Miller Photography Inc.: Sand Ceremonies at Weddings, Richmond, VA

A newer tradition at weddings is becoming very popular. The sand ceremony is slowly rivaling the unity candle lighting tradition. The origin of this ceremony is widely disputed, but all origins see it as a way of uniting the couple and their families at a wedding ceremony.

Some say that the tradition started in Hawaii, where couples would get married on the beach. Both the bride and groom would scoop up some sand from the beach and put it in a container. Native Americans also claim their part in this tradition by doing something similiar as those in Hawaii did. Probably the most Americans learned about this tradition from the popular television show, "The Bachorlette," when Trista and Ryan Sutter performed the ceremony live at the conclusion of the television show and at the end of their real wedding.

No matter where the tradition began, more and more couples at taking advantage of this newer tradition where outside weather conditions don't allow for lit candles, inside locations don't want lit candles, and the couple would like a keepsake of their "joining" together. There is a wide variety of colors of sand and containers that can have the couples' names and wedding dates engraved on the outside of the containers.