2nd wedding Sand ceremony with kids

No, I think IF they'll do it, it's fine.

I'm doing this just for the kids

Why don't you ask them how they feel about it? Maybe show them a video or pictures of other families doing it so they get an idea of what it's like. If they seem iffy about it, ask them how they'd like to be involved. Maybe your kids could walk you down the aisle and FH's kids could walk him? Or you could ask the officiant to simply say a few words to acknowledge the role that your children play in your marriage.

When I do this, I have the family pick colors that express the personalities of each person, saying, (in the ceremony) that what they bring to the relationship makes it so unique.

We are doing this as well to include my 5 yr. Old son in the ceremony.. I think its a beautiful idea.. Good luck..

Celia - any other ideas for including older kids? He has 5 but three are close to my age... His youngest are 26 and 24 and mine is 22. We've been together 14 years so his kids really are my kids too. I'd like the three of them to stand with us because they are our family. Even though we are in Boston, one is in Colorado, one in NYC and one in CT we really will "officially" be one family now. Is it silly to have them up their with us because they are on their own? (We still take them all on 2 vacations with us each year along with their significant others so we are all vet close). Your thoughts?

I use the unity sand celebration in weddings, especially if there are kids (regardless of ages) and also in vow renewals. When the 'kids' are grown, sometimes their spouses and children also participate.

If the kids don't want to participate in the unity sand, perhaps they could do a prayer or reading?

Many of my couples have done hand fastings with their kids, 'family candles' (they light a traditional unity candle and then the kids light individual candles from that one...)

They can certainly walk you down the aisle, 'give you away' and /or stand with you! That isn't silly at all!

One of my couples had a "keys to a happy family" ceremony, where each kid (I use the term lightly) picked a reading as a 'gift' to the parents and they were written on tags attached to keys, put in a keepsake box.

Another thought on the sand; a lot of my couples are choosing to add meaningful 'charms' to their sand poutings....from special rocks from special places, to family jewelry, to (in one case) a tiny toy soldier and a toy dog.... I always suggest that couples shake the sand on every anniversary so the pattern changes as their family does, and those charms will be revealed, then hidden, then revealed again.

My FH has two girls 15 & 16 and my boys are 22 & 19. They are all looking forward to or sand ceremony and to truly incorporate them I used a stencil and painted all of their names on the glass that we'll be pouring the sand into.

I love the key idea! Makes me kinda wish my children were older haha.

We are doing the sand ceremony as well with our kids and I like the idea of the charms too!

For a vow renewal, one of my brides had each of her grandchildren add a small shell to the bottle of sand.

We did a unity puzzle instead of a sand ceremony. I bought a heart-shaped puzzle with 6 pieces and painted it blue (my wedding color). Then we painted my name and my husbands' name on the center pieces and our families' last names (my fathers name, my mother's maiden, his fathers name and mother's maiden) as a symbol of the joining of the families. Then we painted "FAMILY" on the stand. During the ceremony, we each put our family's "side" of the puzzle together and then my husband and I put our pieces together. We now have the completed puzzle displayed on a shelf in our home. Maybe you could try something like that, but with your kids' names and yours. I like it better than the sand because it visually shows the joining of the families and then you can keep it afterwards.

I got the puzzle on Etsy from Puzzles n Toys N Wood for $10

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PuzzlesnToysnWood?ref=l2-shop-info-name