20+ Beach Wedding Centerpieces
Choosing your beach wedding centerpieces can be frustrating but is also a lot of fun! These days there is just so much choice and you can choose between renting things for your wedding or making some of the things yourself.
While your choice will be influenced greatly by whether or not you have a theme such as "beach party", "tropical", or "mermaid fantasia", there are a few ideas that can be used without any specific theme for any kind of beach wedding. Your choice is limited only by your imagination. Here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing:
Ideas For Beach Wedding Centerpieces:
1. Oyster Shells:
What a fantastic color palette with this wedding! And the centerpiece consists of oyster shells strung together by a cord or chain. You can either buy the oyster shells or you can collect them from anywhere that sells oysters for free! Just boil them to remove any smell. In the center of the table group this garland of oyster shells together with some coral, white buckets with bunches of Hydrangeas and jam jars with sand and tea light candles.
For a DIY tutorial on how to make this garland visit OnceWed.com
2. Driftwood Centerpiece:
Simple and inexpensive! Hammer a couple of nails into large pieces of driftwood. Skewer some tea light candles onto the nails. Lay a sand colored table runner on the table and place the driftwood "candelabra" on top. Add some sand, shells, starfish and tropical flowers if you like. Inexpensive but stunning beach wedding centerpieces! For more in-depth instructions and ideas on How To Make These Beach Wedding Centerpieces, click here. If you are not the DIY type, but you like this idea, then just get ready-made Driftwood Tea Light Candle Holders!
3. Floating Centerpieces:
Get some sea sand and place a few handfuls on the center of the table. Place a large shallow glass bowl either on top of the sand or buried a little bit into the sand. Fill the shallow bowls with water and beautiful seashells. To finish off the look float some pretty Floating Starfish Candles and perhaps a flower or two.
This is another cost effective arrangement and it is also low enough for your guests to have conversations and see each other across the table.
Another variation is to place a few palm leaves on the table and place a large floating bowl on top. Place some frosty Blue Beach Glass fill with water and float some candles and/or tropical flowers.
4. Fish Bowls:
Fish Bowls are very versatile actually. One idea is to fill a couple of Fish Bowls with stones or glass pebbles and live goldfish. These beach wedding centerpieces can be given to your guests to take home or you can take them home as a reminder of your wedding day.
This is also a good idea for a day wedding if you cannot use candles, but still want to make an impact.
Fish bowls can also be filled with sand and shells or can also contain a small amount of water and a single tropical flower for great impact.
5. Tin Pails & Glass
Buckets or tin pails are kind of synonymous with the sea and the innocence of childhood memories of playing in the sand. Take this carefree and casual item and use it as a beach wedding center piece. Fill them with sea sand and place a large pillar candle or two or three tealights (Island Paradise Soy Candle Tealights will work wonderfully) or several thin taper candles in the sand. Decorate with seashells.
Then add some small glass candle holders filled with sand and an individual flower for more impact.
6. Conch Shells
Large conch shells make understated but elegant beach wedding centerpieces. Just complete the look by placing a few lumeria blooms on the table amongst a few short glass tea light holders. You can also purchase or make your own conch shell candles. Or even opt for these "Seashell" Shaped Ocean Mist Scented Candles
7. Lighthouses
Lighthouses can make great simple beach wedding centerpieces. Place a few handfuls of sand in the center of the table and top off with a Lighthouse Tealight Holder. Scatter some single flowers around the base and perhaps bury some more tea light candles around the base for more light.
The lighthouse pictured here is made from polyresin and resembles a real sand sculptured lighthouse.
8. Coral and Candles:
If you don't want to use any flowers for your centerpieces, then this is a fantastic idea. Place some large pieces of coral in the center of the table and around the base stack some shells and starfish. Use some small taper candles and shove them in between the coral.
If you will have a windy evening, then perhaps you will need to use some glass candle holders or jam jars so that the candles don't blow out, but if you are expecting little wind or your reception will be enclosed, then this is a lovely centerpiece that will not cost too much and you can do it yourself.
9. Whimsical Sandcastles
Sandcastles also make truly beautiful beach wedding centerpieces. They evoke childhood memories and the promise of magic!
