destination wedding ceremony decor

Being that I work with a lot of destination wedding couples, I get asked a lot about our own ceremony and reception decor. I tried to pack a lot of it myself because those resorts tend to overcharge on even the smallest of details. Since I get asked about it all the time, I thought today I would quickly overview my simple wedding ceremony decor that was not only budget friendly, but easy to pack!

A few  samples of the chair decoration styles she has created! Courtesy of The Hitched Hen

When I was a bride, I realized that these raffia chair decorations are pretty popular for destination weddings, and I now know why. They are so easy to pack, lightweight, and make a huge impression without much effort. I saw a lot of different styles online, but what I came across just wasn't what I was looking for. They all seemed a little too "perfect," and I wanted a more beachy, relaxed theme.

So I enlisted the help of my Mom who sure knows her way around working with raffia. If you've never worked with raffia before, it is extremely messy and hard to perfect. Luckily, she sure knew how to capture what I was going for--simple, but elegant. And for anyone reading this who wants this kind of style, my mom has opened her very own Etsy shop called The Hitched Hen. She now sells all different styles of these beach chair decorations and at a great price! She probably won't like that I'm promoting her business, but I'm proud of how hard she has worked and her creativity needs to be shared with the world (or, at the very least, the destination wedding community).

I got this lovely little "From This Day Forward" sign on clearance at Michael's or Joann Fabrics. I'm not sure which one, and since it was on clearance, I'm not sure you'll be able to find this exact one again. And to be honest it was just a simple wood sign that is meant to hang on the wall. I can't take much credit for how beautifully it looked at our ceremony. Our wonderful wedding coordinator, Claudia at Dreams Riviera Cancun, took this and made so extra special. I showed it to her and told her if she wanted to do something with it, that she could. She went above and beyond, and it was so unexpectedly beautiful!

Our wedding colors were Mint Green and Navy Blue, and finding the favors I wanted and in the right color of Mint was extremely difficult. But I finally found a place that sells these cute little maracas online and they were the perfect shade of Mint! I bought these maracas from Amol's Party Supplies. They were a great price and they also come in several other colors as well! As for the tags for the maracas and ceremony programs, I'm sure you can guess who made these... wink, wink.

I hope this post helped you a little bit if you are planning a destination wedding! Less is definitely more, and I still get compliments to this day about the small details of our ceremony and reception decor. Have any other ideas or pictures from your own wedding? Feel free to share!