With wedding plans being made for beach-themed and beach weddings I thought it would be a good time to revisit beach wedding centerpieces. I will try and update prior suggestions I have given you and add some new ideas to help you even more. When planning a beach wedding or beach-themed wedding it allows you to bring the always appealing ocean and sand into the romance of your wedding day. Your colors might be the seaside and ocean colors or may be contrasting bright, fresh colors that complement the beach theme. Here are 10 of my favorite centerpieces that are bound to please you and your guests as you celebrate that most wonderful day.
1. There are some lovely lighthouse tea lights you can get for very little cost. Arrange them on your tables and accent them by placing small starfish, pretty shells, decorative pieces of driftwood, or other beach oriented items around them. This is particularly lovely for a late afternoon or evening wedding reception.
2. Make a mini beach scene by getting cute little beach toys or other items, some sand (plain or colored) and wide mouth glass bowls; inexpensive fish bowls work perfectly. Pour the sand into the glass bowls and then arrange the beach related toys, figures, and other other like small pieces of driftwood, small shells, little wooden painted fish and such, in a decorative manner. Each one can be different so you could even make this an event with the wedding party and other friends and family. I’ve even heard of people doing something like this at their bridal shower as a game with prizes at then end. What a fun way to get your centerpieces and you could even put the names of the people decoratively arranged in each bowl to give them some props!
3. If you want flowers, how about floating baby orchids or other flowers in a shallow clear glass bowls. Just detach the flower from its stem and float it on top of the water; you can even might put a drop or two of blue food coloring in the water to make it look more ocean-y. Plus you can make an ocean scene like I mentioned above but it would be an underwater scene not a beach scene.
4. Buy 6 inch diameter bubble vases and pour purchased white sand into them. For very little cost, you can find bags of small shells on the Internet or at craft and hobby stores. You’ll need to buy as many bags as you’ll need to be able to scatter a handful of shells evenly over the sand inside the bowl. Finally, place nice looking pillar candles, in white or a color of your choice, in the center of the vase for lighting.
5. Here’s one you may not have thought about but can be simply stunning for a night wedding. Get metal lanterns with the glass tinted in a a color appripriate for your wedding — blue or green shades work with most but orange, red, yellow or purple can be beautiful with some themes. Then get some inexpensive tea candles or a battery-operated tea lights and place them inside the lanterns. This can be so romantic!! To tie it to your beach theme you can get some dried sand dollars, small rocks, bits of coral, or driftwood and place them in a pretty arrangement on clean white sand around the lantern to complete the beach look.
6. Gather a variety of shells and coral and place them attractively in a basket, beach pail, small beach bag or glass bowl and set on a small mound of white sand, and/or a bed of sea grass for a beach looking centerpiece. Add candles to give it a soft and complete look; this is particularly nice if it’s on the dark side as the flickering lights and coral are deliciously sexy and romantic!
7. Here’s a simple one that can look really elegant without costing you an arm and a leg. Arrange in the center of each table one, or more depending upon your tables and budget,a lovely flower leis; and girls, don’t skimp here you want real flower leis that are fresh and beautiful (although in a pinch nice silk ones can be used). For a simple elegant look put some white sand in the center of each lei place a pillar candle on the sand; note, you can use a holder or not or skip the sand and just use a holder. If your wedding is less elegant you can add some beach-y items inside the lei as fits your likes and theme. Anyway you look at it though you’ll have lovely and cost effective centerpieces.
8. Use mason jars — yes mason jars — can be used for centerpieces and, if you start early enough, you should be able to find the vintage soft blue jars that were almost made for beach wedding centerpieces. Check out thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales, and the like to find them; sometimes even store and factory liquidations sales have them! From there, use your creativity, and some of the ideas above, to decide what you want to fill them with as your beach table centerpieces.
9. A gorgeous fresh fruit edible centerpiece couldn’t be more perfect for a beach wedding. Seasonal and, particularly, tropical fruits cut and sliced in an appetizing way and arranged on a bamboo platter or beach-themed trays is both colorful and tasty. Place a whole pineapple in the center for decoration and, if you have room and like the look, you can place the platters on some sand with beach-y stuff around it. Don’t forget the toothpicks so your guests hands don’t get all sticky scarfing up your yummy centerpieces!
10. I personally love the simple and easy idea of using small beach-theme related vases or containers and putting a few tropical blooms in each. You then arrange them down a long table or in the center of a round or rectangular table. Have all the same flowers if that fits your theme but don’t be afraid to experiment by using a different kind of flower in each vase. Alone or interspersed with some pretty candles can bring a perfect dream wedding atmosphere. Well there you go, 10 great (if I do say so myself ) beach wedding centerpiece ideas and, hopefully, you are now thinking of great ideas yourself to make your wedding lovely but keep your budget in check; you can have a wonderful wedding inexpensively if you plan and shop just right. Let me hear from you with other great beach wedding ideas with your comments below and thanks.