Brides Ceremonies have changed significantly over the last few decades. Long gone are the days where everyone got married in a Church and had the same ceremony as everyone else. Personalization of a couple's Bridess is very popular and apparent in this day and age with personal vows, unity candle ceremonies and your own choices of music and readings.
The Sand Ceremony is a unique and special addition to your own Brides be it religious or civil ceremony. This meaningful and symbolic ceremony signifies the union of two people's lives together making them one but also observes that they are individuals and that is kept in the marriage also. The poignant moment of the joining of the sands has an extremely personal feel to it.
So how does it work!? You will need at least three vessels for the ceremony, one for bride and one for the groom and a larger pretty vessel as you will be keeping this forever to symbolise your unity as a married couple. Each person has their own colour sand in their own vessel. The colours could be in coordination with the Brides theme, signify something important and special or be sand collected from important or momentous places. The celebrant or officiant will inform your guests of what is about to happen and what the sand ceremony truly represents. The bride and the groom will then take turns to add their own sand to the unity vessel bringing their lives together. A charming touch of a relevant reading or song would be applicable at this time.
Some alterations have been made to the sand ceremony as the years have gone by. Some brides and grooms leave a little of their own sand in each vessel to signify their independence and individuality. If the couple has a child he/she can add their own sand to the vessel to illustrate the family becoming one. Some people ask their guests (those with smaller Bridess) to add sand to the unity vessel too. The sand ceremony is also a great way of blending two families together of different cultures as it recognises each persons or families own personalities, beliefs and identities.
The sand ceremony is a fairly new concept in the modern day Brides. It has been around for decades but its popularity due to it symbolism is increasing by the day. This is probably largely due to the change in circumstances of the traditional couple or family, where cultures and religions are uniting, people are getting married more than once and children are born before marriage or are from previous relationships.
The actual known origin of the sand ceremony is unknown but it is evident across many cultures and countries worldwide such as the Aborigines of Australia and the Imperial of Japan that the mixing of different colours of sand to make one unit is extremely purposeful and powerful.
Photo Credits from top to bottom: Jason Collin Photography, The Celebrant 4 U, Vasekino.
