Nautical Wedding Styles: 11 Ideas from Real Weddings

Yacht Club weddings tend to be a very carefully assembled event for a large social network. Private yacht clubs are often rented to members and friends of members to provide a familiar location that, for some, feels like a second home.

These coastal weddings tend to focus on the details of yachting, particularly signal flags, yachting hardware, and classic formal seaside style elements. Expect fine pressed linen tablecloths with perfectly matched metal silverware and nice china at the reception.

Colors are primarily navy and white with splashes of yellow, red, and other shades of blue. Alternatively, other Ivy League colors and the yacht club burgee colors might be included.

Lots of brass, probably a signal cannon or two, definitely lots of flowers, and a nicely formal presentation.

These events are put together largely by members of the club or hired planners approved by the club.

Dockside weddings are largely a wedding as an excuse to party. Very akin to a block party or large family reunion, the dockside wedding is much less formal than the Yacht Club wedding, but equally fun.

Unique to the dockside event, expect random well-wishers as people stop by on their way to their own boat or slip. Colors are really wide open, but the classic nautical colors often take precedence.

These are usually put together by the family of the bride with advice from the marina and likely the assistance of a local event planner for the details.

These can be the most amazing events where a world-class resort is used as a wedding venue, putting a five-star experience alongside the lapping ocean. These can be uber formal and couture, but tropical and laid-back is also a resort staple at the other extreme.

Colors are very regionally specific. Tangerine and teal are just as frequently found as navy and coral. The resorts are often full-service options where the planner and caterer will know everything there is to know. All they need to help is a sense of your personal style to adapt the day to represent perfection for you.

With resort nautical, there is a chance to really enjoy time with the guests by sharing a vacation as well as the matrimonial celebration.

These are especially fun and fun to personalize. Here in New England, we have barns and farms within sight or even up on the shoreline or riverbank.

The blend of the two aspects makes the event very warm and inclusive of manila and autumn colors with oars, knots, ropes, old rowboats, and every bit of rustic chic style you can imagine.

This style is where I've seen the most creativity. My favorite was a nautical wreath we did in manila, used along with a piece of cedar wood painted with the table numbers. The scene was almost a blend of western and coastal styles.

Beach and tropical weddings are very similar. A beach wedding could be on a local sandbar on a lake or river, but usually we imagine crashing waves at Misquamicut or the wedding party standing on the beach.

When designing for either of these weddings, the wedding party needs to consider their shoes. I've seen both extremes. I've seen people go to the shoreline barefoot for the ceremony, with a roll of carpeting stretching across the sand as a makeshift aisle. I've also seen the wedding party in formal shoes.

The bridesmaids might be wearing sensible heels, and the men are as often as not wearing deck shoes. For the heels, a sensible couple provides stable places to stand. A cut of wood, a flat paver, or something similar, so the wedding party doesn't get exhausted balancing fine shoes on shifting or even damp sand.

This is where the seaside nautical style takes on the tiki themes. Bright colors, palm leaves, and all that jazz.

Beach and tropical weddings have a lot in common, but a tropical wedding often brings family and friends to a place they've never visited before. That unfamiliarity is part of the fun. Everyone gets to discover a new place together, sharing a vacation along with the wedding celebration.

The colors and decorations can reflect the surroundings. Tropical flowers, bright colors, rope, and nautical knots all have a place here. There's no reason to leave the nautical traditions behind just because the palm trees have replaced the New England shoreline.

This one is my favorite, but is very specific. Our town has a history of commercial fishing. The families would naturally incorporate family treasures into the event. That means boat names, fishery dock venues, and a very earthy feel.

I love the fisherman's wedding because it's often someone deciding to use their place of business as a wedding venue. It's often a fishing boat that's been in the family and a passed-on tradition. Sometimes they're in the restaurant trades and treating their most important day as a chance to show respect to the people who risk their lives at sea, using that setting for one of the most important decisions of their own lives.

These tend to fall between venues overlooking the river, an Age of Camelot feel in the air, or more the naturalist kayak crowd celebrating the fun they have on their favorite lake or riverfront.

Similar to rustic nautical, there is a tendency here to blend the athletic nature of lake and river sports along with the camps and woods that surround these aquatic playgrounds.

This might be peculiar to us here in New England, but we have wineries and vineyards right on our tidal estuaries.

Since the earliest days in my hometown, wild grapes were growing in the woods and on the colonial-era stone walls. The soil is conducive to grapes, and places like Saltwater Farm Vineyard take advantage of this to provide venues with all the best aspects of a winery and the provincial charm of their cultivation, along with the backdrop of a quiet estuarial river opening up on the ocean itself.

This is how my sister got married. My grandmother lived on the water, and her backyard opened up on the mouth of the Mystic River.

Her wedding was an eclectic combination of her sports fanaticism and the dock and river. These can be deeply memorable events because the echoes of your day will still be there every time you go back to visit.

These are the most intimate affairs and done one of two ways. I consider an onboard nautical event a wedding that happens right on board a boat.

The wedding I have in mind was in San Diego, where a couple was married on a Lagoon 420 catamaran. The boat was set up like a mini resort, the ceremony was done on board, and the couple could escape the reception by boat to start their marriage and honeymoon in isolation and style while they explored.

The other approach is to use a cruise ship or larger charter and host the entire event aboard.