How to Plan a Beach Wedding on a Tight Budget
In these tight economic times, it's necessary to cut costs whenever possible. For some brides, that may even mean trimming their wedding budget down to nearly nothing--which, with a little planning isn't hard to do. A simple and beautiful beach wedding ceremony can be pulled off for less than $100 in many places.
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Instructions
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Call the city in which you want to get married and check the beach-usage requirements. Some states have private beaches and public beaches, while other states (such as South Carolina) have only public beaches. There are pros and cons to each type of beach: A public beach means that you can use it at anytime with no restrictions, and no permit is required, but you can't keep other people away from your planned wedding site, either. Private beaches mean that you may have to pay for the use of the beach for your wedding, but you'll be able to keep people from congregating on the beach around your wedding ceremony. If there are private beaches in the town where you'd like to get married, and you don't want to have to pay for a permit, ask if there is public beach access.
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Decide on your wedding date and time. When choosing a date, check online to determine the average temperatures of the location of the ceremony and if it rains frequently during that time of year. If you are using a public beach, choose a time of day when the beach isn't heavily populated, such as early in the morning or the early night hours.
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Find an officiant. This may sound a bit easier than it actually is, but if you ask around, you'll be shocked to find out how many people are related to or are certified to perform a wedding ceremony. You might also ask a special friend if he is willing to take a course online to become eligible to perform wedding ceremonies. Confirm with him the date, time and place or your ceremony, as well as the fee (if any). If he charges no fee, be sure to purchase a gift of appreciation.
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Choose the wedding attire. There's no need to go all-out on a wedding dress for a beach wedding. A simple sundress in white for the bride and a light color for the bridesmaids will look nice. Men can wear khaki pants and oversized, light-colored shirts. Everyone can be in sandals or barefoot.
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Send out invitations. A beach wedding gives the bride an opportunity to have a small, beautiful, intimate ceremony. Instead of paying for pricey wedding invitations, purchase a card-making program for your computer and print invitations yourself. If that is still out of the budget, have someone take a picture of you and your fiancé with a digital camera and send the picture to an inexpensive photo-processing center. Write the invitation by hand on the back of the picture and send it out. Invitations can even be sent out by email or text messaging to save a little more money. Make sure to note on the invitation that the event is casual and on the sand, so wedding guests know what to wear.
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Visit the beach where you plan to get married and decide how you want the ceremony to be arranged. There's no reason to rent chairs; just have everyone gather around the wedding party in a circle. That will create a more intimate feeling for the ceremony. Look for places where the bride can be hidden before the ceremony so she can make a grand entrance.
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Choose flowers for the wedding. Ask a friend or relative with a green thumb if she will allow you to cut a few flowers from her yard for your bouquet. Do this 4 or 5 days before the wedding so you can see which flowers are blooming and are readily available. Cut a few flowers and make a trail arrangement, tying the bouquet with a ribbon. Doing a dry run will allow you to choose your flowers and make the arrangements quickly the night before or the day of the wedding.
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Decide what kind of food you'd like to serve at the wedding. To save money, think simple. Have a barbecue in a family member's backyard. You can provide the hamburgers and hot dogs cheaply by purchasing in bulk; ask family members to bring sides and drinks. When it comes to a wedding cake, skip the expensive boutique bakeries and head for your nearest grocery store. Their prices are much more reasonable, and you will have a choice of several types of cakes.
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Tips & Warnings
Because candles are difficult to keep lit on the beach, instead of having a unity candle, fill two small glass vases with sand. During the ceremony, the bride and groom can pour sand from each of their vases into a larger vase to symbolize the two becoming one. Ask a friend or two to take your pictures. With digital cameras, they can take hundreds of pictures, which will improve your odds of being able to put together a beautiful album. It also will be a lot cheaper than a professional photographer. Use a computer to turn some of your wedding pictures black-and-white; this automatically makes the pictures more beautiful and elegant. Go through friends' and family members' wedding albums and look at poses you like so you can re-create them on your wedding day.
