It can be tough trying to plan a beach themed wedding when you’re hundreds of miles away from sandy beaches and roaring oceans. But, with a bit of ingenuity you can successfully bring the beach to you without looking tacky.

Ideally, you’ll have your wedding outdoors during the hot summer months (especially if you live in the north) in order to mimic the sunny setting of typical beach weddings. Hosting your wedding in a garden or park which features a pond or a lake is ideal. But, you’ll need more than a sunny, open space in order to achieve your desired, beachy look.  You’ll need a beach theme wedding cake, centerpieces, aisle décor and wedding attire appropriate for the occasion.

In an effort to beachify your venue, purchase a wholesale lot of play box sand and pour it along the main floor. Be aware, however, that this may make walking in high heels or open toe shoes extremely uncomfortable for your female attendees. Be sure to warn them of your sand plans, or simply pour the sand alongside the seating area for decorative purposes instead of directly on the main floor.

Now, let’s get onto the details. You’ll need a beach-worthy wedding cake. The most common (and economical) option, is to have a simple, multi-tier wedding cake with butter cream starfish and seashells. However, you can choose a more elaborate design to wow your guests. For a centerpiece,  place your favorite flowers in a vase and set seashells, rocks and/or sand at the bottom of the vase. Then, dust rings of beach sand around each centerpiece vase and place small seashells along the ring.

Because you’re hosting a beach themed wedding, it’s only appropriate to continue the sand theme throughout your aisle décor. Instead of choosing a traditional aisle runner, create a make-shirt aisle runner by  dusting a line of beach sand along each side of the aisle. Place hand-picked beach rocks on top of the sand. Instead of simply stopping at the end of the aisle, create a large, open-ended heart with the beach rocks and extend the heart far enough so your entire wedding party, yourself and your groom can stand in the heart throughout the wedding ceremony. 

The final and most important detail to bring your beach themed wedding together is attire.  Consider opting for a lace wedding gown without a train, such as an A-line, mermaid or sheath dress for your wedding; these dresses have the right amount of oomph for a beach themed wedding. Your wedding dress will be the center of attention, of course. However, it’s important to choose light, beachy attire for your groom and bridesmaids as well. Consider opting for cocktail length bridesmaids dresses and a light colored (e.g. ivory, cream, tan) tux for your groom.

Seashell decorations

Many couples automatically choose favors that involve decorating with seashells. The shells are simple to collect along the shore, are one of the most popular artifacts associated with the beach and are fairly simple to incorporate into any kind of favor. Seashell picture frames, seashell embedded candles (or candles molded like seashells), and note pads shaped like sea shells are an easy choice. Colored glass bottles filled with sand and shells, and a personalized message from the bride and groom provide a way for the happy couple to leave a lasting impression on all of their guests.

Wedding favors that cool your guests down

Since beach weddings automatically often place guests in a heated environment in which they may experience thirst or dry skin from the sun, some cheap beach wedding favors could be designed to address the temperature change. Mini-bottles of water with the couples name or wedding theme printed on the label helps guests to quench their thirsts. Lip balms and small parasols are also practical beach wedding favors.

Flip-flop themed wedding favors

The flip flop has become popular in beach themed wedding favors. Some couples choose to offer guests actual flip flops that they can wear on the beach during the ceremony. This saves more upscale shoes traditionally worn with dress attire, and made from patent leather or some other high end material, from sand damage.

The flip flop has also been used as beach wedding favor ideas for coasters, napkins, other tablecloths, and quirky food platters. It is a universal item that most people associate with the beach, and water activities, and can be designed to look upscale or casual.

Tropical wine bottle toppers

Some couples choose to focus their beach theme wedding favors around drinks like margaritas or martinis. Topping a fruity non-alcoholic drink that looks like the real thing with small tropical colored umbrellas, plastic cherry picks, or edible flowers, will make guests feel as if a beach wedding is on an island. Wine bottle toppers shaped like seashells, seahorses and starfish also add to a beach ambiance.

Personalize the gifts

There are many other beach theme wedding favors to choose from. Personalized barbecue sauce, sailboat place card holders, jelly bean or mint tins, glass tea lights and drinking glass charms, all bring the impact of the entire beach culture to a ceremony and reception. The beach theme wedding favors you choose for your special day should be affordable for the number of invited guests, reflect the personalities of the couples and give guests an overall mood to take with them when they leave.

There is a more practical reason these items work well for beach theme wedding favors. After the reception, guests who want a memento can effortlessly pack their favors away in a suitcase and fly away home.

Beach theme wedding cake toppers

The most important part of choosing any wedding cake is the topper, as it is what is remembered for ages, long after the cake is gone. There are several beach wedding cake toppers that are available for you to choose from, featuring surfer brides and grooms, to funny hippy brides and grooms that laze atop the cake. Your choice in topper depends totally on your style, as you will want to be sure it matches both yours and your groom’s personality perfectly.
 

Wedding cake colors

Aside from choosing the topper for your beach wedding cake, you will want to decide on colors and flavors as well. In order to make your cake memorable, you should consider using bright colors that separate it from the traditional white wedding cake with small accents. Using bright colors on your beach wedding cake is a sure fire way to set it apart from the standard wedding cake while giving it flair that both you and your guests will appreciate.
 

