Posted by
Hows about a little chemistry with your unity ceremony?
A 5th grade science activity can make a meaningful and exciting unity ceremony! See what happens when one couple decided to conduct a unity ceremony... Read more
Unity cocktails, unity wine boxes, unity candles, unity science projects, and even unity sandwiches — damn we love us some uniting! We've rounded up a few of our newest offbeat unity ceremonies for your own ceremony schemes (including Keith and Corianton's lumberjack-inspired ceremony above!). Let's see what offbeat couples have been dreaming up.
Beer unity ceremonies
Meghan and Kristian also rocked a frosty mug for their unity cocktail.
Unity box letters
Makenna and Yvonne decided to include surprise letters from their wedding party into their unity box ceremony as an added bonus to when they open the box later.
Elemental ceremony
A unity ceremony with glass and 2100 degrees of heat: you're going to want to see this
What if I told you that you can take a unity ceremony to a seriously higher level by crafting up your own custom, totally unique,... Read more
Karen and Frank's elven-inspired wedding featured a little ritual: an elemental unity ceremony. They utilized the elements of fire, earth, air, and water during their wedding, which fits beautifully with their other-worldly theme.
Hand-washing ceremony
Offbeat Bride reader Adrianne informed us about a special unity ceremony she did with her partner: a hand-washing ceremony with a bowl of water and flowers.
Vow-burying ceremony
From sand to science: 14 unity ceremonies to symbolize your new partnership
A friend recently asked me for some unity ceremony ideas. She already knew about sand ceremonies, but she wanted some different suggestions to symbolize the... Read more
Tara and Landon exchanged vow books, which they read silently, and then adapted their unity ceremony from an Australian stone ceremony. The couple buried gemstone hearts (Tara's was rose quartz, Landon's was jade) in the glacier, symbolizing the bond of their marriage lasting through the ebb and flow of time. D'aw… brrrr.
Tree-planting ceremony
Sarah and James planted a special tree to honor their love:
Out in the woods, our celebrant did a blessing for us and we read our own vows before all of our guests tied a ribbon to a “wishing tree” and made a wish for us. Then, despite the horrible weather that day, we went out into the fields and planted our own cherry blossom tree. Some of the important women in our lives read “Thoughts In A Garden” by R. Gerhardt which was really fitting for our service. We can go visit our tree each year on our anniversary.
Unity puzzle
Clara & Justin had a Vesica Piscis puzzle for their unity ceremony, in which they placed each of the pieces together.
Unity blanket suture
Let's hear how Megan and Tom linked up blankets, surgery, and grandma:
My grandma gave me a baby blanket 27 years ago and when I went to live in Prague, I cut it in half, giving Tom one half and keeping the other.
On our wedding day, we symbolically sutured the blanket back together with Tom's tools (he's training to be a surgeon). Grandma loved it.
Want more unity ceremony ideas?
About the Author: Catherine Clark
Catherine Clark loiters at her local library, makes art, watches movies en masse, plays video and tabletop games, poorly cooks healthy things, cuddles with her feline fur babies, and blogs at BijouxandBits.com.
Sorta considering a handwashing ceremony just because I can’t get my ring on my finger unless it’s wet (the jeweler remembers me as “the girl with the knuckle”). But that’s probably not a great reason to choose a particular unity ritual! ^_^
My husband and I did a salt ceremony. We both loved the symbolism of salt and the idea of creating an unbreakable covenant with each other by mixing salt together (in times long past, some agreements were sealed by mixing salt, and the idea was that only when you could find and retrieve your own grains of salt [not possible] could the covenant be broken). After our wedding, we had so many people come up to us and tell us how much they loved it and how moved they were by it! One of my bridesmaids even said she was stealing the idea for her own wedding 🙂
We wrote our own ceremony and had our officient use the following wording for our salt ceremony, which we performed after we read our vows and exchanged our rings:
“The exchanging of rings and the reading of vows has seen that [Groom] and [Bride] are now bonded in matrimony! Friends, family, please stand as this couple – new in holy union – joins me in something a little different: a salt covenant.
Salt is a simple mineral, but it’s also a divine substance. We often take it for granted, but think of all the amazing things salt can do: it can season, cure, and seal. It can flavor, purify, and preserve. All very important elements in a marriage. Salt is precious and symbolic of incorruptibility and permanence. And a covenant of salt signifies an everlasting – and unbreakable – bond. See, in biblical times, salt was used to seal contracts. Each person would bring with them a bag of salt, recite the details of their covenant, and then mix the grains of salt together.
From that moment, the only way the contract could be broken is if both people could identify and retrieve their own individual grains of salt – a feat that is, of course, impossible. So once the covenant of salt is spoken and made, as it has been today, it is bound on earth and recorded in heaven.
[Bride and Groom]: Just as these grains of salt are forever joined together, so too are your hearts and your lives.”
We pulled the Master Sword from Ocarina of Time out of a Pedestal of Time that my husband built. And now the sword hangs on our wall.