Choices for Your Wedding: Beach Centerpieces
Of course you want your ceremony and reception to be every bit as perfect as the beach setting you selected. Your friends and family will be there to share your happiness, so you want your wedding to be as beautiful and memorable as you can possibly make it.
You want to choose the right centerpieces because they will be the focal point of the tables at your wedding. Beach centerpieces should blend in seamlessly with your wedding theme and have a natural yet eye-catching appearance.
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 a few tips on how to create eye-catching 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.
Playful Beach Buckets: To create a less formal centerpiece, begin with one of the small, brightly colored sand buckets that are designed for small children. Put a small pile of sand on the table. Place the bucket on the sand. Add enough sand into the bucket to make it about one-quarter full. Set a small votive candle into the sand inside the bucket. Surround the bucket with some starfish, sand dollars, small shells and seahorses and light the candle inside. Voila! You have a beautiful seaside wedding centerpiece that was quick and easy to create. If you’d like to add a small additional touch, place a few tiny rakes on each table. Your guests can then create their own miniature 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.
Luckily, these hazards can be easily avoided with a little forethought. If you decide to use candles as part of the centerpiece arrangements, make sure they are shielded well. Something as simple as a glass can serve this purpose capably.
As for flowers, you will want to select varieties that will hold up well in high heat and direct sunlight. Calla lilies, antherium, ginger and birds of paradise serve this purpose well. Normally, an experienced florist will be able to help you strike the perfect balance of 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.
Sunny Austen 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 centerpieces, flowers, decorations, clothing and much more.
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