Creating Nautical Themed Wedding Centerpieces

Wedding season is upon us. Wedding season is actually all year round these days! As a June bride, cliche that it was, I wanted to lessen the stress upon my shoulders as much as possible, so I could enjoy the time leading up to the wedding, planning it, and the wedding day itself. I lived on Cape Cod, and because it was my beloved home I wanted to bring the Cape Cod theme into the reception. It was already in the church; our Episcopal chapel where we worshipped was named for Saint Peter, and featured many nautical touches including a seashell with which to baptize the babies.

Our reception took place in a hall on the bottom floor of a local hotel that had views of both the Bourne Bridge and the Cape Cod Canal. Many of our guests were from out of town and had never been to the Cape, so they loved the backdrop to our photographs, the bridge itself. The reception hall had a huge seaside-themed mural on one whole wall behind the head table. We were on a budget and I wanted something other than flowers as the centerpieces. I wanted something memorable, something that "said" Cape Cod.

If you are from the New England area, you know what the Christmas Tree Shop is. If not, this is a chain of stores where you can get a huge variety of "things" for very low costs....from paper to lamps to food. I found plate-like candle holders that were molded white ceramic with seashells around the edge. I bought enough of these for all of the tables, at a dollar each, along with clear glass domes to go over them for a dollar fifty. I purchased a bag of pink sand (three dollars) and a bag of clean, small seashells that had been gathered from the local beaches (two fifty), and for very little money I created the centerpieces for all of the tables.