What is a unity sand ceremony? It’s a way to participate in your wedding ceremony or vow renewal!

Unity sand ceremony setup for evening wedding.

Couple participation during the wedding ceremony has become increasingly popular. It’s a great way to break up the officiant speaking and symbolize the unifying of the couple during a religious or non religious wedding ceremony. One of the most popular ways we see couples participate in their wedding ceremony is with a unity sand ceremony.  A unity sand ceremony is the pouring of sand from individual containers into a center container. The bride and groom blend their individual containers of sand into a center container symbolizing their inseparable union. The couple can use different colors of sand or the same color sand. There’s no right or wrong.

A unity sand ceremony is also a great way to include children in a wedding ceremony and/or a vow renewal ceremony. It means a lot to children of all ages to participate in the joining of their parent.

A unity sand ceremony is perfect for a vow renewal ceremony including kids, young or old. It represents the family that they have created and  just like the blended sands they will never be separated.

Together the family pour their individual containers of sand into the center vase.

During the ceremony the officiant will announce that the couple has requested to participate in a unity sand ceremony. The officiant will explain about the unity sand ceremony and then ask the couple to take their individual containers of sand and pour them into the center container.  If children are participating the officiant will request that they join the couple to pour their container of sand. As the sands are blended together in center container the independent individuals cease to exist. The grains of sand can never be separated in their individual containers and so will the marriage and family never to be separated.

“As you each hold your sand the separate containers of sand represent your lives to this moment; individual and unique. As you now combine your sand together, your lives also join together as one.”

Their are different types of kits that can be used for a sand ceremony. The sand ceremony kits include a center bottle to pour the sand into and individual bottles for each person participating. Many kits include the colored sand. Depending on how many are participating in ceremony additional colored sand may be needed. If the wedding is on the beach sand can even be used from the beach where wedding is taking place. Another kit that is quite popular is photo frame. Sand is poured on the outside of the frame and a memorable photograph can be placed in frame. Glass bottles can be engraved with names and dates. There are a lot of options and variations of the unity sand ceremony. Whatever is selected creates a nice keepsake souvenir to remember that special day.

A picture frame is a great way to create a keepsake from your wedding sand ceremony

Unity sand ceremony is perfect for a beach wedding. Sand from the beach where the wedding is can be used.

There are a lot of options for adding a unity sand ceremony to your wedding or vow renewal.  If you want to have a unity sand ceremony in your wedding ceremony or vow renewal ceremony you’ll need:

• 1 small table with a clothe
• Sand for each indiviual participating in the union
• Containers for each individual participating in the union
• 1 center container to pour separate sand into

Have fun with your unity sand ceremony! We love hearing ideas and coming up with something new to this popular wedding tradition. Let us know if you have a creative spin on the unity sand ceremony.

Sand ceremony uses beach sand and shells to pour sand into the center container.