Unity Candle Alternatives

Many couples still do the unity candle ceremony in their weddings even after all these years. It is beautiful and communicates an important message.

However, the fact that it has been done by so many for so long is one of the reasons that a lot of couples do not want to use it in their weddings. They are looking an alternative to the traditional unity candle service.

There is another reason some couples don’t want it. They been to weddings and seen something go wrong during the ceremony and they don’t want it to happen to them. So they want to know if there is something as meaningful but less inclined to mess ups or worse.

Especially if it is an outdoor wedding, we tend to discourage couples from trying to use candles. Just the littlest bit of air circulating can put the candles out. If the taper candles blow out before the couple lights their center candle, then they have to be re-lighted. Or, the couple can’t get the center candle lit or if they do, it almost immediately goes out.

While there are a number of alternatives to the unity candle that are sometimes suggested, including the Rose Ceremony, the Water Ceremony, the Salt Ceremony, the Lasso Ceremony, the Celtic ceremony and others – it our opinion the ceremony that comes the closest to symbolizing the same thing as the candle ceremony is what is known as the Wedding Sand Ceremony.

The sand ceremony was seen on one of those early morning shows a few years back and since that time has become more and more common.

Here’s how it works. You get three sand ceremony vases. Two are smaller ones and each vase is filled with a different color sand representing your two families as the taper candles do. You can have the same color sand. One couple had gotten some of the sand from the beach where the groom had proposed to the bride. Even this sand was the same color, it had special significance to them.

Often the mothers of the bride and groom carry in the vases when they escorted in. They place the vases on a small table each side of a larger sand ceremony vase. During the ceremony, the officiant says some words about the couple uniting as one, and then they step over and pour their sand into the larger vase layering the sand as they go.

As with the candle ceremony, music can play in the background or someone sings. When the couple is finished they come back to stand in front of the wedding officiate for the remainder of the ceremony.

The sand ceremony vase makes a nice keepsake that the couple can place on their fireplace mantel or someplace else special to them.

Thanks for visiting our page about unity candle alternatives.