Unity Sand Ceremony

I've mentioned once before that prior to me starting this wedblog I've been following quite a few others. Blogs about food, travel, wedding, the works - and one thing that each blog has in common is information. All these other blogs I've been visiting are very informative and I guess that they serve their purpose - to keep their readers informed.

As I read back on my previous entries, I realized that I have not really shared much information beneficial to any of the good souls reading my senselessness (what a word!). Instead of being informative, I must say it's a wee bit whiny (yes, I am very hard on myself). So with that, here's my first lame attempt at being informative. And what better way to start than with the Unity Sand Ceremony.

I've been getting a lot of blank faces whenever I mention the Sand Ceremony being incorporated to our wedding (even from my husband to be) and based on my research (which I'm very full of) this type of ceremony has not been common to Filipino weddings. The Unity Candle Ceremony has been more well known and widely used in traditional Filipino weddings (I never have gotten a blank face when I mention candles!)...

Here's what Google has to say about the Sand Ceremony:

The Unity Sand Ceremony, a celebration that is usually two to three minutes in length, is a meaningful symbolic joining of two lives. In this timeless ritual of marriage, the couple ceremoniously pours various colors of sand from separate containers into one special container, the unity vase, symbolizing their coming together as one.

It provides a way for couples during their wedding ceremony to brilliantly show the joining of the flow of their two lives into a single stream with their individually colored sands joining as one in the Unity Vase.

Plus, because it can be displayed privately or for all to see for years to come, the symbol of the couple’s love is always present, always a reminder, and always a touchstone of truth. As such, the Unity Sand Ceremony and the unity vase can be treasured forever.

After the ceremony, the vase would look a little something like this:

As opposed to the Unity Candle ceremony, the sand in the vase can become a beautiful keepsake and decorative house interior piece after the ceremony. This picture just shows 2 colored sands representing the bride and the groom but we're going for more colors so more members of our family can participate.

For our wedding, we're planning to have 6 colors 7 participants. If everything goes as planned, the vase should look something like this: (from bottom to top)

1. White sand - to be poured by the Pastor representing God to be the foundation of our marriage
2. Light Blue - for the Groom's family
3. Dark Purple - for the Groom
4. Lavender - for the Bride
5. Light Pink - for the Bride's family
6. Gray - for the 2 sand sponsors (extended family members)

To show our personalities, we're also planning on using a wine bottle as our unity vase, a beer mug for the groom's sand, a wine glass for the bride's sand, and regular glasses for the other participants all of which can be reused and abused after the wedding.

Well as of writing all this are still plans and we haven't really started on looking for the things we need, so as far as this being informative is concerned I'll say "a lack therefore!". But hey, its a perfectly "lame" attempt! I'll be posting progress when we have one. :D