What is a sand-blending ceremony?

A sand-blending ceremony, or unity sand ceremony, emerged as a new wedding ritual in the 1980s as a variant of the unity candle ceremony popular within the Catholic church. As more and more Catholic wedding ceremonies in the USA moved outdoors, there became a problem that needed to be solved. During the traditional unity candle ceremony, the bride and groom use their individual tapers to light a single church candle to represent their unity in marriage. Fine when inside a church - but the flame often blows out when outside.

The enterprising answer, was to get couples to blend together two vials of sand into a larger central container. Their individual grains of sand blending together became the new symbol of their endless unity. Once blended, the individual grains of sands cannot be parted.

There is now commercially available a wide range of different sand ceremony vessels in all shapes and sizes that can be used for a wedding or vow renewal. You can even get them personalised with names. The final blended sand vessel becomes a beautiful keepsake for the couple to display as a sign of their wedded unity in their home.

The sand to be blended can come from any source. Perhaps collected together by the couple from their favourite beach where they might have holidayed together. Differently coloured dyed sand can be bought and used to make the blending of the sands together even more visual.

Today, the sand-blending ceremony is particularly popular when the couple want children to be involved in the wedding ceremony. It could be the couple’s own children when we are “Marrying Mum and Dad” or it could be the children from a previous relationship so that the sand ceremony becomes even more symbolic of their modern and blended family. The sand-blending ceremony then becomes an opportunity for the adults to make loving parental vows to the children, in addition to their vows to each other.

The sand-blending ceremony could be one of your three mini-ceremonies which I include in the “Unique & Stunning Wedding Ceremony” option or it could part of the “Modern Vow Renewal Ceremony” package. Feel free to get in touch to find out more.