Unity Candle
Ceremonies
1
This candle
you are about to light is a candle of Marriage, a light of two people in love. This
candle before you is a candle of Commitment because it takes two people working
together to keep it aflame. This candle
is also a candle of Unity because both must come together, giving a spark of
themselves, to create the new light.
As you light
this candle today, may the brightness of the flame shine throughout your lives.
May it give you courage and reassurance in darkness. Warmth and safety in the cold. And strength and joy in your hearts.
2
Groom and Bride the two lighted candles symbolize your separate lives,
your separate families and your separate sets of friends. I ask that you each
take one candle and that together you light the center candle. The individual
candles represent your individual lives before today. Lighting the center
candle represents that your two lives are now joined to one light, and
represents the joining together of your two families and sets of friends to
one.
3
Groom and Bride as on this day you have made a new light
together, may you also continue to recognize that separateness from which your
relationship has sprung. May the lights of your own special lives continue to
feed the new flame of love which can make your future -- with its hopes and
disappointments, its successes and failures, its pleasures and its pains, its
joys and its sorrows -- a future filled with warmth and love.
Unity Sand Ceremony
Instead of lighting one candle from two, pour two containers of sand into a
third container simultaneously. (If children are a part of the new family, the
sand ceremony can involve them also. Some families choose a different color for
each member.)
1
Bride and Groom, you have just sealed your relationship by the giving
and receiving of rings and the exchange of a kiss, and this covenant is a
relationship pledge between two people who agree that they will commit
themselves to one another throughout their lives. The most beautiful example of
this partnership is the marriage relationship. You have committed here today to
share the rest of your lives with each other. Today, this relationship is
symbolized through the pouring of these two individual containers of sand one,
representing you, Scotty and all that you were, all that you are, and all that
you will ever be, and the other representing you, Groom, and all that you were
and all that you are, and all that you will ever be. As these two containers of
sand are poured into the third container, the individual containers of sand
will no longer exist, but will be joined together as one. Just as these grains
of sand can never be separated and poured again into the individual containers,
so will your marriage be.
2
Bride and Groom, today you join your separate lives together. The two separate bottles of sand symbolize your separate lives, separate families and separate sets of friends. They represent all that you are and all that you’ll ever be as an individual. They also represent your lives before today. As these two containers of sand are poured into the third container, the individual containers of sand will no longer exist, but will be joined together as one. Just as these grains of sand can never be separated and poured again into the individual containers, so will your marriage be.