Unity Ceremony (Sand Ceremony)

The Sand Ceremony has been attributed to a custom practiced by the indigenous people of Hawaii. In Hawaii it is common that weddings take place on the beach. The bride and groom are barefoot during the ceremony and sand is taken from beneath their feet and is poured into a container or large shell to symbolize the couple's unity.

The Sand Ceremony is a lovely way to symbolize your unity. It can be incorporated into any type of wedding ceremony. You can use sand from the beach or sand dyed in your favorite color(s). The vase that you pour the sand into will become a keepsake of your symbolic unity.

The Sand Ceremony

The officiant will say the following:
(Bride) and (Groom),today you join your separate lives together. The two separate cups of sand symbolize your separate lives (and separate families). 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 cups of sand are poured together, the individual grains of sand will still exist, but will be joined together as one unit. Just as these grains of sand can never be separated and poured again into the individual cups, so will the love and bond between the two of you render you inseparable.

You can use water or wine in place of the sand.

Another nice idea is to include children that are being joined into the new family.

First Example
(Children’s name/s), your mother and/or father and love you very much, and want you to know that you are and will always be a very important part of their lives. Will you please pour some sand into the vase along with your good wishes? That would mean so much to them. (Parents then hug and kiss their children!)

Second Example
Just as we have now bound (Bride) and (Groom) to one another, we will now celebrate the union of (other family/child/children) into this covenant. The couple will first pour their sands into the vase, showing that their marriage is the foundation of this family. Their sands mix together and symbolize their bond of love and respect that can never be separated. As (family member/child/children) now add his/her/their sand, we are reminded that though we are all different people, it is our individuality which adds a unique color to the tapestry of the family. Like the sands poured before it, so these sands will also mix and be unable to be separated.

Contact us if you would like to include this unity ceremony (or a variation) in your wedding ceremony.

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