Part two of our shell round up, we’ve got more great ideas to incorporate shells into your beach destination wedding.
For something a bit unique, consider creating hanging door initials out of a variety of local shells!
{Photo: Etsy}
Or line your aisle will pieces of coral in hurricane glasses. Hot glue a selection of shells to place cards or even serve up ceviche in a shell!
{Photos: Place Cards: Martha Stewart Weddings, Aisle: via Style Me Pretty}
{Photos: Top Row Left: Tom Mannion, Top Row Right & Bottom Row Left: Martha Stewart Living, Middle: Pinterest, Right: Etsy}
Give your little ring bearer something different to carry – a shell filled with moss and your two beautiful rings! Or string shells from your ceremony arch to sway in the sun. And of course, should you want to carry the theme to your tables, you can do that too!
{Photo: Lin & Jirsa}
Valaya and Johnny wed on September 8th on the beautiful Caribbean island of Aruba. They selected that locale because of the bride’s love of the area, “I went to Aruba on a girls-only vacation two years prior and I absolutely fell in love with the feel of the whole island. The island motto is ‘One Happy Island’ and it is just that! I’ve done some travelling before but this island stole my heart during my first visit. When my husband and I talked about how we wanted our wedding to “feel” like, we agreed that we wanted a very private, low-key and family-like atmosphere. We wanted our guests to feel like they were a part of one big family vacation so we chose a place that we would consider bringing our families to.” In order to make it that much more intimate, the couple chose the 
“Renaissance Island actually has 2 sides to it – Flamingo Island and Iguana Island. Our ceremony took place on Flamingo Island where there were flamingos walking around all along the beach. They were beautiful pink against the clear blue waters. Many of the guests were daring and actually went up very close to them for pictures.” 
And all her gals dressed in yellow!
The bride and groom used the beautiful surroundings as the focus of the event design. “Our inspiration was the beach and its simple beauty. We had a few elements at our wedding for our guests to enjoy – yellow and white sunglasses for our guests to wear during the ceremony, grey and yellow pashminas and fans for guests to cool off. We didn’t go overboard with details…we wanted the natural backdrop to be the main piece of our wedding and kept everything else to a minimum.” 
What a spectacular ceremony site at sunset!
In lieu of a guest book, family and friends imprinted a rendering of a tree with their fingerprints in the coordinating wedding colors.
Many of the unique elements were made by the couple, with the help of some hard working bridesmaids. “We made the details we did have for the wedding light enough to pack and easy to assemble upon arrival (like our DIY welcome bags, that we gave out during our welcome dinner prior to the wedding day, which had only a few essential items like pretzels, SPF, aloe lotion and a DIY emergency first aid kit). Keeping things simple and minimal for a destination wedding is worth it in the long run!”
And as dark fell, the reception heated up!
“Our reception took place on Iguana Island named after the blue iguanas that are found on that part of the island. We did have a minor issue with uninvited sand fleas that appeared during sunset. It was chaos for our guests for a good few minutes as it really did take us by surprise but as the sun disappeared, they were gone and everyone was happy again.” 
“By the end of the night, some of the guests got too happy and started to throw each other in the ocean to cool off – including the bride and groom!” A great way to end a wonderful celebration!
Looking for creative ways to express to your guests that yours is a 
I adore these compass escort cards! What a creative way to literally direct guests to their seats!
And if you need to guide your guests from ceremony to reception or just to the property itself, don’t forget the signage! Calligraphed signage that is…
