6 Ideas for Beautiful Beach Weddings to Celebrate All Things Sun, Sea and Surf

For some people, the beach is an integral part of their lives. Their day hasn’t started until there’s been a walk on the beach or even a sometimes icy dip, and children are practically raised in the waves and sand dunes. If you can’t imagine yourself separated from the beach, then the beach will also be the perfect setting for your wedding.

We’ve been researching beautiful beach weddings and present the following ideas to you in the hopes that they will give you some inspiration for perfectly combining your love of the beach with your upcoming nuptials.

1. No Shoes

From Confetti Day Dreams

Even as a child, what was the first thing that you did when you finally made it down onto the white sand of your favorite beach? You took your shoes off. For your beach wedding, you will be encouraging your guests to, as Elmo says, “set their piggies free,” and you should start by following your own advice. Anyway, trudging through beach sand in traditional wedding high heels is nobody’s idea of fun, and you will feel much more free and connected to the earth by leaving your shoes at home – or, at the very least, on the boardwalk. Your feet can still be beautifully decorated with barefoot sandals, which can be purchased or even made yourself. If you’re interested in DIY, here’s a simple tutorial for barefoot sandals.

2. Show Them the Way

From Buzzfeed

There is every chance that many of your wedding guests will have never attended a beach wedding before. To help your guests know what they are expected to do, create your own beach themed signs to tell them where they need to go and what’s happening next. The example above also encourages your guests to take their shoes off. Keep in mind that, especially for those wedding guests who have never attended a beach wedding before, the idea of attending a wedding barefoot would be about the same as attending a funeral in a full-body superhero costume, so make sure that you reiterate the idea several times to your guests, lest they spend your wedding awkwardly flicking beach sand out of their best shoes.

3. Your Beach Themed Wedding Cake

By Landon Jacob

No beach wedding would be complete without a beach themed wedding cake, and there are so many beautiful ideas for incorporating elements of the sand and surf into a delicious and stunning-looking wedding cake. Edible sand will be a fantastic addition, as will edible decorations such as shells, starfish, and pearls. Your beach wedding cake is the perfect opportunity for you to express without words what the beach means to you. Do you see the beauty and purity of nature? Then a clean white wedding cake like the one shown above would be the ideal choice. Do you have childhood memories of sandcastles and long hot days spent in the surf? Then a more colorful wedding cake might be the best solution. Perhaps it’s all about the sea for you: your wedding cake could be shades of blue and green and feature various sea creatures. The important thing is to spend some time to think about the message you want to convey, and then to decide the best way to go about it.

4. DIY Beach Escort Cards

From Confetti Day Dreams

Every wedding needs at least a small element of DIY, don’t you think? You are looking for a DIY project for your beach wedding that meets the three essential criteria for a DIY project: easy, inexpensive, quick – then these sea animal wedding escort cards are the perfect solution. All you need are some plastic sea animal toys, which you could find in a two dollar shop or easily source online, along with a spray can of metallic paint. The DIY recipe practically writes itself, but the end result is very clever and effective. It’s also practical, too, as these decorations double as your escort cards.

5. Message in a Bottle Wedding Invitation

From Bridal Guide

When planning a themed wedding, it is a good idea to let your guests know about your intended theme as early as possible so that they can plan in advance. The perfect time to start dropping hints about your wedding theme is at the first instance: your wedding invitations. And what better way to invite guests to your beach wedding then with a wedding invitation disguised as a message in a bottle! These can easily be handmade by collecting and washing bottles (they don’t all need to be the same size and shape – no one is going to be comparing wedding invitation bottles!) and rolling up your own invitations inside, or there are plenty of online companies who will happily take care of this task for you.

6. Wedding Seating Ideas

From Bridal Guide

Suitable seating is undoubtedly one of the most problematic elements of planning beautiful beach weddings. Many beaches don’t allow chairs to be brought down onto the sand, so sometimes it seems like the only option is to have your guests standing throughout the ceremony. On the other hand, that may not be a practical solution if you have people for whom it is unreasonable to request to stand for a long period of time, especially on a hot day: elderly people, people with injuries or disabilities, pregnant women, or people carrying children. Also, having your guests standing while you take your vows can lead to a feeling of being overcrowded, and can also mean that some guests won’t be able to see the ceremony properly. We love the above idea of using simple wooden stools, resembling cutup tree trunks, as makeshift seating ideas that blend perfectly in with the surroundings.

Done well, a beach wedding can be the perfect way to tie the knot with your loved one while celebrating your love of all things sun, sand and surf with all the important people in your life. A beach wedding is a truly unique and authentic way of having the wedding that you truly desire, rather than the wedding you think you should have. And as an added bonus, a beach wedding brings the perfect amount of natural light that will make your photographer giddy with happiness. Once you’ve got those perfect beach wedding shots, celebrate your stunning beach wedding by turning your favorite photos into professional quality wall art to forever remember your day.