Our Tropical Themed Wedding
Monday, July 19th, 2010I thought that I would share with you a few of the things we did for our own tropical themed wedding several years ago, since most people get ideas from hearing about other peoples’ experiences.
We were lucky enough to already have a small home on the water, with a new boat docked right off of our backyard, so we had something to build our theme around. Since our home was too small to have everyone inside, we planned to host everything outside. In case of rain, we had a covered screen porch, along with a very big tent in the yard, which we rented from a party supply store.
The party supply store was great for taking care of the big items. In addition to the tent, we also rented the tables, chairs, dishes, silverware, glasses, and tropical themed table linens and napkins. They delivered everything the day before the wedding and set up the tent.
We already had lots of palm trees in the yard, so we added beautiful tropical flower centerpieces on the tables, flower garlands lining the path to the boat dock, and flowers on the boat, where the actual wedding ceremony took place.
There were also large, floating glass orchid/candle globes in the pool for the evening, along with flower petals scattered along the top of the water.
The food (surf & turf) was prepared and served by a local caterer whom we knew fairly well, and her husband also took care of the pool-side bar! Instead of wedding cake, we served an assortment of chocolate dipped fruit and key lime pie.
Some of our extra touches – Our invitations were an informal tropical design and our guests knew to dress informal – Hawaiian shirts welcome. We also found coordinating clothes (my dress and his shirt) from a company in Hawaii. Guests were greeted with Hawaiian leis as they entered the back yard. Traditional Hawaiian Leiswere used in part of our ceremony, for the bride, groom, maid of honor and best man. The wedding favors were handmade candles that had our names and wedding date in the design, from a shop in Key West.
There were also many other things I had collected in the months before the wedding, such as umbrellas for the tropical drinks, unique fish toothpicks for the hors d’oeuvres, hibiscus print cocktail napkins, a string of tropical lights for the screened room, grass skirts for the buffet table, coconut candles, and so on.
I almost forgot the music! We hired a local reggae band (yes, we listened to them play first) and they played from the minute the ceremony finished through the reception. They were a big hit! Everything turned out beautifully and all had a great time – our guests were still talking about all of the fun they had many weeks later.
