There are few things more romantic than a beach wedding.
“Mother Nature” supplies so many wonderful (and free) accessories:
the sea and the sun, the stars and the moon and of course the beautiful beach.
Beach weddings grow in popularity every year, and in order to ensure a
perfect day for you, I will be addressing several of the challenges
Your next challenge will be the wind. Romantic pictures of your veil
softly blowing in the gentle breeze are fine, but wedding programs
flying through the air and chasing napkins down the beach is not.
There is no way you can completely shield yourself from the wind, except to
hold the wedding inside, so your solutions are rather limited. Many
brides accept this as just a part of the whole beach wedding
experience, but should you feel differently and want to address this issue, you
could choose a form-fitting wedding dress, wear your hair tightly pulled
back, substitute the veil for flowers, and choose not to have printed
programs. If your reception is also on the beach make certain your
caterers anchor down everything with something heavy. And speaking of
beach receptions, you will no doubt have several uninvited seagulls
just waiting for their turn at the meat station, so make sure the food stays
covered until ready to serve. I should advise you not to feed the
seagulls unless you want even more uninvited guests, but on other hand
I find it kind of fun, so it’s up to you! One last note on beach
receptions, I highly recommend holding the reception under a tent to
protect your food from the elements, including seagull droppings!
Seating arrangements for a beach wedding can be a challenge. Chairs
have a tendency to sink into the sand, so you may want to consider
renting flooring to place under them. However, brides who choose to
have a more casual beach wedding may forego chairs and have everyone
stand during the ceremony and reception. Please remind your wedding
planner and caterers to allow plenty of time to set up the ceremony and
reception sites, as sand can be hard to walk in, which may slow down
the process. Remember your cake will need very special handling!
This brings me to beach access. Not all beaches are governed by the
same set of laws, so please check with the city or town officials where
the beach is located to determine if you need a permit to use the
beach. This should only be necessary if you are having a large
gathering and you want to block off a portion of the beach exclusively for you
and your guests. Also, there may be fire and music ordinances, so be sure
to check on those.
So there you have it, a few considerations that you will need to
address to ensure a wonderful beach wedding. Beach weddings are absolutely
beautiful, but nature does provide an element of uncertainty, but
careful planning on your part will eliminate most of them.
Congratulations, and have a wonderful wedding!
Brenda Daube is the founder and CEO of RoyalWeddingFavors.com, a supplier of elegant and unique wedding favors, including a beautiful collection of homemade wedding favors and wedding party gifts, all at affordable prices. Please visit us at http://www.royalweddingfavors.com