You can make your own by buying plaster castles (available at craft stores), covering it in some wood glue and rolling in sand. Alternatively follow this link to buy a ready made Sand Castle Tea Light Candle Holder
10. Classy Candelabra
Hire some tall silver candelabra (or even a hurricane lamp on a stand will do if you will be outdoors). Hang some plastic crystals or even some shells from the arms.
Place in the center of the table. Cover the base with a few handfuls of sand and decorate with shells. Place one or two decorative Seabirds on the sand or even a small carved wooden boat.
11. Island Exotic:
Place a few Beach Themed Gel Candles or Hawaiian Bamboo Candles and small vases with exotic flowers down the center of each table.
Or group 3 different sizes of Bamboo Candles on a tray or round mirror. Decorate with some tropical flowers for a lovely centerpiece.
12. Plain and Simple:
Lay a couple of palm leaves on the table. Place a large glass candleholder on top of the palm leaves. Fill the bottom of the glass holder with some sea sand and place a large pillar candle in the sand. Decorate around the base of the candleholder with dried starfish, seashells and driftwood and a few smaller candle holders or tea light candles.
13. Chilling on the Beach:
Choose blue tablecloths for this look. Create a beach scene on your tables by first making a beach out of a few handfuls of sand on your blue tablecloth or overlay. Place some Miniature Folding Beach Chairs, beach balls and a few Flip Flop Candles on the "beach".
14. Message in a Bottle
Take the commercial labels off some nice bottles of different sizes. roll and pop a piece of paper inside with the writing on the outside so that when it unrolls inside the bottle, the writing is visible from the outside. You can write your menu, the table number or even just a thank you note or some nice snippets of poetry on the pieces of paper.
Place a sand colored runner down the table and arrange these bottles randomly in the center of the table along with some nice pieces of driftwood, candle holders and loose flowers, succulents or small bunches of flowers. You can also use the bottles themselves as candle holders.
15. Simple Storm Lanterns:
A few simple tealight lanterns (like this Nantucket Fish Hurricane Lantern) and some shells might be your best bet if you are going to be outdoors and are worried about a breeze playing havoc with you candles.
This is nothing fancy, but it is cost effective and great for an informal affair.
16. Simple Glass and Shells:
For a bit of a modern (but still inexpensive) twist on your
beach wedding centerpieces, try this easy idea: fill two different sizes
of clear, square glass vases with clean, white beach sand and decorate
with coral, pretty shells, starfish and seagrass.
Finish off with a few scattered votive or tea light candles or even some
shell candles. This is very easy to put together yourself and can be
created from items you have collected while strolling along the beach!
17. Bowl of Shells:
Another inexpensive idea is to fill a large clear glass pedestal bowl with a little clean sand and some pretty shells. This is great for a day wedding if you don't need any candles. Should you need some candles, then place a pillar candle in the center of the shells and scatter a few smaller votive candles or tea lights and shells around the arrangements.
This also looks great if you are using colorful napkins for a happy, beach vibe and don't want your centerpiece to add too much drama.
18. Sunflowers and Pails:
If you really want your wedding to embody the spirit of summer then this is a great wedding centerpiece for you. It is bright and sunny and happy. Colorful pails filled with sand and sunflowers will make such a stunning centerpiece. If bright colors are not your thing, then you can use white or pastel colored pails instead.
For DIY instructions on how to make these centerpieces click here.
This centerpiece would also work really well with the Summer Sunshine Beach Themed Wedding.
20. Driftwood and Succulents:
Succulents make great beach wedding decorations as their colors are often subdued and slightly blue toned. They also team really well with driftwood and shells to make a lovely centerpiece.
Add some glass candle holders or Consol jars with tealights in them if you will have an evening function to finish off these beach wedding centerpieces.
You can also give succulents in little shell pots away as wedding favors!
21. Color Contrasts:
When you think about beach wedding centerpieces you may thing white or sand colored table cloths, but don't just stop there. A dark table cloth can make a striking contrast if you are using light colored shells, starfish, flowers and crockery. Think outside the box!
The beach wedding centerpieces described above are all just to give you an idea of what is possible without breaking the bank.
New! Comments
Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.