using sand in place of unity candles

I am doing the sand instead of candles but we arent having the mothers do anything. It will just be us and then the pastor will pour in the white to represent God. We chose to do it this way because our moms want to just watch and enjoy the ceremony. If you did want the mothers to take part you can always have them pour the sand into your glass vases, then you guys can do the ceremony after that....

When the mothers walk down the aisle to be seated you could have them each hold a vase filled with sand. Before they are seated, they could then set them on the table on either side of the larger container you will use to pour the sand into.

^ I do like this idea better! lol

I really like the idea of the White sand to represent God!! I also like that idea to have the mothers carry the vases down the aisle! Thank you both!!

I like the mothers idea, too. And I never thought about using white to represent God & I am doing a Sands ceremony, perhaps I will use Salt (because it has a more religious meaning, I hear) & let our Minister pour it before we do ours! Yay new idea!

Originally the sand was uncolored and taken from the site of the ceremony. Later people started coloring the sand to create a keepsake. I've seen parents involved by pouring sand by each pair into a container, and then the couple unites those two containers.

So, basically, there are no hard rules! Have fun with it!

We did a sand ceremony. First my husband and I poured silver sand from one vase into the main vase. Then our parents came up. My parents poured teal sand from one vase into the main vase and his parents poured black sand from one vase into the main vase. This website is super helpful and it is also where I purchased our sand ceremony set. I attached a pic of mine too. http://www.sandceremonyset.com/

Oops, I guess hubby and I each had our own vase to pour from. You could do it either way.

Sorry, me again! I wanted to add that we did this after we exchanged rings.

I am doing a sand ceremony also, but we are including our two sons in the ceremony. We will each have our own color plus I think we will do the white to represent God as well, I really like that. I thought about having the mothers hand us our colors but then I will have my stepmom there too and I wouldn't want to leave her out so Idk.

We are doing the same thing as potters, but my parents and his will each have there own small vase to pour from.

The nice thing about sand ceremonies is that you can have a lot of people add sand in different colors. We did ours with just the two of us (we had a couple of the GMs, his brothers, carry our vases of sand, since the BMs had bouquets). But there are lots of sand ceremony sets available with 2-4 pouring vases, and extra vases that you can buy to add, too.

I officiated a beach wedding last evening. The B&G had each been married before, so there were 5 children involved. They had 7 containers of sand (7 colors) and layered the colors into the bottle.

When the B&G want mothers or parents to participate, I speak about the merging of families and then invite the mom/parents to come forward and give the bottles of sand to their children (B&G) and then return to their seats. Then the B&G pour the sand.

We did the sand ceremony as well. 3 colors, one for me, one for shannon and one for his 3 kids. Worked out really well, esp for our windy day! just attached a friends pic since I havent seen the pro pics yet!

I really like the idea of having the moms walk down the aisle with the sand. Our ceremony venue doesn't allow open flames so we might borrow this idea :-) Never thought to use white sand to symbolize God, and using salt is a great alternative to white sand because of all the religious background. I just noticed this was no help lmao but I really like the idea!

There are so many different ways to do this.... as you can tell from previous posts. Do what works for you and your family.