Unique Wedding Ceremony Ideas: Celebrate Your Unity with Sand, Water and Roses

On your special day, when you are celebrating the combining of your lives together, you may want a special ritual to include in the service to symbolize your new unity. Many couples opt for the Unity Candle, which has become very common in recent years. And the Unity Candle ceremony, in which the couple use individual candles to light a larger candle together, is very beautiful. But here are some other ideas, for those couples who want something a little out of the ordinary but still meaningful for their ceremony.

For a beach or other outdoor wedding, this ceremony is very simple, and very beautiful. Get three nicely shaped clear glass bowls or vases. Buy either black and white sand or two other complementary colors,such as those you are using in your wedding. (Colored sand is readily available at craft stores, garden shops, and stores which sell aquariums.) Set the bowls or vases side by side. The groom then pours one color of sand into one of the vessels, while the bride pours the other color into another one. Then, together, they pour sand into the center bowl, creating a beautiful design. The side bowls or vases can then be filled with flowers or topped with colored stones and become part of the reception decoration, while the center container becomes a wonderful keepsake for the bride and groom. It is a wonderful way to signify the combining of different personalities into a new life design.

For ceremonies in which either the bride or groom or both have children, the children can also be given bowls of colored sand, which they may add to the center vessel along with that of the bride and groom, a beautiful way to let them know they are an integral part of the new plan.

A similar idea is the water ceremony. In this variation, the couple pour different colors of water into a single bowl or vase, creating a new color together to symbolize their new union. Experiment with the colored water in advance, to find a combination that creates a color you really like. For this ceremony, if the bride and/or groom have children, each child might be given a small glass of the same color as the parent to pour into the container.

When my daughter got married, she and her groom chose to exchange roses. There are obviously many possible variations for this one. The roses can be two different colors, or the same color. The officiant or minister can point out that the roses are beautiful, but like the relationship, they have their thorny areas and must be handled with care. The bride and groom may keep the roses, or give them to their mothers, or place them in vases that can then be used during the reception as table decorations.

Whatever ceremony you choose, feel free to tweak it, add to it, or do whatever it takes to make the ritual your own, celebrating your new bonding as a couple. It's your day, and you want to remember it forever.