Unity Ceremony

I've been to about 40 weddings in the last two years and I've seen more unity ceremonies than most. I'm always surprised by the ways couples choose to demonstrate their unity to their family members. Here are the most common, (and one very uncommon) unity ceremonies.

1: Unity Candle

Pros: Candles are a longstanding symbol of life. They're easy to do and involve playing with fire, which is always fun.

Cons: Sometimes the candles blow out or are difficult to light. Everybody seems to think that a blown out candle is a "bad omen" for the couple. In reality, it's usually the air conditioning coming on.

2: Unity Sand

Pros: The best thing about unity sand is it's interactive, hard to screw up, and you can keep the vase forever!

Cons: There's no telling whether we'll look back in 30 years and laugh at the unity sand ceremony. It's fun and if it feels right, do it.

3: Beef heart

Pros: Jennifer and Austin used a Tiawanese tradition of chowing down on a beef heart to unify the couple. It's a cool and unique far-east way to demonstrate unity. (And yes, the heart was cooked)

Cons: You might shock your guests, and if you don't like beef then you're definitely not going to like its heart.

 If there are any I missed let me know. I hope you like the new watermark. It's smaller and much less intrisive than the previous one.

Comments

[Charity]

I photographed a wedding where the bride and groom demonstrated their unity with a salt covenant. Similar to the sand ceremony but with scriptures to go along with why the salt was significant. Very cool!