Beach Wedding?  No Sweat!

Tips and tricks for the ideal coastal wedding

By Rebecca Padgett

Photos by Desirée Gardner photography, Alicia Osborne, Sandprints Photography, and Pure 7 Studios

When you plan your beach wedding, these images fill your mind: Your veil flowing beautifully in the cool coastal breeze, your bare feet gliding through the sand toward your smiling guests and nothing but emerald green waters as the backdrop. This is what you envision on your most memorable day.

Sometimes, reality — avoiding the overly windblown look in your wedding photos, stockpiling sand, overheated guests and gray clouds obstructing your beachfront view —can interfere. But the good news is all of these setbacks can be avoided.

You aren’t the first and won’t be the last to have a beach wedding. They are timeless and gorgeous, and the positives greatly outweigh the negatives that could occur. If you’re equipped to handle the elements, a beach wedding can be as easy to plan as an indoor wedding.

Your first concern is likely weather; Mother Nature can be an unpredictable lady, especially in Florida. Despite superstition, rain on your wedding day is good luck, but it could put a damper on your day if you’re unprepared. First, you should mentally prepare yourself that inclimate weather could occur, but don’t let it gray your day. Have a Plan B and even a Plan C in place — that could include having the ceremony in a beachside tent or veranda if the rain is light or moving the ceremony indoors to a resort ballroom should it storm. Keep an eye on your local weather reports, because weather is fickle and an hour can make a difference. If you have the ability to nudge your ceremony time, it might be worth it to wait out the weather.

“We are lucky here in Florida where if it rains, it usually doesn’t rain all day,” said Nina Dolin, wedding sales and services manager at WaterColor Inn. “We can most likely get you out on the beach, but it may have to be a different time, without music or without your dream arbor. It’s all about prioritizing and mentally preparing when it comes to successful planning and an overall happy wedding day.”