Host a beach-themed wedding shower to encourage the couple to relax before their big day.
Plan a beach-themed wedding shower for the bride or couple in your life if they are having a beach-themed wedding or are honeymooning on the beach, or to simply create the relaxed ambiance that typically accompanies a day on the beach. Use a simple beach theme or expand on it by adding specific luau or exotic island details. Does this Spark an idea?
Invitations
Send out invitations that reveal the wedding shower theme. Use invitations with an image of a heart drawn in sand, tropical flowers, beach chairs, seashells or a luau scene. Tie a ribbon around the invitation with a seashell sticker or glue a small shell to the ribbon. Another option is to send out real bottles with a rolled-up invitation inside. Tie the invitation with a piece of beige string or raffia and add a bit of sand and small shells.
Use specific wording to advise your guests of any special requests, such as asking them to come in beach attire or to bring a beach-related gift.
Decorations
Set the scene to look like a beach party if you can't use an actual beach for the wedding shower. Fill a kiddie pool with sand, a few larger shells, and shovels and pails if there's room. Place artificial or blow-up palm trees around the room for a tropical beach ambiance. String lights around the trees and across the room if the shower will be held during the evening.
Cover the table with a white tablecloth and simple white dishes. Place a large vase or bowl in the center of the table with some sand, seashells, sand dollars, starfish and water tinted blue with a drop of food coloring. Top it off with floating candles in the shape of seashells or tropical flowers. Sprinkle sand around the center of the table, almost like a runner. Place small seashells or seashell-shaped candles around the sand.
Use a conch shell at each place setting to hold shower favors or place cards. You can also write each guest's name directly onto a seashell to serve as a keepsake and place card.
Activities
Plan beach-related activities to complement the theme of the shower. For a ladies-only shower, ask each guest to write a note to the bride, either sharing a piece of marital advice or well wishes for the couple. Place the notes inside a bottle with sand and shells. Have the shower date and bride's name etched into the bottle to make it more personal.
Another option is to ask each guest to bring a picture of themselves with the bride to create a collective scrapbook. Give your guests stickers, scissors, glitter, seashells and beach-themed scrapbook paper to decorate a scrapbook page with embellishments and a personalized note to the bride.
A simple activity would include filling a clear vase, bottle or jar with seashells and asking guests to guess how many seashells are inside. This could work for a ladies-only or coed shower.
Common beach activities, such as hula hoops and limbo, work for nearly everyone. Set the activities to beach music for the complete effect.
Favors
Give each guest a beach-themed favor to thank them for attending. Seashell-shaped lollipops, cookies, chocolates or mints are all fun treats that keep with the theme. Shell- or flip-flop-shaped candles, soaps or cookie cutters are useful items that will likely remind guests of the wedding shower for many years to come. Picture frames, bottle stoppers, luggage tags, leis or wine glass charms in a beach-themed shape are another option.
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