Beach Ceremony - noisy or too public?

[Sherry]

My fiance really wants to have a beach ceremony, which is fine with me. Now that we've made that decision, of course we're getting a bunch of unsolicited opinions about it (from people who won't even be invited to the wedding!). The general sentiment is that we're going to have a bunch of strangers crashing our wedding and no one will be able to hear anything over the wind and the water. I was hoping that since we're having the wedding in Maui in the fall, maybe the beaches wouldn't be as busy as at other times of the year. As far as people not being able to hear anything, I don't know what to say about that, but I'm thinking if it's that windy, then the same issue will likely apply even if we did the ceremony in a grassy area somewhere, especially since we'd still want it to be near the water. I don't want the photos to be full of random people in their bathing suits though, and I'd like for the sound not be completely drowned out on the video!

 

Anyone who has had a beach ceremony or been to one, I'd love to hear your thoughts! I don't know if it makes any difference, but we're having the wedding in Wailea, Maui, and the officiant is booked for 5:15pm.

[lscilley]

I have not had my beach wedding yet but most hotels have the ceremony location kind of off to the side to where most people are and some hotels even move the beach chairs and people away from the area while the wedding is on. I say if you want to get married on the beach just go for it! Plus a good photographer can edit out those unwanted people in your photos.

[Maura]

i think it depends on the beach youll be using. did you see the thread about sol tamargo's blog from when she was on the beach and a wedding was going on? check this out. youll die laughing at the photos, but its a real possibility if youre not on a private beach, or at least a private section of one.

 

Sol Tamargo Photography

[cheese_diva]

Lookie-Loo's probably will vary by the resort you choose. I would try to find photos from a previous wedding at the resort you're interested in. That will give you an idea of what to expect in the background.

 

You can usually search YouTube or even just google a photo site like Photobucket and if someone named their video or photos with part of your resort name, you'll get some visuals.

 

I had a beach wedding in Cabo and we had onlookers as I walked down the aisle but everyone was very respectful and I didn't notice anyone but my DH once I was up there.

 

It is something to be concerned about.

[1elephant]

first of all, screw the peanut gallery and their opinions...you want a beach wedding, you have a beach wedding...if you are genuinely concerned, ask your wc or someone at the hotel/ceremony site if it will be crowded.

i can't speak for maui, but we had a pretty private ceremony. it was in front of a restaurant, but the restaurant wasn't busy b/c it was too early. there were actually people on the beach, still sitting in the palapas and our photographer took a picture of the couple as they read their books next to our ceremony...according to my guests, the couple didn't even look up! we had a microphone and speakers so everyone could hear.

we did have a few crashers at the reception...but my bm was on crash patrol and kicked all crashers out - even the ones i invited down from the balcony on the hotel!

[DreaW]

I agree with Lauren screw what other people say about your wedding....

We had our wedding on the Medano Beach (main beach) in Cabo where everyone is.....and yes we had random strangers in our pics in the background but we didn't mind, you couldn't see them all that much and also if you have a good photographer you can photoshop them out. We didn't mind having the strangers there, they all were cheering for us and clapping out loud when we got announced that we were husband and wife

My BF also sang for us and we had a random stranger cry out loud at the end and say how beautiful it was.....

 

This of course depends on you.....if you want random people or not.

[Jessica]

i think the onlookers make things more fun!

 

there was a guy in speedo who propped himself against a tree and watched our wedding. i so wanted our photog to catch that in a picture because i thought it would have been funny, but she shot around him.

 

there was also a little girl, about 7, who kept flashing us her butt while we were doing after ceremony shots. again, my photog edited her out! i thought that would have been hysterical to have in our wedding pictures!

[Jtds2713]

I have been to Wailea, Maui. A lot of upscale resorts and the crowd is not the rowdy type. I think you will be able to find a quiet location there but then again there is no guarantee since it is a public beach. And you are right with the wedding being in the fall, it should not be so crowded. We were there in August, the heat of summer and it was not crowded at all.

[Chiquita]

Ooooh.. I can't really answer your question but I'm getting married in Wailea, Maui a month after you.. so I'm looking forward to your review!!

[Sherry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maura i think it depends on the beach youll be using. did you see the thread about sol tamargo's blog from when she was on the beach and a wedding was going on? check this out. youll die laughing at the photos, but its a real possibility if youre not on a private beach, or at least a private section of one. Sol Tamargo Photography

Maura, thanks so much for posting that link. I checked out those pictures and showed them to my FI, and we decided to book our ceremony at a resort (the Wailea Marriott) instead. The pictures on that link are definitely a worst case scenario, and I'm guessing that in all likelihood, it would probably never get that bad with onlookers in Wailea, but we realized that if it did, we're not the kind of people who would be okay with it. It probably would have been fine, but I would have worried about it for the next 6 months, so it seemed worth the peace of mind booking it at a resort. We will still have the pretty beach pictures afterward anyway. I've been such a chilled out bride this whole time (I'm not kidding - I was actually starting to worry that I didn't care enough!), but this was something that I would worry about. Part of why we decided to have a destination wedding was so that we could keep it small and pretty low key, and it would kind of defeat that purpose if I was worrying about the beach ceremony for the next six months. On that note, it feels totally worth it to spend the money on booking the ceremony at a more private reception.

I still think that beach weddings are so pretty though. I wish I could have been more laid back about it, but I know myself better than that!