Wedding Tip Wednesday- Sand Ceremonies

A common wedding tradition is the lighting of the unity candle. The bride and groom take individual candles and light a candle representing their union and that candle is save for posterity. Out on the beach though, candles don't stay lit because of the wind and someone came up with the great idea to use colored sand (usually the wedding colors) to incorporate the environment and show that the two couples are united. They make a great decorative element in the home as well.

There's a trick to this sand art though. You have to take turns pouring the sand into the vessel to get the pretty stratification. If both people pour the sand at the same time, you end up with one color on one side and the other color on the other side with a little blending in the middle. It also takes a while to fill the jar, so it wouldn't hurt to start the process ahead of time and just top the sand off during the ceremony. You could also finish it off after the ceremony. I also recommend filling the bottom of the jar with sand from the beach where your ceremony is as an added memento.

Here's a very nice example of a sand ceremony jar. This particular one had a color of sand for their kids too.