Beach Ceremony - noisy or too public?

[Lorilou]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SherryW 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.

We attended a beach wedding at the Grand Wailea in Oct 2006. It was a lovely hotel and ceremony. But it was kind of distracting with others around the ceremony. there is a running/walking path that went directly behind the minister (where wedding guests were all looking in that direction) and runners/walkers would stop and stare at the ceremony. As a wedding guest, i would notice every once in awhile. And there were a lot of people in their bathing suits hanging around watching. Again the ceremony was lovely, beautiful location but definitely not private 100%.

[Pisces]

My FI was really wanting a beach ceremony as well, but I was really concerned about onlookers. He said to me, "who would watch someone else's wedding?" (and he was serious). I said, "uh.. if there was a wedding going on on the beach I would!"

 

We opted to do our wedding on a the Wailea golf course (which is attached to our reception site, the Seawatch) and I feel much more at peace. This also means that if it rains we will have a back up place (they provide a back up covered area in such a case). I really wanted privacy.

 

My WC also said it was a really good idea because of the noise of the waves. I want everyone to be able to fully hear what's going on.

 

But whatever you choose is all about your moment.

[LCBride2007]

Well, I didn't want strangers at my wedding - and I knew that was going to be a possibility if we had it at a public beach, which is the reason we chose the private location that we did. However, had we not found Caletas or another option to have a private ceremony, I think we still would have gone ahead with the beach wedding. Our dream was to get married on the beach - nothing was going to stop us!

[Maura]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SherryW 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!

you're welcome sherry. i feel the same way you do. our WC suggested we do our ceremony on the pool deck, which has many public walkways right around it and i nearly flipped. also, another westin bride previously told me that she did her reception on the pool deck and there were lots of looky loos and if she had to do it over, she wouldve picked another location at the westin with more privacy. i am an extremely private person, and i dont want a single looky loo at my wedding. we will still also take photos on the beach, but we wanted our ceremony to be private and intimate with our loved ones. and yes obviously sol's blog is the worst case scenario. but for me, i have social anxiety, and even the idea of all my guests, who are my friends and family, looking at me so much all day sort of makes my skin crawl. so i just knew doing our ceremony anywhere that was not totally private was out of the question for me because i wouldnt be okay with looky loos.

[melody]

I have been to Wailea Maui, hardly the rowdy crowd( the stretch of beach has only 5 star resorts) specially in the fall at 5pm. The sun sets pretty early and you may see couples watching the sunset but that's pretty much it.

 

If you want a more secluded beach, there are quite a few, just ask your wedding coordinator.

[azhuskergirl]

We're going to be on the beach & I thought the possibility of "unwanted guests" would freak me out (I am a meeting planner & it's my job to kick people out of my private events when they crash), but (remarkably) I'm ok, with it. It'll be something to remember if a big guy in a speedo goes walking on by.

 

my biggest concern was weather back-up, but even that doesn't bother me....if it rains in the am, then we'll do it in the pm. no biggie.

[ACDCDCAC]

Hi Sherry! I see it looks like you already decided to go with a hotel venue but I wanted to add for anyone else's FYI that the problem with Hawaii and getting married on a beach is that ALL beaches in Hawaii are considered public, yes hotels do have their little area but the sand and water are public. So you do tend to get the peepers YAY for photoshop

 

BUT the good news is that there are a lot of secluded beaches here and there, and also alternate options, for example, we are having our ceremony at about 10 or 11am, which drastically cuts down on mass crowds Our main reason for the morning ceremony tho was the gorgeous turquoise ocean in pictures, later in the day it looks more sea-green.

[azhuskergirl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougsGirl BUT the good news is that there are a lot of secluded beaches here and there, and also alternate options, for example, we are having our ceremony at about 10 or 11am, which drastically cuts down on mass crowds Our main reason for the morning ceremony tho was the gorgeous turquoise ocean in pictures, later in the day it looks more sea-green.

We wanted the turquoise water too, hence the 9:30am wedding.

[Sherry]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! We did decide to move the wedding off the beach, because I knew I would worry about it for the next 6 months otherwise. We're having our ceremony just before sunset, because we really want those sunset photos, but I think the morning would have been a great option as well. We tried to book our ceremony at the Seawatch, because we'd already booked our reception there, but unfortunately, we'd waited too long, and it was all booked up already for the ceremony. Our wedding coordinator recommended a few other spots, including the Wailea Marriott, and we decided to go with it. The pictures they sent us look really pretty, and we will still have the water as our backdrop, so it seemed like a good compromise.

 

[chicago88]

I had a beach ceremony (jamaica though) and it was fine. It was windy & not a problem at all. Also, having it that late in the day, I wouldn't worry at all. We had a few people watching, but from a distance. Don't stress, it's going to be beautiful!!