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Whether you are planning a beach wedding, or simply planning to incorporate a beach theme into your ceremony, it makes sense to give your guests wedding favors. Beach themed favors that reflect the ocean-side setting are best. This helps create the ambiance for your wedding and serves as a fashionable reminder of your big day. Each time your guest sees your wedding favor in their home, they will remember your wedding lovingly.

This article will help you choose the best beach themed wedding favors for pleasing your guests while protecting your budget.

Placing a votive candle inside a small beach bucket or pail creates a simple but appropriate seaside wedding favor. To make these favors, you need to buy plastic beach pails. They can easily be found in hobby shops, so buy several in various colors. Also buy some colored sand while you’re at the hobby shop. Fill each bucket about one-quarter full with colored sand, then set a votive candle into the sand. After you tie a brightly colored ribbon around the bucket you’re finished! These beach wedding favors are both simple to make and inexpensive, but they also perfectly reflect the ambiance of your ocean-side wedding. Your friends and loved ones will think of your ceremony fondly whenever they see them in their home.

Another unpretentious and easy on the pocket option for oceanfront wedding favors is seashells. Visit party supply and hobby and craft stores to find shells that are unbroken and fairly uniform in size. While you are in the store, be sure to also pick up some low-cost fishing net material. Cut the fishing net into small squares. Place a few shells in the center of each square. Draw the corners of the square together and tie them with pink, blue or coral silk ribbon. This creates surprisingly appealing favors. Beach wedding guests will love them.

For another choice in wedding favors, beach themed magnets are charming. You can buy magnets in the shape of palm trees, starfish, seashells and other beach or ocean related designs. Your guests will likely display your favors prominently on their refrigerators, reminding them daily of your ceremony.

Place-card holders are yet another alternative for tropical wedding favors. They can liven up the atmosphere of your reception and can also be used by your guests as mementos. Wedding and gift shops usually offer inexpensive place-card holders in shapes related to the ocean or the beach, like dolphins, seashells and starfish. They are placed on the tables at your reception and hold cards that provide your guests’ names and table numbers. When they return home, your guests can slip a photo inside and use the place-card holder as a playful picture frame. They will thank you for giving them a useful wedding favor, and they’ll often be reminded of your ceremony and reception.

Finally, for practical and inexpensive wedding favors, beach themed bookmarks are our favorite. Instead of simple paper bookmarks, opt for something classier and sturdier such as plastic or chrome. You can easily find bookmarks topped with starfish, palm trees, or even flip flops to blend perfectly with your beach wedding theme. Bookmarks are also practical. Guests who are avid readers will particularly appreciate them. To make this an even more cherished memento, place the book mark in a book of love poems or a small album of photos from your ceremony.

BeachWeddingMagic helps soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for suggestions and advice on wedding favors, beach themed, wedding cakes, decorations, wedding planners and much more.

If you have never attended a beach wedding but you’ve received an invitation, you might be bewildered by how to go about selecting appropriate beach wedding clothes. Most weddings are either formal or dressy, but now you’ve been invited to a wedding where the ceremony is on the beach!

Is a man’s designer silk suit appropriate, or should guys wear beach shorts with tropical prints? Is it better to adopt a surfer look with unkempt hair, or should you comb your hair neatly? And should ladies wear their special-occasion $500 red Prada pumps or a simple pair of flip-flops? The typical seaside ceremony is more casual than a traditional church wedding, and beach wedding clothes are usually more casual as well.

Some wedding guests are fortunate and receive invitations with hints about what they should wear. If your invitation didn’t give you a clue, send the bride and groom a quick email asking for their suggestions before you start planning your beach wedding clothes. They will probably suggest some type of upscale beach attire, but no matter what they recommend, they’ll appreciate your concern and the indication that you are planning to attend.

If you are still in a quandary after asking, use these guidelines to help:

Beach Wedding Clothes for Men: Forget about wearing black – that color is typically reserved for the groom (although the restriction is usually not as rigidly observed as that of brides and white clothing). A white, cotton, button-down collar shirt with dress slacks is usually a safe clothing choice for a less formal affair.

