Decorations

Really, they can be anything you want. For a beach ceremony, you may not need any decorations at all. For a reception, a lot depends on how pretty the venue is all by itself. And for both, you can adjust your decorations to suit your budget.

For our ceremony, the major decoration was just our chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy), which cost us a little under $200 in materials. We had an easel for our ketubah (formal Jewish marriage contract). We put some gold sashes around the first row of chairs, and some pew bows along the side, and called it a day. So it was probably under $250 total.

Our reception was held in a private club that was a converted warehouse. So we had to do a lot more decoration -- paper lanterns with lights, uplighting, linens, centerpieces, etc. It was probably $1,300 altogether, although we got most of it back by reselling stuff afterward (and what we did not resell, we used in our own home later). And it definitely could have been a lot more if we'd gone for lavish flower bouquets, plants, etc.

We aren't having any decorations for the ceremony because the river is right behind us during the ceremony and we think it's pretty enough! For the reception, we're diying centerpieces, using bridesmaid bouquets as decoration for the head table, printing a few signs on printer paper and putting them in dollar store frames, making a frame to go around a free mirror and making floating candles. So we're going to spend around $85 due to not many decorations. If you want to save money, minimalism is the way to go!

I would keep ceremony decorations to a minimum. Your beach venue will make a gorgeous statement all on its own!

For the reception. I'd look up some ideas on Pinterest! There's all kinds of centerpieces you could have that incorporate your beachy feel.