No Unity Candle

bmw0014

My fiance and I have talked about not having a unity candle or sand ceremony, but I really like the idea of taking communion. Would communion for the two of us serve as a suitable alternative? It's going to be a very simple church service with maybe two musical performances by close friends and that's it.

twilight.rose

I think that sounds lovely.

We didn't do a unity candle either, and I don't think anyone even noticed, so don't worry about not having a unity ceremony!

[Deleted User]

It depends on the church or pastor/priest. We weren't allowed to have a unity candle and we got married in a Catholic church.

bethsmiles

Many couples do communion in their ceremony. There is no need to do any sort of unity candle.

trix1223

As Missy said:  it completely depends on your church.  In the Presbyterian church, communion is not served at weddings, and is never served to just two people. 

We believe that communion is one of the two sacraments of the church (the other being baptism), and that's it's a sacrament to be shared by the congregation. So I think you'd be hard pressed to find a Presbyterian church anywhere that would both serve communion during a wedding, and exclude the congregation from communion.

You need to check with your church to see if this is permitted by their doctrine.

JCM10

I've never heard of a church that saw it as acceptable for only the couple to take communion; I know the Catholic and Methodist churches don't.

adrianne619

We're not having a unity candle...but we are reading a poem together and sort of "demonstrating" the poem with a vase of rose petals that will have our rings inside....
okay that sounds weird..
There is a poem that talks about giving away pieces of yourself to everyone, but you always hold one peice until you know exactly who its meant for, because you become whole when your "pieces" join together.  So we have a square vase of rose petals that we will scatter around the "altar" area while we recite, and pull out our rings at the end. 
We're not doing a church ceremony, obviously, but I think it will be a creative alternative to the sand or unity candle.