If you’d feel more comfortable in a suit, go with linen slacks and jacket in a lighter color with a casual, striped shirt underneath – this will give you an air of relaxed formality and help you strike the perfect balance between casual and dressy. If you want to be more adventurous (or beachy) go with well-tailored cotton, linen or silk-blend draw-string pants or shorts and a tropical-print silk shirt.

For footwear, leather sandals are a good choice (though you want to make sure they’re open enough to let the sand out). Leather flip-flops work well too. It can be fine to even go barefoot, although that depends on how formal the occasion is and exactly what you’re wearing (you wouldn’t want to go shoeless if you were sporting an expensive linen suit).

Beach Wedding Clothes for Women: You want to be sure you don’t upstage the bride by out-dressing her. You have more freedom to dress up if it’s a formal wedding. Beach attire of the sort you might wear to an upscale resort is the best choice for a casual ceremony. Light-weight cotton or rayon skirts are ideal for tropical destinations. Wear these with island-style cotton or rayon tops in bright, primary colors for the perfect look. Well-tailored jersey dresses work well too.

As for length, a shorter dress or skirt will be best on the wedding beach. Try to avoid wearing a long dress and high heels, because these can make walking through deep sand almost impossible. Add some chic, subdued “bling” like a bracelet, necklace and earrings with an island or beach theme and you’re almost there.

To complete the look, wear sandals or dressy flip-flops with pretty painted toe-nails. If you’d rather go barefoot, wear a toe ring, ankle bracelet or barefoot sandals. Foot jewelry works particularly well if it is crafted from coral, shells or other items that show off your beach wedding clothes.

BeachWeddingMagic is devoted to helping soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for expert advice on beach wedding clothes, decorations, flowers, wedding planners and much more.

You’re going to be married on the beach with the surf providing liquid music in the background. You’ve selected your date and you’ve settled on the perfect place to hold your wedding. Beach invitations are the ideal way to let your guests know about the joyful occasion. Your hope, of course, is that your wedding invitations will entice those you care for to attend and participate in your special day.

To fulfill your hope, you’ll want to create an invitation that is so attractive, your guests will be tempted to frame it to help them remember the beauty of your wedding. If you are like most couples, you’ll also want to keep an eye on how much you spend for your invitations. The average couple spends about five per cent of their wedding budget on invitations. Surprisingly, that’s $1,000 for a $20,000 wedding. Beach invitations can cost much less than that. Rather than hiring a graphics designer to take on the task, trim your budget by creating your own.

Creating your own beach invitations may seem like a thorny challenge at first. Luckily, there’s no cause for stress. With so many choices of paper, color, and type-styles, you can easily craft invitations that perfectly reflect your unique style…without breaking the bank. This is a chance for you to be as wild and creative as you would like. Have fun!

Here are a few tips to inspire your imagination:

Online Invitation Designing: Enter “design your own wedding invitations online” into the Internet search engine you prefer. Dozens of different websites will be displayed, many of which will help you design invitations for your wedding. Beach invitations can be created using ready-made designs, if that’s what you prefer. You can use one of these ready-made designs and customize it, or you can decide to start from scratch. Either way, it’s free to design them. Your invitations won’t cost anything until you have them printed.

Shape and Size of Invitations: You might want your invitations to have a custom shape, such as a palm tree, a sea horse or something else that’s related to the beach. Custom shapes are popular, but they do have some shortcomings. The printer will need to specially set up their equipment to cut the paper into the shape you choose, and this will come at an extra cost. You may have additional postage costs, too, because the post office sometimes charges more for oversized or oddly shaped envelopes. If your budget is tight, you are better off staying with square or rectangular invitations.

Invitation Graphics: What images pop into your mind when you think about the beach? Wedding invitations can incorporate pictures of sand dollars on the beach, swaying palm trees, sailboats on the horizon and other beach-related images into their designs. You can create a tasteful background for your invitations by repeating the same image of a tropical flower, a starfish, a sunset or a dolphin. You can also use a favorite beach photo or painting in your design.

