as overcast days are meant to be the best photos they say.i'm sure wether hail, rain or shine, it'll be a great day for us!

what is the foliage like at the house? we didn't get married on the beach but in my brother's back yard and a lot of our backdrops to the photos were purple bougainvillea (pics on my site - link in footer).

Maybe you could plant some mature plants now that are spring flowering????

When we used to go fire twirling on the beach we used to use brown paper bags, with sand in the bottom with tea light candles in them, great for when the sun was starting to go down, gave a nice glow.

A positive side to the lanterns is that you can use a citronella blend oil to keep the mossies away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Schaz. Well actually there isn't really any foliage as it's on a grass area between the house and the sand/water.
I love the idea of the paper bags with the sand and tealight candles thats nice.

My SIL is a wedding coordinator, so I will have a chat to her for you on Tuesday and see if I can get some freebie ideas.

We were married on a beach in Fiji so decoration was done for us but they had the bamboo flares with palm fronds woven around the stem of it (very intricately done). I think hiring palm plants would add colour to your day and bring out the beachy feel. And having a look at Lisas wedding those flags looked great. I love the sound of candles/lamps/lanterns etc as they are very elegant.

I hope your day turns out magical and is perfect. Remember don't sweat the little stuff just focus on the big picture. We ended up having a massive storm 15 mins before the ceremony was meant to start and I was cursing like a sailor but it cleared up in time and left some magical clouds in the sky to make our sunset pics really stand out.

email me for pics of the woven palm fronds if you like (check my profile for email account)

Thanks Katie :P