Unique Beach Wedding

If you are looking at Birmingham wedding reception venues and you have your heart set on a unique beach wedding, you’re in luck. Beautiful beaches are not out of reach!

One of the region's prettiest seaside destinations is only about 2 hours away from lovely and lively Birmingham. Located on the Somerset Coast, this beach area awaits. Consider spectacular Rhyl or sheltered Aberystwyth.

This beach wedding inspirational shoot comes to you from Cornwall. Take ideas from the images and enjoy the images of the dresses and accessories. Then plan your day from start to finish with some tips below!

Bouquets & Boutonnieres for a Unique Beach Wedding

When it comes to organising the floral designs and arrangements for your unique beach wedding, you’re going to have to consider your surroundings – after all, if your wedding venue is a beach you’re going to want to be sympathetic to the nature that’s around you.

Take inspiration from the natural flora and fauna at your beach. Think about using reeds and straw coloured leaves to balance any brighter or non-native flowers that you’re bringing into your unique beach wedding scheme. Also, consider how strong and sturdy these floral arrangements are in case the ocean wind on the beach picks up.

Wedding Invitations for a Unique Beach Wedding

It’s important to remember that your wedding invitations are providing your guests with their first glimpse of what your wedding is going to look like – the vibe, the location, the level of formality. With an outdoors, beach wedding it’s important to get the natural, chilled elements of your wedding across with a more casual invite.

Think of limited amounts of text, natural materials and textures to really give your guests a feel for the atmosphere you’re trying to create and try to bring those feelings and emotions of a day at the beach to life. Try and include either watercolour elements or photographic hints to your location as well.

Wedding Cake Ideas for a Unique Beach Wedding

When it comes to having a unique beach wedding, you know that the wedding cake itself isn’t going to be your traditional white iced, three tier standard sponge. As the wedding itself is fairly chilled, casual, and altogether stripped back, you’re going to want your cake to match.

Either go with a cool and textural looking naked wedding cake or go super simple with a single tier cake that has a unique beach themed topper to tie it into the theme. To add a pop of colour and tie it into your overarching beach theme, maybe run a ribbon along the base of the cake.

Reception Decor for a Unique Beach Wedding

For your unique beach wedding, you have a couple of options when it comes to the reception venue and the reception decor. It might be that you have the ceremony on the beach and then move to a local restaurant or hotel with ocean views for an indoor reception that keeps the outdoor vibe.

Alternatively, you might have your reception on the beach either in the open air or under a marquee. Either way, it’s important to keep these beach elements in your reception decor. Think about shells, reeds from sand dunes, and casual seating and layouts to keep everything relaxed.

Wedding Photo Shoot Ideas for a Unique Beach Wedding

With such a stunning, natural backdrop for your unique beach wedding, there are plenty of gorgeous options that you can use for your wedding photo shoot. Depending on the time of day that you’re having your wedding photo shoot, there are sunset, sunrise and evening shots that you can draw inspiration from.

Also depending on you and your new spouse’s outfits and how willing you are to get wet, running into the water and getting some reflective shots in a natural, free environment is a great way to really encapsulate the fun and the joy of your unique beach wedding day.

Portrait Props for a Unique Beach Wedding

When you’re looking to inject some fun into the photos of your unique beach wedding, think about the vibe and atmosphere you’re wanting to create in the moment so that you can feel it again when you look back on these wedding photos in the years to come.

If your beach wedding is rolling into sunset and the evening, campfire shots with your guests snugly sitting around with nicely textured and patterned blankets are great for showing the love and cosy comfort that comes with this kind of low-key, relationship-focused wedding style. It’ll also provide ample opportunity for authentic candids.

Ceremony Decor for a Unique Beach Wedding

For your unique beach wedding ceremony decor, realistically you want to let the stunning location do most of the heavy lifting here. You’ve chosen this particular beach for a reason, so the amazing view and the surrounding area should be the majority of your ceremony decor.

That being said, make sure you have enough seating that is far enough away from the shoreline and won’t blow away before the ceremony. Use the reeds and driftwood around the area to create an aisle and an altar that looks out over the water to make the most of your scenic wedding location.

Wedding Reception Music and Entertainment for a Unique Beach Wedding

Given that your unique beach wedding is such a chilled and laid back affair, you’re going to want your wedding reception music and entertainment to match. So, with this in mind, we’d avoid a big band or dance-focused DJ and instead stick with a more acoustic vibe. Whether that’s one person or an acoustic covers band, that’s up to you.

For entertainment, especially if you’re keeping the party going into the evening, getting sparklers and s’mores for a bit of beach campfire entertainment is a great idea. Just remember to get environmentally friendly materials, clear up after yourselves and check the restrictions for your beach beforehand.

Favours & Gifts for a Unique Beach Wedding

Favours and gifts are often a more formal wedding tradition, but even with a unique beach wedding, there are still plenty of options for things to give your guests and wedding party as a thank you for attending and helping you organise this amazing day alongside you.

You can go with a regular vial of sand, driftwood related gifts, or shell-based favours. These are all pretty standard. Instead, a pretty cool gift is a small watercolour painting or sketch of your attendees at the wedding, or the beach setting in general. This gives your guests a beautiful memento and will help support local artists.

Outdoor Wedding Ideas for a Unique Beach Wedding

Honestly, it’s pretty difficult to have a beach wedding inside. So, with your unique beach wedding, it’s going to be outdoors by default. As such there are a few things to consider. Firstly, the weather, especially the wind speeds and directions – no one wants a load of sand flicking up in their face when they’re trying to say I do.

Secondly, really check the tide times and add on a lot of contingency time. Weddings often don’t run exactly to time, especially when you’re shuttling your guests up and down the beach. What you don’t want to happen is for your wedding to be swept away or for your guests to get wet and cold feet.

Unique Beach Wedding Inspiration Shoot

Normally when I think of the UK I don’t think beach weddings, but today’s inspiration shoot from Sarah Falugo has completely changed that. Set on the north coast of Cornwall in England, this stunning editorial has a Preppy yet modern vibe that works SO well with a beautiful, unique coastal setting!

The beautiful and structural succulents, peonies, and Proteas look fabulous with the other graphic elements in this wedding inspiration shoot and it’s all so perfect against the rolling waves and sandy backdrop of the beach.

From Sarah Falugo – “Our aim was to offer inspiration for a less obvious beach wedding style. We nod to our coastal influences with the inclusion of nautical stripes and glass lanterns. The stationary design combines beautiful seascapes with a modern geometric element and includes a nautical compass which is mirrored in our star crown and cake topper.”

I just adore this shoot – and did you see those perfectly surfable waves? Amazing.

Credits: Photography and Styling & Design: Sarah Falugo // Floral Design: The Blue Carrot // Paper Goods: Lovely Paper Things // Jewelry: Körp Jewelry // Hair & Makeup: Amy Skinner // Star Crown: Etsy // Wedding Dresses: Pink: Mango, White: AQ/AQ, Short White: Warehouse // Venue: Northern coast of Cornwall, England.