Unity Candle

This works best as an INDOOR wedding element.

Three candles represent each one of you and your marriage. You will use your individual candles to light the large candle in the center. When you marry you do not lose your personal identity – therefore, all three candles will remain lit.

Items needed: 2 tapers and 1 pillar candle with holders, lighter or stick matches, small dish or ashtray for extinguishing matches if needed.

The Unity candle before us symbolizes your marriage, the union of your lives, families, and friends, as well as your commitment to each other, and to a lasting and loving marriage. The individual candles here represent all that makes each of you the wonderful and unique person the other admires and respects.

(Couple may light their own candles or we can invite the parents or mothers to come up and light the candles, then return to their seats.)

The flames of these two candles are distinct: each burning alone, individual and unique. They represent the wisdom and love you have received from your parents and families up to this point in your lives. They also represent your own personalities and all that makes you who you are, your past, present and future potential.

As your two flames are merged and you light the central candle, remember that your individual selves will remain burning and bright even as you become unified in your lives together.

(Couple use their candles to light the central candle and replaced in their holders still lit.)

There is a Navajo Wedding reading that says:
“Now you have lit a fire and that fire should not go out.
The two of you now have a fire that represents love, understanding and a philosophy of life.
It will give you heat, food, warmth and happiness.
The new fire represents a new beginning – a new life and a new family.
The fire should keep burning; you should stay together.
You have lit the fire for life, until old age separates you.”