Alabama "Poseidon Playground" WEDDING

Beach weddings have always been popular on Alabama's coast and now a reef-focused nonprofit is taking it to another level.

On Thursday, a shell-covered concrete cross is being deployed at the nearshore reef called "Poseidon's Playground." Once it's in place in about 38 feet of water, 3.5 miles off the coast of Orange Beach, it will begin serving as an altar for underwater wedding ceremonies, according to Vince Lucido, president of the Alabama Gulf Coast Reef and Restoration Foundation.

"Weddings seem to be a big industry here and we're going to offer wedding venues for anybody that has a desire to do underwater weddings," Lucido said.

This shell-covered concrete cross will be deployed by Orange Beach-based Walter Marine at the nearshore reef "Poseidon's Playground" off Alabama's coast. The cross will serve as an altar for underwater wedding ceremonies. (Photo by Stewart Walter) 

The Poseidon's Playground project is being spearheaded by the reef foundation. The first statues were deployed in December. On Thursday if the weather permits, the cross will join the mythological statues -- Poseidon, Apollo and Venus -- and a table-like, grouper reef with small aquatic statues.

As with the initial deployment, Orange Beach-based Walter Marine will place the cross at the state-permitted site south of Perdido Pass on the eastern edge of the R.V. Minton Artificial Reef Zone.

Lucido said the cross is the start of the second phase of the nearshore reef that is expected to include memorial statues to first responders. While the group continues to seek donations and sponsorships for the effort, it received a $5,000 boost from the Orange Beach City Council Tuesday night.

"I'm just letting you know that we're working on different venues for diving and fishing," Lucido told the council. "And especially the diving industry to make it more available to all facets of divers -- your beginning, your intermediate and your more advanced."

The group made a big splash in May 2013 when it sank "The Lulu," a 271-foot retired coastal freighter, 17 nautical miles south of Perdido Pass in Orange Beach after raising $500,000 for the project in just five months.  

Since forming in July 2012 under the umbrella of the Coastal Alabama Business Chamber, the foundation has been working with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Marine Resources Division, in getting sites permitted for recreational diving. The LuLu became Alabama's first purposefully sunk whole-ship diving reef and was the nonprofit's first step toward making Alabama's a tourism-based diving destination.

While The LuLu is more suited to intermediate and advanced divers, with a 50-foot depth clearance at the top of the wreck, Lucido said Poseidan's Playground is suited for beginners.

Alabama Gulf Coast Reef and Restoration Foundation board member Gary Emerson swims near the grouper reef at Poseidon's Playground on Feb. 12, 2015. (Courtesy Lila Harris of Aquatic Soul Photography) 

Mayor Tony Kennon said the project is great for young divers and felt the unique underwater wedding idea would be successful.

"I think we're going to be surprised at how many wedding actually take place on that alter," Kennon said.

Reef foundation member Lila Harris, a local scuba instructor and brainchild of the virtual underwater playground, said a GoFundMe fundraising campaign will begin soon for the first-responder memorial statues.

"We're also looking at two bases that have columns on them that will frame the cross," she said. "So that would be next on our list to raise money for aside from the firemen and policemen (memorials)."

In February, Harris said four blocks with metal rings were deployed at the site to ensure that it remains a "no anchor" zone.  

The wedding altar idea was a collective one, she said.

"Down Under Dive Shop has talked about doing underwater weddings for a few years before Poseidon's Playground was ever an idea," she said of the Gulf Shores business. "It's just a culmination of our local wedding planners and ministers that we know and divers that we know and photographers."

A number of local divers happen to be ordained ministers, she said. "We have several dive operations that can help go down and prepare the ceremony ahead of time based on the couple's desires," she said.  

The altar may have some ties to the Flora-Bama but Harris said negotiations are ongoing.

Underwater weddings have been popular in the Florida Keys for decades and are common in tropical locales around the world.

Having an underwater wedding altar would be unique to Gulf Coast, Harris said.

"We would be the only one basically between California and south Florida, which would be pretty cool," she said. "This is going to be huge."

Anyone interested in the contributing to the Poseidon's Playground project, can emailadministrator@alabamagulfcoastreef.org, call 251-968-6904 or visit www.alabamagulfcoastreef.org.