If you and your spouse-to-be are interested in highlighting your commitment to one another in a unique way during your wedding ceremony, then you might consider performing a special unity ritual. These rituals are symbolic gestures of love, and they serve as a wonderful opportunity for you and your future partner to profess your dedication to each other. Here are our favorite 5 unity rituals that you can add to your wedding ceremony.

Hand-Fasting

In this simple ritual, the bride and groom join hands as the officiant wraps a cloth around their wrists and clasped fingers. This ritual serves as a symbolic representation of the joining of the couple’s lives. While you can use any fabric for the task, some couples choose cloth imbued with meaning, such as a baby blanket or clothing piece.

Wine Box

For this particular ritual, a couple picks out a bottle of wine and place it within a box, along with love notes or letters from friends or family. They then seal the box during the ceremony and then promise to only open it on their first anniversary or during a particularly challenging time in their lives. 

Exchanging Roses

This simple and beautiful ritual involves the bride and groom exchanging roses during the ceremony. Traditionally, red roses are associated with love and romance, and the exchange of roses serves as a reminder of the couples’ shared love.

Sand Ceremony

The sand or salt ceremony is one of the most popular unity rituals. Traditionally, the bride and groom are given two jars filled with two different colors of sand. The bride and groom pick up their respective jars and pour the sand into a single vessel—the two colors (or types of sand) mixing, symbolizing the joining of the two lives. Salt, which some cultures consider sacred, can also be used for this ritual. This then can be a wonderful keepsake for a couple.

Tree Planting

For this ritual, the bride and groom are given a small potted plant or tree during the ceremony. Once the ceremony is over, the couple takes the small tree home with them and plants it in their yard—this serves as a gesture of the couple’s commitment to one another, and it serves as a symbolic reminder of the couple’s growing love.