Nautical Wedding Theme

If your having your wedding in Cancun or Florida or any Beach location, chances are you love the ocean and your wedding will either be on the beach or somewhere with a view of the ocean, so a nautical theme is a wonderful way to tie everything together.

Decorating Ideas

Start with blue tablecloths and then adorn them with Lighthouse centerpieces to set the theme. These adorable sailboat place card holders can be used at your wedding and then taken home by your guests as a wedding favor to hold their own photo. If a more 'wooden' look is what you are looking for, opt for these wooden sailboats instead.

A ship pedestal and wheel as a pulpit/alter or up in front as a place to give toasts at the reception is a perfect way to instantly add nautical decorations. You could use ship lanterns or glass buoys as decorations at the end of pews or attached to poles leading to the ceremony or down the aisle if you are having the wedding outside. Use colors that mariners use in their code flags; gold, blue, black red and yellow. Use Adirondack chairs wherever possible. Navigational maps could be put under centerpieces on tables. Centerpiece ideas include; smaller wooden anchors, ship's bell, seashells, rope and lanterns, wooden seagulls, netting with seashells and flowers, lighthouses, ships in a bottle, or figure sailboats, and nautical instruments such as compasses and spyglasses.

Put a deep blue tablecloth on the banquet tables string rope and hang a lantern, life preserver, small paddle, or any other item that relates to the theme at the points where the rope curves up.

Food and Music

No nautical themed wedding would be complete without seafood, offer clam chowder, shrimp pasta, crabs legs, fruit and cheese appetizers and tropical inspired drinks. Be sure to offer alternatives to the seafood though since many people are allergic to seafood dishes. Make a cake that looks like to ocean and insert a figurine sailboat at the top. Another option is to sprinkle light brown colored sugar over the frosting and add seashells and a small lighthouse. Select music that sets the mood. At the ceremony you can play soft tranquil music with the sounds of the ocean. At the reception you can take it up a few notches and try the Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffet, reggae music and oldies that remind you of summer and the beach.

A Lighthouse or a boat cake topper will carry your theme to the cake. You can also have the cake in blue and white colors.

Favor Ideas

Favors for a nautical theme wedding could be a small pail and shovel filled with seashell soaps, wind chimes, frames with nautical decorations, wood boats filled with candies, bath salts in a bottle with a cork, or pretty metal whistles decorated with a ribbon. Miniature sailboats and lighthouses make great favors and you get them as candles, crystal keepsakes, chocolates, bottle stoppers and what not.