UNITY CANDLE
MARRY AND BRIGHT
Lighting the Unity Candle symbolizes the joining together of separate lives. It is the coming together of two families and the merging of two individuals into one married couple, a love that burns jointly.
The Unity Candle is a beautiful way to illuminate for others that two hearts are aflame.
The Unity Candle ceremony is an arrangement of three candles (the centre candle sometimes being larger than the other two). Two taper candles, representing the couple’s individual lives before their wedding day, are lit at the start of the ceremony. These side candles are usually, but not always, lit by the parents or mothers of both partners.
Following the exchange of vows, the Officiant shares a few thoughts about the unity that exists between a couple when they enter into marriage. The newlyweds then light a larger pillar candle using the flames of the tapers, blow out the single candles, and figuratively extinguishing their pasts.
Sometimes the couple chooses not to blow out their candles to symbolize that, even though they are now one, they continue to retain their individuality.