Choices for Invitation Paper: If you’re not certain about what type of paper to use, 30 to 50 pound card stock is ideal. This weight prints well and is thicker than ordinary paper, so it resists bending and creasing when it’s in the mail. If you want to be environmentally responsible, choose recycled paper. If your goal is elegance in your invitations, choose linen or cotton paper. Here’s a tip, though: if you use a cotton blend instead of 100% cotton, you’ll save money.

Type-style: The website where you design your invitations will offer a variety of fonts to choose from. You will want to choose a font that reflects romance, the beach, and of course, your own personality. One of the most popular and pleasing-to-the-eye fonts for wedding invitations is called Edwardian Script. Renaissance and Vivaldi fonts are good bets as well.

Beach invitations can be individualized even more by adding your favorite song lyric, quote or poem. If your wife or husband-to-be has a favorite expression, feature it in the wording of your invitations. By integrating these personal touches you will capture the attention and imagination of your guests. Friends and family will cherish your invitations long after the celebration has ended.

BeachWeddingMagic is devoted to helping soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for suggestions and advice on wedding beach invitations, cakes, decorations, clothing and much more.

Whether you are planning a beach theme for an indoor ceremony, or setting up a seaside venue for your wedding, beach flowers are a must. There are infinite varieties of flowers to choose from in colors and shapes to suit every taste and budget. With a little careful planning, you can treat yourself and your guests to a stylish floral display…without draining your savings account.

The strategies below will help you choose the perfect flowers…and you won’t strain your budget:

Different types of flower arrangements

First you need to decide the number and type of flower arrangements you need for your wedding. Beach ceremonies can include loads of flowers or none at all. Traditional weddings normally include the following: Floral arches, a wedding bouquet, a bouquet for the bride, a basket of flowers for the flower girl, corsages for the bridesmaids, boutonnieres for the groom and groomsmen and floral arrangements for reception tables. Some couples include corsages or boutonnieres for close relatives who attend the wedding. Beach flowers are also often used to create an aisle or path leading to the ceremony.

Tip: You can get by with fewer flowers on your wedding beach because the surroundings themselves are so beautiful. If your money is limited, just have flowers for the bride and groom. You can enhance your beach theme by substituting Hawaiian-style floral leis instead of the bride’s bouquet and the groom’s boutonniere.

Budget

$2,000 is the cost of flowers for the average wedding. Beach flowers can be cheaper because you don’t need as many.

Add up all the flower arrangements you need. Decide whether you want tropical flowers, non-tropicals or some of both. When you have this information you are ready to ask florists about their charges and you’ll be able to pin down your budget.

Questions for florists

Unless you’re an experienced floral arranger, leave that task to professionals. Ask wedding planners, other newly-married couples and hotels for their recommendations on local florists. Try to get at least three names, and meet with each candidate in person. Interview the florists by phone when this isn’t possible.

Tip: Ask each candidate the questions below to identify the florist that’s ideal for your wedding:

What services do you offer for weddings? Are your designing services included in the cost of the flowers? What experience do you have designing floral arrangements for beach weddings? Can you show me examples of arrangements you have designed specifically for beach weddings? Beyond the cost of the flowers, what additional charges should I expect (delivery, setup, etc.)? How far in advance do I need to place my order? Can you give me a firm price quote instead of an estimate?

Compare the florists’ answers and prices. Choose the one which has the best answers AND a reasonable price when compared to the others.

Some other money-saving ideas:

Use flowers that are grown locally

Choose flowers that are native to the location of your ceremony. They do not need refrigeration and they do not need to be shipped, so florists usually sell them cheaper. You’ll have exquisite flowers at a lower cost.

Tell your florist about the color of your decorations, the bridal couple’s clothing and the rest of the wedding party’s clothing. When your florist knows your color palate, they can recommend local flowers that coordinate with your wedding beach theme.

