Wedding sand ceremony – a great way to beat the wind, enhance your beach theme, and keep the park ranger happy at the same time.

Unity candles don’t always work well with outdoor events so you may want to consider a wedding sand ceremony or a similar alternative. Wind makes it hard to keep candles lit and many outdoor venues limit open flames because of fire hazards. Just check with the park service or whoever controls access to the place you’ll be using for details.

In any case, that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. There are different alternatives to using unity candles that communicate the same message – that the two of you are becoming one in marriage.

If you’re having your wedding outside at the beach, it may even enhance your beach theme to use the wedding sand ceremony. Plus, you can save a little and add some originality to your big day because this can become an easy do it yourself project as well. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Typically, in a unity candle ceremony, two smaller candles (often lit by the mothers of the bride and groom) are used to light a larger unity candle, signifying the new creation resulting from the bride and groom becoming one in marriage.

Vases for a wedding sand ceremony can be saved for display long after your wedding day is over.

In a wedding sand ceremony, the bride and groom each have a small vase filled with sand. They pour the sand into a larger vase to signify becoming one. There are variations here as well. You can use the same color of sand for both or you can each use a different color of sand. It looks great if you alternate pouring the different colors of sand to create levels of color stacked as shown in the picture on this page.

You can also use water as a unity candle alternative. Using vases as described above, some couples put colored water (different colors for each) in each vase, pouring it into a third larger vase to create a new color.

That’s a good idea, too, but there’s an advantage to using the wedding sand ceremony. You can keep the larger vase and use it as a centerpiece or a display in your home for years to come.

Not only is this a good alternative, but it can be an easy do it yourself project as well. You can find the vases at a local craft store. You should be able to find colored sand there as well. If you’re using water, a little food coloring will do the trick.

If there is a disadvantage here, it’s that you may not be able to personalize the larger vase very easily. But this is not a huge deal. That’s mostly for you. The audience won’t be able to see any personalization very well from a distance and, quite frankly, it probably wouldn’t matter to them anyway. So don’t be hindered by that if this is a good option for you – especially if saving money is important.

As long as the location allows it, you may still be able to use traditional unity candles if you have hurricane lamps as shown in the picture. But if not, the wedding sand ceremony is a great alternative that symbolizes your new union and leaves you with a centerpiece you can display to bring back great memories for years to come.