Beach Ceremony - no chairs - is this a big deal?

[Alyssa]

we are really excited about this place in Hawaii and we definitely want a beach ceremony ... their policy for their beach is no chairs (they say for safety reasons) so all of our guests (approx 25 to 35 people) would have to stand for the entire ceremony. we are planning a ceremony that is approx 1/2 hour because of some religious and family traditions.

 

has anyone done this (no chairs?). is it a really big deal? and as for elderly guests - we really only have 1 (FI's grandfather who is 86 and just did a 10mile marathon!)

[MsShelley]

I really wouldn't have a problem with this personally, my only concern would be the elderly, like you said, but as long as the ceremony isn't crazy long!!

[TammyB]

hmmm tough one. I knew I was having a small wedding (6 guests) and I still didn't want them to stand for the 15 minute ceremony. But if you have no choice then they'll deal with it.. I know when we were still thinking of doing our ceremony on Pedregal beach they didn't allow chairs so I asked our guest if they would mind and they said no..

[Alyssa]

i know - it is tough! i hate to make people stand - especially if it is HOT

 

budgets suck!!!! it seems like every place we start to grove on there is a catch (sorry for the quick vent!)

[Chiquita]

We are getting married in Maui on the beach and so far none of my family/friends that say they are going have minded that they would have to stand. I'm sure our ceremony will only be about 10 mins long though..

[NYJen]

I've been to one wedding in my life where we had to stand. It was a more formal event in a Woman's Club and everyone was dresses up with heels and everything - so that was kind of annoying. But if it's on the beach, I don't think anyone will be wearing shoes anyway.

 

Maybe you can do something unique like have all your guests gather around you guys in a circle rather than only be looking at you from one direction. That could make it more fun and personal, and possibly distract everyone from the idea that they're standing.

[LCBride2007]

we had chairs, and a lot of people sat - but if you look at my pictures, you'll see that about 1/3 of the people didn't bother to sit. i want to say our ceremony was about 20 min long. i'd say if you can't do it - don't worry about it, you can make it work. maybe you can have umbrellas for people to stand under?

 

not sure i get teh "safety" thing though - is sitting on teh beach hazardous? hmmm - who knew?!

[TATrisha]

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to make your guests stand for 30 minutes on a beach. Not only is it difficult to stand in sand, but it'll be hot, nobody will be able to see, and how will photos turn out?

[TammyB]

could you put like beach blankets or something down? In my head I'm thinking something along the lines of a picnic but so if people wanted to sit they won't get sand on everything.

[MERRYME]

At my wdding we actually chose not to have chairs we had white fabric for people to either sit or stand on. Our ceremony lasted about 45 minutes. Everything worked out great! People loved it and probably about 20 people stood because they were taking pictures.