To sand ceremony or not? And, how the heck do you get it home looking nice?

[onourway]

When my fiance first booked the wedding, he was all for the sand ceremony.  Now, that the date is getting closer, we're seconding guessing.  For those that have done this can you give us some ideas?

 

1.  What is worth it?  Meaning, was it too much with the actual wedding ceremony?

2.  How did you get it home?  Did you do the picture frame or the vase?  Did you feel like you wanted to redo it once you arrived home?

 

Thanks

 

Lisa

[clgriffi7]

I am not married yet but I can give you a bride's view that is planning to do it.

 

1.  I have attended local weddings where they did a sand ceremony and I thought it was really meaningful.  At one wedding they actually chose to have many different colors and involve the bride and groom's parents.  (The parents poured first - "laying the foundation")  I also love that this is something tangible that you can keep from your wedding day that you can display next to a framed photo from your wedding day.

 

2.  As for getting it home - I think a frame might be easiest.  I ordered the following frame from etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61083327/unity-sand-ceremony-frame-with-engraving?ref=pr_shop

The frame came with the following instructions (I don't have them with me so I am paraphrasing):  The part of the frame that holds the sand is a clear plastic box that fits into the frame behind the etched glass.  The box is removable and has a hole on one end only.  After filling the box during the ceremony you tape over the hole at the end of the box and flip it over and insert it into the frame.  So now the hole of the box is pointing down and is inside the frame so it cannot empty and the cut-out in the top of the wood frame is now over a solid part of the plastic box.

 

Two things I will do: 1.  After the ceremony I plan on tapping the frame/box to settle the sand as much as possible to fill it up to the brim - repeating a few times if necessary.  This way there will be no need to redo it once you get home.  2.  possibly putting something (like a piece of a cotton ball) between the sand and the tape before I flip the box over to make sure the sand never makes its way past the tape. 

[futuremrstgun]

i was wondering the same thing..after reading this..this sounds like a really great way to incorporate family into the ceremony..hmmm...i might need to seriously reconsider the sand ceremony...

 

we're a blended family...as this is mine and my honey's second wedding so, it would be really cool to have different color sand for the blending of the lives and those of our children...wow!  great ideas!!

 

thanks for sharing!!!

 

R~

[Sharon99]

Thanks for posting this. I was also wondering if we should even bother because I didn't want to have to re-do it when we got home. The frame sounds like a good idea & would be nice to display.

 

[Samantha88k]

Thanks for the help! I have been wondering about this and also worrying how I would get it home without having to re-do it.

[royalbride610]

I did a unity sand ceremony, and it wasn't to much at all.  The ceremony is relatively short, between 10-20 minutes.  It goes by very quickly.  And our sand ceremony only took up about 1-2 minutes of that.  

 

I packed it the same way I got it there.  I packed my dress in my carry-on so I just put the vase in between the folds of my dress so that it was cushioned.  I had no problems during the transport.  My sand looked just fine when I got home.

[deniden]

Up until I read this thread, I was not really interested in doing a sand ceremony until this thread, so thanks for starting it!

 

I love the idea of including the parents in it. I've been trying to think of ways to include my mother and FI's father since we do the dances, etc. with my dad and his mom.

[Evgal]

I really like this sand frame. It's so easy to display.  Thanks for sharing!

[JayKay]

I'm not married but we are doing a sand ceremony.

 

We feel that if we were having a traditional wedding at home we would be doing a unity candle, and this is just a beachy way of doing it on the beach.  I have been to a few weddings where it was done and I just love the meaning behind it.

 

We are using vases, a set from Michaels, which comes with everything needed.  It has a lid thing for the top of the vase so we are going to do that.  Also, we are going to pack down the sand good, then melt a candle on top of it so the sand wont move.  And I figure that if it really looks aweful when we get home we will redo it maybe for our one year anniversary. 

 

[Bride2012]

I am excited about my sand ceremony, we are personalizing the wording as we both have kids and want to incorporate them into our sand ceremony reminding them that they are being blended and unified in our eyes as well. Once we finish I will post, I hadnt seen to many personalized sand ceremonies, since we arent doing our own vows I thought it would be meaning ful.