Your Day Your Way - with Rosemary
Wedding Traditions
The Unity Candle
One of the most common ceremonies. The bride and groom each take a lit candle and simultaneously light a third larger "unity candle." They may blow out their individual lights, or leave them lit, symbolizing that they have not lost their individuality with their union. Stores are now selling elaborate unity candle sets including ones with candelabras to hold the central unity candle higher than the others. Many suppliers also now offer candles which are personalized with your names and the date of your wedding, allowing it to be a keepsake from your wedding.
Variation 1:
All guests are given a candle, and the first guest's is lit. Guests pass the flame until all are lit. Often times the parents of the bride and groom are the last to light their individual candles. The bride and the groom then light their candles from their parents before the couple lights the central unity candle together. This variation often includes a proclamation, reading, or poem.
Variation 2:
Children of the bride and/or groom join in with their own smaller unity candles to represent the family joining.
Butterfly Release
According to an American Indian Legend, if anyone desires a wish to come true he or she must first capture a butterfly and whisper that wish to it. Since a butterfly can make no sound, the butterfly can not reveal the wish to anyone but the "Great Spirit" who hears and sees all. In gratitude for giving the beautiful butterfly its freedom, the Great Spirit always grants the wish. So, according to legend, by making a wish and giving the butterfly its freedom, the wish will be taken to the heavens and be granted.
Flower or Bouquet
Do you have a large family or many close friends that you would like to incorporate in your wedding? Here is a great way to include them in your ceremony. Friends and family of your choice are given a rose or other flower to bring up and set in a vase (on the altar or somewhere in the front). This bouquet represents all of the people who are present to love and support you in your marriage. These are the people to lean on when you run into rough spots in your marriage. They will encourage you and help you to stay committed to each other.
In this tradition the Mother of the bride and Mother of the groom each carry a bouquet down the aisle, placing it in two waiting large vases. The Bride and Groom each take a flower from their family bouquet (or break off a flower from the bouquet) and place them together in a smaller vase or bud vase.
Sand Ceremony
Similar to the water ceremony, the bride and groom both pour different colored sand into a glass.
Possible words………
Just as the sand, once poured and mixed, literally become impossible to separate, so your lives are inseparably joined together.”
Variation 1:
Couples with children include them in this ceremony. Using different colors and giving each child their separate vase to pour into the center vase makes the children feel not only a part of the ceremony, but also a part of the family.
Variation 2:
The celebrant pours the first sand into the unity vase to represent the foundation of their relationship. Then on top of the base, the couples pour their two colors together.
Variation 3:
Both sets of parents pour sand into the vase before the bride and groom to represent the joining together of separate families.