Nautical theme wedding

Your love for each other is matched only by your love for the sea. You can share that love with your guests by having a nautical theme wedding, bringing in your favorite aspects of the sea to surround you as you set sail on the sea of matrimony.

The obvious color choice for your nautical theme wedding is navy blue. Crisp, white linens punctuated with navy napkins, navy placemats, and navy chair covers tied with white satin sashes makes a beautiful statement that can be dressed up with splashes of gold or dressed down with dots of brass. And the navy blue color is something that can carry over into all of the aspects of your day. Your bridesmaids’ gowns can reflect your color choice, and the perfect look for your groom and his attendants is a navy blue blazer with white trousers. If navy is not your personal favorite color, consider keeping the nautical look of navy and white for your groomsmen, but add the more feminine color of pink to your attendants to reflect the color of the sandy beaches.

Locations are plentiful for your nautical theme nuptials. Consider any seaside location from a popular beachside nightclub to an ocean front resort with banquet facilities. You could use the beach itself as the setting for your nautical theme, or use the services of a hired yacht. Check into your area for maritime museums that allow weddings to be hosted there, or for something really unique, hold your event at a lighthouse. If you can’t get somewhere near the water, you can bring the theme home to you by using a ship’s wheel as a podium during your wedding ceremony and ship’s lanterns as mood lighting throughout your location. Decorate with shells, fishing nets, and other sailing memorabilia to help set the mood no matter where you are located.

You can really choose any flowers that you like for this type of wedding, but for something totally unique contact a sea shell bouquet florist. Do you like the look of cascading gardenias? The sea shell bouquet floral designers will make each flower out of real sea shells, but the end result to all of your guests will look just like the gardenias. Or use the real thing in terms of flowers, but have picks of real seashells interspersed between the flowers. Instead of tying your bouquets with ribbons, think about using heavy rope like you would see on a ship or a sailboat. It adds just a taste of the nautical theme without going overboard.

Centerpieces on your tables can be something as simple as a seascape in a bowl. Purchase low, wide glass bowls, fill with sand (you can use colored sand to match your wedding party if you like), and then add seashells and candles. Brass lanterns surrounded by fresh or silk flowers and seashells will add a little ambiance to your table, or look for inexpensive lighthouse figurines surrounded by votive candles. Hurricane lamps with pillar candles and shells also look nice on the table, or you could do a ship in a bottle, surrounded by flowers and shells, resting on a bed of clean, white sand. To carry the theme even further, turn a battered looking fishing boat into your gift table. Trim a weathered wooden boat with fishing net and twinkle lights, maybe some seashell garlands, and have guests lay their gifts and cards in the bottom of the boat as they enter the reception.

A fabulous seafood feast should be in store for your guests at a nautical theme wedding. You can center your meal on a luscious lobster dinner for a formal event or consider a clambake for something casual. If you are worried that too many of your guests will not be seafood fans, you can limit the seafood to a miniature clambake appetizer. Package a quarter of an ear of corn, two or three baby potatoes, and two or three littleneck clams in foil and steam. Those guests who don’t like seafood can pass on the clams, but everyone gets a taste of the sea with this tiny replica of a New England clambake.

A baker can design your wedding cake with the nautical theme in mind by adding sugar made seashells, sea creatures, or spray painted ocean scenes on your cake. Another thing that would create the nautical feel would be for the cake to be perched atop a sand dune and decorated to look like a lighthouse, with a candle and floral topper.

Nautical favors for your guests can include tiny metal sailboats filled with Jordan almonds or chocolate kisses. If you go with a lighthouse décor, there are lighthouse candle holders and lighthouse figurines that would make lovely favors.

With just a few creative ideas, you can bring your love of the ocean to your wedding. Using these tips should make creating your nautical theme wedding smooth sailing.