Maybe I'm a stickler for tradition, or I just think sand is more appropriate for beach weddings - but I love unity candles and honestly find it kind of weird when I see someone in a church do a unity sand (or whatever you call it).
Did you have sand or candles? Which did you prefer?
20 votes
bananas / 9118 posts
Our wedding was outside, so we did the sand since the last thing I wanted was the symbolism if our unity candle blew out!
The big thing we did was get sand from special places- my husband spent a lot of time in Kiawah, SC on family vacations, so we collected sand there for him to pour. I spent a lot of time in Sedona, AZ growing up, so we got the red sand from there. It looks sooo good on our mantle all mixed and swirled together!
kiwi / 658 posts
we had a semi outdoors ceremony and used sand because candles would've blown out.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
@lemondrop: that is sooo cool! I like that idea. And totally get it if it's an outside wedding.
@Smurfette: what did you use?
coconut / 8498 posts
We were married in a church, but we didn't do either. Neither DH nor I really like them. Plus, we figure what better way to exemplify unity than a wedding!
GOLD / squash / 13464 posts
@c.sassy: hahaha agreed!!! We figured the fact that we were getting married pretty much covered the topic of unity : )
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
@Coco Bee: Nothing. We got married outside so we couldn't have done the candles and I am not a fan of the sand. So we just took that part of the ceremony out.
bananas / 9628 posts
We didn't do either. Not our thing. I can see how it would be symbolic to some ppl though. We each chose a reading to read to the other.
grapefruit / 4669 posts
We didn't do either, but I have been to windy outdoor weddings w/unity candles and it didn't work very well!
pineapple / 12526 posts
Neither, we did a modified handfasting with a wreath of flowers.
grapefruit / 4703 posts
We did a candle, mostly to give our moms a role in the wedding. They each lit our individual candles, then we lit the middle one together. I think I threw it all out after the wedding though, haha.
coconut / 8299 posts
We did a candle. I was so scared it was gonna blow out and then I'd be freaking out my entire marriage thinking we were doomed! Thank goodness it didn't blow out!
cantaloupe / 6164 posts
we did unity candles because we had an entirely candle-lit ceremony. like hundreds and hundreds of candles.
my brother and sister-in-law had a garden wedding, and did sand. it turned out really nicely. they included my sil's three-year-old daughter, so she was able to pour in a little sand as well.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
We used sand since we had an outdoor ceremony. Our mothers carried our sand down the aisle in vintage milk bottles that came from the states we were born in. We have the bottle of combined sand on display in our living room.
persimmon / 1453 posts
Neither. I was super traditional with my wedding--the marriage was the unity ceremony! I also had zero desire to purchase and store sentimental sand art or candles.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
What is the tradition behind unity candles or sand? I am not a traditionalist in any sense of the word wrt to marriage ceremonies, so is this common in some religious denominations?
We did neither, just our vows.
pear / 1787 posts
We didn't do either of those things. We wrote our own ceremony, and our vows, and had three friends and my father in law read poems that we chose.
GOLD / wonderful olive / 19030 posts
Candles if it is inside, sand if it is outside (wind/elements preventing candles from working) Just a personal opinion!
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
Neither, but I like the idea of the sand and for a "longer" keepsake.
pomegranate / 3225 posts
Personally, I did neither. It just didn't feel right to me, but I'm probably weird.
cherry / 128 posts
i am a wedding photographer, and have only seen sand a handful of times... more often candles, but in general neither! i had a candle at my own wedding 
cherry / 103 posts
We didn't do either, but we did do a wine box and love letter ceremony, which to me sort of replaced the unity candle or sand. I know in blogland it's not super creative anymore, but neither of us had ever been to a wedding with the wine box and all of our guests commented on how unique it was, which I also liked!
coconut / 8681 posts
We did candles but our ceremony was outside and REALLY windy and the candles would never light…not even when our moms were lighting them. So we just faked it It is actually one of our favorite memories because we just went with it, had fun and it was a really lighthearted part of the ceremony for us!
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