Use floral arrangements for more than one purpose

You can cut your floral costs by using the same flower arrangements at your reception as well as the ceremony. Some advance planning will let your florist or a few close friends quickly move the flowers from the ceremony’s location to the site of your reception.

Make sure you use flowers with strong, waxy blooms if you want your flowers to do this kind of double duty. Heliconia, antherium, orchids and calla lilies work better because they hold up in heat and keep their fresh look throughout the ceremony, the reception and beyond.

Plants and greenery can supplement blossoms

Cut flowers are more expensive. Instruct your florist to stretch your budget by using potted plants and local greenery extensively in your flower arrangements. Palm fronds, for example, are quite attractive. They’re plentiful and they’re also dramatic. You might even be able to find some free local greenery, depending on where your wedding will be held.

You can also make your floral budget go further if you use potted plants such as smaller orchids, tillandsia and African violets and give them out to guests as wedding favors.

BeachWeddingMagic helps soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for tips and advice on wedding beach flowers, decorations, flowers, wedding planners and much more.

Have you been putting off selecting the location for your wedding? There are several convincing reasons why on-beach weddings have become so popular with couples about to be married. Instead of more traditional weddings held in churches, more and more couples are choosing less formality and more romance. They are being married on the beach, surrounded by their friends and family members.

Here are four convincing reasons why getting married on the beach makes good sense:

1. An on-beach wedding is unforgettably magical and unequaled for its air of romance. The beach setting is almost guaranteed to leave you starry-eyed. Imagine yourself on a sparkling white-sand beach with a gentle ocean breeze wafting the light perfume of your tropical wedding flowers all around you. Then picture the bubbling water dancing lightly onto the sand, carried onto the beach by glistening azure waves. Try to imagine the ultimate moment, the magical time when you stand facing your beloved, surrounded by your loved ones and lit by the golden rays of the setting sun. Looking lovingly into each others eyes, you say, “I do.”

2. Treasured memories for your guests. No event creates memories quite like a wedding. For your loved ones and other guests, a beach wedding means more than the opportunity to share your happiness. An on-beach wedding gives your guests a chance to get away from work, travel and relax. It might even mean they can extend their stay and have a vacation. An on-beach wedding gives your guests something to anticipate, and the more exotic the location, the better.

3. An on-beach wedding is less expensive than you might expect. If your budget allows it you can fly in a large number of guests, book a whole resort hotel, host a lavish two-day party and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on your wedding. Beach weddings, however, don’t need to be that expensive. You can opt for an intimate, private wedding with you, the minister, the sand and the waves. It will hardly cost you anything. You’ll be surrounded by natural beauty when your wedding is on a beach, unlike indoor weddings. The beautiful surroundings allow you to use fewer flowers and decorations. Seaside settings also allow you to save on clothing as you can dress more casually for the wedding. Beach weddings provide maximum budget flexibility yet provide a truly magical experience.

4. An on-beach wedding is easy to plan. Once you’ve settled on a location, you can breathe easy. Even without the help of a professional wedding planner, organizing a beach wedding is pleasurable and entertaining, especially if you and your husband or wife-to-be work as a team.

You can simplify the planning process by creating a theme (such as tropical, musical or luau) for your beach wedding. Beach wedding coordination then becomes a relatively straightforward process of tracking down capable service providers, negotiating the best deals and making sure that your guests have the help and advice they need as they complete their plans to attend.

Even better, your on-beach ceremony can be at the same resort where you will have your honeymoon, which can begin as soon as the reception is over. No packing, trip to the airport or long flight. Just kick back and enjoy it!

BeachWeddingMagic helps couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for expert advice on planning a beach wedding, wedding decorations, flowers, wedding planners and much more.

Now you can relax, because when you decided to have a beach wedding instead of a more traditional setting, you just may have made the best decision of your life. No mundane local event center wedding for you; instead, you’ll have a romantic, picturesque seaside wedding. Beach wedding planning can be more complicated than planning for a traditional ceremony, however, so you’ll want to simplify wherever you can.

