Alternatives to unity sand or candle...

Http://www.godsknot.com/CordOfThreeStrands.aspx

My friend did this at his wedding and it was really nice!

@Genevieve- I Love the wording and the look of your shadow box! It was truly beautiful. We're doing a somewhat "shooting star" theme because we're getting married in the evening but we don't want to overdo it. I wish there was someway we could incorporate stars into a unity ceremony.

There's also a "hand ceremony"

http://wendymyers.wordpress.com/extras/in-lieu-of-a-unity-candle/hand-ceremony/

@ Genevieve I just checked out the link to your blog! I like the wording you added to your shadow box, very cool idea!

@ Tashawnna we didn't have specific wording, we just told our officiant that we were doing a sand ceremony and that we'd be calling the kids up to pour also. He used his own wording for it. We did however have You and Me by Lifehouse playing during the sand ceremony.

We're doing a wine box ceremony. It goes like this...

Officiant says: "I'd like to draw your attention to the box in front of DG and Mr. DG. They have written letters to each other expressing their feelings as they begin their marriage. We will include these letters in the box along with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Together we will seal this box, and on the happy occasion of their anniversary, they will open the box, read the letters, drink the wine, and add new letters to the box. As time passes, they will have a record of the yearly reflection on their relationship and a living document of the growth and depth of their ever evolving relationship.

Will you commit yourself to this undertaking?"

Me: "yes"

Officiant: "Groom will you commit yourself to this undertaking?"

Him: "yes"

Officiant: "please seal the box together."

My fiance and I are also getting married in June of 11, and we are using the hand ceremony as opposed to sand or a candle (because we're getting married outside, too). There are a lot of alternative things on this site:

http://www.cherations.com/Unique_Ceremony.html

There's so many great ideas i don't know which to use now LOL i wonder if it would be too much to do two of them...

Hand fasting, hand washing ceremony, indian blanket ceremony, What ethnic background are you two? I'm Ukrainian, and there is a tradition when the bride gets to the end of the aisle, her and her finace stand on an embroidered cloth, that is the moment they become man and wife. We didn't do it, but it's unique! You can start googling wedding traditions relevant to your ethnic backgrounds and do something there!

Since we are having a casually elegant biker DW, and our theme is "What a long strange trip it's been!", we are doing a path joining ceremony that I am writing myself.

Oh, I love that hand ceremony idea. I think I will run that by FH to see if he will go along with it. A few words may be tweaked to make it "age appropriate." :-)

My FH and I also wanted to do something different than the unity candle or the sand. We decided to wash each others feet as Jesus did for his disciples. Washing each others feet is going to be symbolic of us serving one another in our marriage as Christ served the church. So that's an idea.

My sister had a traditional Scottish wedding and they pinned his plaid to her dress, to show she was switching clans... We still claim her though because she doesn't want to change her last name! They talked about hand fasting too, we are very big into ethnic heritage, you should look up wedding traditions and see what you can find based on your heritage…

We are doing something very unique. Any of you can feel free to copy it. We are taking colored M and Ms and mixing those instead of sand. It should be very unique and fun!

Would anyone care to share the unity cross ceremony details? Thanks.

We did a wine sharing and it was really cool. We also had an outdoor ceremony and I didn't want to do the unity candle for the fear of the candles blowing out. I don't really like the sand ceremony, just my personal opinion.

The wine sharing is explained on www.dayofdreams.com website, by our officient Tom Whitham. Loved Him!

Here's a pic of us during wine sharing....

@ Shawna the cross goes like this--

http://www.getmarried.com/articles/view/unity-cross

I love the wine ceremony idea!

My FH is from Nigeria so we are doing a Tasting The Four Elements.It is a Yoruban culture which is his native tribe.

The bride and groom taste four flavors that represent different emotions within a relationship. The four flavors typically used are sour (lemon), bitter (vinegar), hot (cayenne), and sweet (honey). By tasting each of the flavors, the couple symbolically demonstrates that they will be able to get through the hard times in life, and, in the end, enjoy the sweetness of marriage.

My daughter is doing the salt covenant.

My cousin did the rose ceremony at her wedding, it turned out really well