THE SAND CEREMONY represents leaving two separate lives and joining to make one life together. The separate lives are symbolized by two vases of sand, in different colors. The Bride and Groom come together, and pour into one vase, two individual colors of sand. Their flowing together creates a design made by the couple as they share their first experience of unity as husband and wife. The newly formed union is represented by the intertwined pattern of sand created by the couple. This symbol is then a keepsake of their wedding day.

Jorge and Lorraine

At our first interview, I found out that this couple met on a beach. The sand ceremony was perfect for them. Not only that, but each was bringing two children into the marriage. When I asked them what was most important to them about the ceremony, they said they wanted everyone to know how they overcame obstacles to be together, and they also wanted their guests to know that as of this, their wedding day, they have blended two families into one.

I asked the children, “What’s your favorite color?” When they told me, I got packages of sand in each of the four colors. Jorge and Lorraine wanted natural sand, from the beach, to commemorate their first meeting. The children came up to the table where the four small vases, filled with colored sand, surrounded the large vase where the sand would be poured, blended into one and taken home as a keepsake and memento of this beautiful ceremony and important day.

As each one of the children, (from the eldest to the youngest) poured their individual vases of sand into the ‘unity vase’, the sand formed a wondrous pattern, much like a lava lamp, with undulating colors and patterns. After the children poured their sand, mom and dad added theirs as well.

How did the sand ceremony affect this occasion? When the photographer was getting ready to snap the first after-ceremony shot of the blended family, three of them yelled, “La arena, la arena”, ‘the sand, the sand.” They didn’t want to take their first picture without the perfect symbol of their now blended families – their vase of colorful sand.