How can you simplify planning your wedding on the beach? We’ve developed a practical five-point strategy to help you plan a magical ceremony on your wedding beach.

1. Realism is Important

Whether their location is a beautiful church or on a scenic beach, it takes a lot of time to plan and organize weddings. Beach weddings involve a lot of things, including finding the right beach, booking flights or other travel arrangements, organizing the flowers and food, choosing the perfect wedding dress, organizing the reception and more. You see the problem.

For maximum results with minimal stress, it’s best to begin your wedding planning process at least 12 months in advance. This will give you ample time to book hotels, buy airline tickets, arrange your wardrobe and mail invitations. It will also give your guests enough time to make their own travel plans.

2. Select Your Setting

Selecting a wedding beach for your ceremony should be done as early as possible in the planning process. Why? More popular wedding beach venues are booked well in advance and you don’t want to end up settling for a less than ideal spot. Also, the remainder of your preparation process (selecting caterers, photographers, florists, etc.) will hinge on your chosen location.

Once you make a decision on location, commit to it. It will make the rest of your planning much simpler and easier.

3. Anticipate the Weather

You really don’t need to worry about the weather with indoor weddings. Beach ceremonies, on the other hand, make weather a real factor. Rain on the day of your wedding might be unwanted, but you can deal with it if you are inside a church. A beach may not offer any type of shelter.

This means that you and everyone else at the ceremony may need to quickly decide whether to continue with the wedding or stop it. Because you can’t plan the weather on the beach, you need to anticipate it by arranging a backup location. The best way to do this is to make arrangements for the alternate site as soon as you choose your wedding beach. Your backup will give you a place to hide from the weather if it turns ugly.

4. Secure Your Service Providers Early

Another critical component of beach wedding planning is finding the most competent wedding service providers to work for you. The best service providers are booked well in advance and typically charge more for spur of the moment service requests.

Ask the staff of local hotels in the area for recommendations. Most will happily provide you with a list of reliable florists, photographers and other providers. Sometimes you can negotiate a better deal with wedding service providers by having a local business refer you.

5. Don’t Procrastinate on Paperwork

After you’ve selected the right beach location and you’ve lined up your wedding service providers, you can move on to completing paperwork. What paperwork do you need to worry about? If you are a US citizen and your wedding is in another country, you definitely will need a passport.

You’ll also need a marriage license (which typically requires a blood test), forms for the bride to complete if she wants to change her name, and for most venues, a permit to hold the ceremony on the beach. This paperwork isn’t difficult, but you don’t want to overlook anything.

To avoid feeling overwhelmed, create a wedding planning blueprint using these tips as a guideline. Follow your blueprint and you’ll be on your way to organizing a magical celebrations on your wedding beach.

BeachWeddingMagic is devoted to helping soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for tips and advice on choosing the best wedding beach, decorations, flowers, clothing and much more.

A bride’s wedding might be the most romantic, breathtaking occasion she ever has. Few events rival the magic you feel while exchanging your marriage vows on a soft white-sand beach, with your closest friends and relatives surrounding you and a gentle ocean breeze whispering through your hair.

You can create an absolutely enchanting experience with a seaside wedding. Beach gowns come in a range of choices that can boggle the mind of a bride-to-be. Read on if you need a little guidance to narrow down your options.

A casual dress is appropriate for a beach wedding, which is usually more informal than an indoor wedding. Beach gowns can easily be found that are relaxed and understated, yet elegant. Take the season into account when you’re picking a dress for your wedding. Temperatures can vary dramatically from season to season, so it will be important to consider whether you will have a Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter wedding. Beach gowns for warmer climates should be constructed from lighter fabrics, but for cooler climates or an evening wedding, pick a slightly heavier fabric and add an appropriate wrap.

Beyond these basics, here are some additional tips to help you choose a gown or dress that’s chic and captivating:

Design

Your best bet is usually a shorter dress. Longer gowns, especially those with trains, can be damaged or become soiled or wet by sand, water, stones or sea shells on the wedding beach. Ankle length or shorter is best. If you want understated elegance, try a simple tea-length A-line dress. If your ceremony will occur on a boardwalk, concrete or other hard surface you can wear a longer sheath dress, but you’ll still want to avoid a train.

