Sand ceremonies can also be performed in an hourglass. You may choose to include guests or family in the blending of the sands with multiple colors or you may choose to incorporate flowers, seashells or other items into the ceremony. The wedding sand ceremony can be customized to make it as wonderful and unique as the happy couple.

Many officiants will have ideas for you when it comes to sand ceremony wording. Having a sand ceremony script in mind can help your officiant or minister know how you would like the ceremony to go. Given the time it takes to do this, it is best done only in smaller gatherings.There are many different ways to perform a wedding sand ceremony. They, in turn, pass the light to other members of the bridal party and then it is extended through the couple’s parents to all the guests. After lighting and joining together their own candles, the marrying couple turn to the chief attendants to light their candles. The ushers distribute candles to all the guests as they arrive. Some couples choose to extend the light to their guests as well. Interfaith or non-denominational couples could certainly include it in their ceremony. However, this candle ceremony focuses less on two families uniting (as a unity candle ritual) than on two individuals coming together, yet remaining independent. The Wiccan and Pagan candle ceremony focuses on the couple’s union in marriage. They then turn to light the candles of the couple, who in turn light the Unity Candle. The mothers, or parents, come forward and light their candles from two votive candles that are lit prior to the ceremony. There are many variations available for this ritual from the lighting of a single Unity Candle by the couple, to generational Unity Candle Ceremony, using either five or seven candles to include either the mothers or all four parents, and/Grandparents of the couple. Or, in the instance of a departed parent, the celebrant, or one of you may say, “In memory of the life and spirit of _, we light this candle in our midst in celebration of this marriage”. May our unified light burn strong and bright in the future”. He or she might say, for example: “We bring the light of ourselves into the light of this union. In addition, you can write a few words that either you or the celebrant can deliver to accompany a candle lighting ceremony. You may also do this if a parent is unable, for any other reason, not to be present at your ceremony.

It ensures that in one form or another, the spirits of all of your parents are present. Lighting a candle for the departed ones can be lovely and a very moving symbol. This can be done when you have already taken your places, just before the start of the ceremony, or it can be done as the usher is escorting this parent to his or her to their seat. In the case where one or more of your parents has died, you may invite the surviving parent to light a candle to symbolise the spirit of the departed parent. In this case you are symbolising that even in marriage you retain your individuality while at the same time offering your energy to the creation of a larger union. If you prefer a different symbolism, you may light the single large candle together, then set your individual candles, still burning, on either side of it. This gesture symbolises the extinguishing of individual life and the beginning of a life union. As you step up to the dais, where a single until candle is waiting, you use the flames of your individual candles to ignite the single large candle. Here the couple enter each carrying a lighted white candle. The Unity Candle Ceremony became popular as part of Catholic weddings, although it’s significance is universal, the joining of the couple as a new family.Įach style of ceremony includes significant words to explain to your guests the relevance of your chosen Unity Candle ritual and all rituals can be beautifully reworded, re-crafted and adapted to suit all marrying couples.Īn especially lovely tradition is the lighting of the unity candle.

Catholic unity ceremony ideas