Exotic flavors

As for the flavor, there are many popular options when it comes to beach wedding cakes. While traditional cakes are vanilla or chocolate, perhaps even strawberry, since the beach theme is exotic, there have been many brides who have chosen to have pineapple cake to go along with their theme. This is a nice surprise for guests, as most generally assume the cake will be vanilla, however once they bite into it, they are greeted with the pleasant surprise of pineapple. If you are not fond of pineapple, you can also opt for orange, or even lemon, in order to retain that tropical vibe you are seeking.
 

The perfect beach themed wedding cake

No matter what style of cake you choose, you should be sure it fits perfectly with the idea of your wedding. If you’re not happy with your cake topper, you should strive to make sure you get one which fits in with what your cake will look like, in addition to the rest of your wedding decorations. Since you only get one wedding and one day to make it beautiful, be sure it’s exactly what you want before you commit to any design you’re unsure of whether or not you’ll like.

Wedding invitations online for inspiration 

There are a number of companies that make beach wedding invites and since your wedding is a special occasion, one that you will want to be perfect in every way, then it pays to look around a bit before picking a company or set of invitations.  One thing you can do if you are not quite sure what picture or design is the best for your beach wedding invitations is to go to Google images and search for ‘beach wedding invitations’.  You will get pictures of different beach theme wedding invitations, some photos, some art, some more cartoon style and some more realistically drawn.  You will get beach wedding invitations in all colors, so no matter what your theme color is, you will be sure to find something to suit it well.  You can also see the beach wedding invitation wording, which will give you a few ideas of how to word your invitation as well.
 

Create your own

If you or your significant other is the more artistic type, you can actually make your own beach wedding invites with the right computer program.  While you may still prefer to have a professional do it for you instead if you are too busy or do not feel up to the task, you might also prefer to make your own as, after all, they will be unique and personalized to a T.
 

Unique invitation ideas

If you are looking for a unique beach themed wedding invitation, one very artistic idea is to have a ‘message in a bottle’ invitation.  This is quite costly to ship and a bit time consuming to create, so it works best if your wedding does not have a large number of guests.  The general idea is that you write or type up the details of the wedding, roll it up and put it in a bottle and then ship the bottles of invitations off to the invitees.  You can get more creative than that though, adding sand and small shells from the beach that you will be married at. 

Other simpler yet still unique wedding invitation ideas are: take a photo of you and your spouse to be at the beach where the wedding will be held and use this as the front cover of the invitation.  You can also put the photo to one side and glue on shells and sand from the beach itself on the invitation.  To glue the sand on, you use the same method as if you were putting glitter on – put glue on the paper and sprinkle the sand on.  You should allow time for it to try.  Keep in mind however that these ideas are quite time consuming, depending on how many people you are planning on inviting, as you will have to not only either collect or buy the shells and sand but also glue them on individual invitations. 
 

Professional beach theme invitations

You can also have wedding invitations of all kinds, beach theme included, custom made for you by a company.  Naturally, these will cost more than ordering one from a catalog but if you have the budget for it, you may find that to be just your thing.  After all, you and your spouse to be are unique individuals, your wedding will be unlike any other, so why not unique invitations as well?

Choice of wedding dress

There is a time and place for everything, a wise man once said, and that is especially true for a beach theme wedding. When you get married on the beach you are allowed way more freedom in choice of a wedding dress. Informal wedding dresses are not frowned upon; neither are short wedding dresses either.

Beach theme wedding dresses need to chosen wisely, however, with regards to the season you are getting married in. If you are getting married in the summer, and are in a part of the world where you can experience temperatures of 80F and higher, you need to pick a beach theme wedding dress that won’t make you pass out of heat.
 

Here are a few things you should look for in dresses for a beach wedding:

• Make sure the material that is used is light, and that it is sown layer upon layer. Most traditional wedding dresses are made of heavy fabric, and breathe rather poorly. You want to avoid this at all costs.
• Shorter wedding dresses are allowed for a beach themed wedding. Just don’t go overboard, because your mother-in-law will be watching your every move.
• Strapless and sleeveless wedding dresses are perfect for beach weddings. The higher skin to air ratio the better.

Wedding dress spells “expensive”

We all know that formal wedding dresses are expensive and just putting the words “wedding dress” on the label means you have to pay a premium over normal dresses. The advantage with beach themed wedding dresses is that they don’t have to be formal wedding dresses. Anything that looks like a wedding dress will do just fine, so if you find something that will pass and is priced considerably lower than a “wedding dress”, you might want to go for it. You will also see that beach wedding dresses in general are priced lower than the traditional dresses, because less expensive fabric is used.

 
Time and patience

As with all wedding dress decisions it is important that you give the process time and patience. It can sometimes be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for, or on the other side of the spectrum be difficult to decide amongst all the dresses you like. That is why you should start the process as early after the proposal as possible. Some say that you should give yourself six months before the wedding, while others say 12 months. This is time you will be grateful for if you need to have the dress sent back for modifications or returned if you are not satisfied. Another advantage of being early is that you can build the wedding around your dress, in regards to decorations, invitations etc.

 
Buy the beach themed wedding dress of your dreams

As a final tip, bring as few with you as possible when you go out shopping for beach theme wedding dresses. This applies to all wedding dress purchases, but is worth remembering. The more people you bring, the more opinions and voices you have to answer to, which can make following your own heart and desires that much more difficult. After all, you are the one getting married, and not you mother-in-law, sister, or best friend.