Match your shape

Here are a few ways you can match your dress to the shape of your body. If you wear a plus size, look for dresses that feature a lightly belted style. This will help define your waist and minimize the boxy look. A low-cut neckline will also help.

If you have a petite figure, a sash waist will give you the appearance of added height.

A fuller figure can become more elegant by wearing a tailored design that hugs your curves.

If you have a pear-shaped body, opt for a strapless or halter-style dress. The design will draw peoples’ eyes up and provide a more balanced appearance. Make sure your skirt doesn’t cling if you go in that direction.

A busty figure looks most attractive wearing a dress featuring a high scoop-neck and supportive straps. A one-shoulder design is fine too. Also consider a fabric with a smaller print if you have a bustier figure; these fabrics can make your breasts look smaller.

Fabric

Choose a breathable fabric that will allow you to feel comfortable through both the ceremony and the reception. Otherwise the heat can become stifling. Crepe, charmeuse, duchesse satin, damask, chiffon, batiste and illusion nets all work well. Stay away from brocade, embroidered or heavily sequined fabrics.

Choice of color

White and ivory are perennial favorites for a wedding. Beach dresses however, give you more flexibility with color. Darker colors that attract and hold heat can quickly become unbearable on a hot, muggy summer day. At the same time, darker colors give a more slimming effect to plus size figures. If you want to lean more toward the casual side, go for bright, primary colors. Tropical prints can also perfectly fit the beach theme of your wedding.

You can take a few risks with beach wedding gowns. Unless you’d rather keep your wedding more formal, it’s OK to be a little wild and crazy. Informal wedding dresses with bold, tropical prints fit the beach theme perfectly. Let your personality come through. The dress you wear on your wedding day should perfectly express your unique style.

Beach Wedding Magic is devoted to helping soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for suggestions and how tos on wedding beach gowns, flowers, flowers, clothing and much more.

If you are beginning your beach wedding planning process, then you probably already know that finding the right venue for your celebration can make the difference between a dream wedding and one that is not so dreamy.

The venue you decide on will also govern how far you will need to travel and where to look for the florist, caterer, photographer and other people who will provide services at your wedding. Beach venues, especially in international destinations, can also require some additional paperwork for you and your guests.

Here are some tips to help you settle on a wedding beach that’s just right for your celebration:

Enter “beach wedding locations” into your favorite Internet search engine. Look for a hotel or other business in a desirable area that owns a private beach. The reason a private beach is preferable to a public beach is that you will usually need to obtain a permit in order to hold your ceremony on a public beach. Local agencies are happy to issue such permits, but regulations on many public beaches ban you from bringing chairs, erecting temporary structures (such as tents and awnings), consuming alcohol (such as champagne) or having floral arrangements.

No permit is needed to use a private beach as the setting for your ceremony, provided the owner gives permission for your wedding. Beach owners usually have more relaxed rules about what can be done on their property, so you will have more flexibility to set up and decorate your wedding beach however you like. If you need this kind of freedom, book your beach venue through a business that owns an exclusive section of beach. Hotels are likely candidates.

You should also decide how far you want to travel. Do you prefer getting married on the United States mainland, or are you also considering international destinations as well? When you are deciding how flexible you want to be about your travel, also consider any possible travel limitations your guests might have.

If you’re planning a seaside wedding in a foreign country, your guests will have to schedule time away from their jobs as well as set aside money for their travel costs. Depending on which country they live in, some of your guests might need tourist visas to reach your wedding’s location.

There is less chance that American citizens will need a tourist visa, but they still will be required to have a valid passport before being permitted to travel outside the US. The bottom line is that although selecting a wedding beach in a foreign country clearly can be worth the annoyance, you will have some additional hurdles to overcome.

Fortunately, the United States offers an abundance of spectacular locations for your seaside wedding. Beach venues in the US are located along hundreds of miles of coastline on the country’s mainland, or if you prefer, offshore within US territory.

