Fall in love with the Beach Wedding Theme

​After a challenging 2020 wedding season, the wedding industry is now feeling very confident about the wide possibilities to celebrate. Being located on the Gold Coast, and with 50km of sandy gorgeous beaches very close by, what can I say?  We LOVE beach weddings! Australia has most of their main cities near the beach, making this a dream theme. We make 1000's of beach wedding invitations every year for Australia and the USA so I thought to cover this theme and the relevant info you should consider when organising a beach wedding. Got ideas that you want to share? PLEASE share them in the comment box below!

Beach Wedding Locations
If it`s possible try and book a private beach then you can have your wedding ceremony, and reception all day and night. If it is not, make a list of potential sites, and visit each one.

Ask questions during your visits, such as:

• Can I choose any beach or does each celebrant offer her services on a particular beach?
• Do I have an alternative plan if it rains? How do I communicate the plan to my guests?
• Will my wedding be private from views? Will my wedding be the only event on that day?
• Do you have rooms or hotels nearby? Doe the hotel have a private backyard where I can get married?
• Do I need council permission?

Make sure the location you choose has the amenities and facilities you desire.

Bridal Attire
There are 1000's of beach wedding styles that are suitable to wear outdoors,  without dragging sand all over it. Many brides opt to have two designs: one for the beach ceremony and a more elegant or formal one for the reception.

TIP/ IDEA: An idea that can help guests to be comfortable with their attire is to buy heaps of thongs and present them in a basket or wooden box. This allows people get changed during the wedding. High heels on the sand can be really uncomfortable and getting sand in your shoes is not much fun. Bare foot attire is also an option you could offer.​

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Decor
Is it going to be a rustic beach day or will it be an elegant glam beach reception?
This is a key question to keep in mind when choosing all services and products for the day.

There are fabulous decorations for a beach weddings and many DIY projects that with a bit of time, can look amazing. Extend the beach theme to your menu and table arrangements. Finger starfish with guest tags located on the table to indicate your guests the seating place. Beach signs with arrows. Mesh, rope, nets are just some of the elements that reflect the beach and ocean. I have even seeing chandelliers holding, only metres from the sand... the choice is yours and I strongly suggest you visit the venue many times to have an idea of the feel you want for your day.

IDEA: Some couples opt for using big sandollars or starfish instead of table numbers and hand write the number or name of the table on each. Serving food inside seashells is a nice beachy touch and very practical too.

Invitations
How many options we have here! I'll try not to get carried away because this is not supposed to be a beach invitation article!
Briefly I would say: Decide whether or now you want beach elements on your invitations, based on taste, level of formality and budget, of course!

If you love them, you can incorporate shells, starfish or sanddollar embellishments, and combine them with mesh, raffia or twine, in a neat, coordinated way. Scroll wedding invitations closed with string or jute and a shell, or fan shape invitation with a beach design, palms or sea shells, are also unique beach invitation ideas.

​If you don't like beach elements crafted on your invitations: Choose the design you want, and have a ribbon or paper band in aqua or beach colours or sandy twine, mesh and raffia, which are simple and warm beachy elements.

You can also use the 'message in a bottle' idea for favours with thank you messages to your guests or even as wedding programs rolled in bottles. We do not usually recommend these for invitations  Use place cards that won't blow away - names printed on shells or sandollars with a texter to keep the theme going. ​                                      Check our beach invitation collection here

Flowers
The Hawaiian style flowers have a very relax beach style, also frangipani, hibiscus or any tropical flower. Enquire with your florist at your wedding destination to put together bouquets with shells attached to them.
​Catering
A seafood spread would be ideal for beach wedding meals: Prawn cocktail, lobster and fresh local sea food. A lot of caterers (especially abroad) will be able to make exotic sea food dishes. A signature drink is a fun, classy addition to you beach wedding, perhaps in aqua colour to complement the scenery.

Cake
Some people like having a unique shape, like a sandcastle, palm trees, seahorse, giant clam, starfish or anything that will really personalise your wedding cake. Others rather a traditional cake with a touch of ribbon in your wedding colours, usually aqua, coral or pastels.

IDEA: milk chocolate shell decorations scattered across the tables or placed in a basket. Only if weather is not too warm! 

Favors
You could make or buy glass bottles with a message inside as mentioned before. Another special touch to make your beach event stand out is to get glass tubes and fill with messages or lollies.

We have seen fantastic and practical favour ideas such as: sunglasses in every single seat with the wedding date printed on the side and the couple names engraved. Great favours ready to be used if you forgot your own.

Also paper umbrellas, engraved with the couples names and ready to be opened for use during the ceremony and to take home.

Check our beach invitation collection here

Photo Credits:
Signage: Christopher Nolan Photography
Chairs: Style me Pretty

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