The mainland offers a number of highly desirable wedding beach venues, including the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and San Diego, California. And Hawaii, far away from the US mainland in the Pacific Ocean, is simply one of the most breathtaking and accommodating wedding destinations you could find anywhere. It’s no wonder that hundreds of couples select Hawaii for their wedding celebration every year.

If you have your heart set on an even more far-flung destination, then there are plenty of stunning beaches around the world to choose from. Pristine beaches and plentiful beach wedding resources await you at coastal areas in Mexico, Greece, Barbados, Aruba and the Seychelles Islands. Most countries that are renowned for their beaches offer all the resources you need to turn your seaside wedding fantasy into reality.

These tips, along with the amount of money you can spend, can guide your decision about where you will have your wedding. Beach venues can be found almost everywhere, and finding the right one is a process that will be filled with exhilaration and anticipation.

Beach Wedding Magic is devoted to helping couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for suggestions and advice on wedding beach venues, flowers, decorations, wedding planners and much more.

You want your beach wedding ceremony and reception to be a picture-perfect event where your family and friends come together to share your new-found joy.

It is essential to choose the right centerpieces since these will serve as the focal point of tables at your wedding. Beach centerpieces should be striking and natural-looking. They should blend seamlessly with the beach theme.

The four primary ingredients of wedding beach centerpieces are sand, glass, sea shells and flowers. These ingredients can be easily interchanged allowing for almost infinite centerpiece designs that are dazzling as well as practical.

Here are some tips for creating attention-grabbing centerpieces.

Playful Candles: This is the most basic and easiest design. Start with a small transparent glass vase – the kind sometimes used to shield candles from the wind. Fill the vase about 1/3 full with white sand. Place a lit candle on top of the sand, surround the vase with flower leis and sea shells and voila! You have classic table centerpieces for your wedding. Beach centerpieces like this one are delicate and pretty. They are also inexpensive and fun to make.

Tropical Flowers: To create a centerpiece that blends perfectly with beach surroundings, choose a larger vase heavily textured with a sandy, rocky surface. Balance the muted tone of the vase by filling it with zesty red antherium, hibiscus and birds of paradise flowers. Surround the flowers with palm or banana leaves. Add a few large shells and you have an elegant, “beachy” centerpiece to complement your reception.

Beach Buckets: For a more playful centerpiece, collect several small, brightly colored sand buckets (the kind designed for toddlers). Next, arrange a small pile of sand on the table. Place the bucket in the sand. Fill the bucket about one quarter full of sand. Place a small votive candle in the sand inside the bucket. Surround the bucket with small shells, starfish, seahorses and sand dollars. Light the candle and enjoy a gorgeous beach wedding centerpiece that only took you a few minutes to create! For an extra touch, add a few miniature rakes at each table so your guests can enjoy the serenity of their own tiny Zen garden.

Centerpiece Do’s and Don’ts: You might want some additional tips if your reception will be outdoors, in addition to the wedding. Beach sun can wilt flowers very quickly on a hot summer day, and those gentle beach breezes can sometimes become gusts that can blow out your candles at the wrong moment.

Fortunately, you can avoid this with some planning. If your centerpieces use candles, ensure that they’re well shielded. You can use something as simple as a glass to serve this purpose.

Choose flowers that will stand up to direct sunlight and high temperatures. For example, antherium, calla lilies, ginger and bird of paradise all do this well. An experienced florist can help you achieve the ideal balance between beauty and longevity.

Don’t buy any flowers until you tell your florist you plan to use them on an outdoor wedding beach. Ask your florist to give you one flower so you can test it. Put it in a vase and place it near the planned location of the reception. Keep an eye on it for several hours to see how well it does in the sun and heat.

Beach centerpieces that reflect your personal style can be created inexpensively by using these tips to blend the best flowers with sea shells, sand and glass.

BeachWeddingMagic helps soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for suggestions and how tos on wedding beach centerpieces, decorations, flowers, wedding planners and much more.