Developing Our Unity Ceremony

     As we began thinking about incorporating a unity ceremony into our wedding, I think we knew more about what we didn't want than we did about what we did want.  We didn't want to do the candle thing because you blow out the candle after the wedding...and I don't like the idea of that.  We thought about sand, but that wasn't really us...and how could we pick just two colors? (I mean, Matt would obviously be orange, but how could I choose?) The same was true for salt...though I did like the symbolism associated with salt. (In biblical times, merchants would make covenants by swapping a little bit of salt into one another's salt pouches. As long as the salt from merchant A couldn't be separated from the salt belonging to merchant B, the deal was binding.)

Sushi Ceremony?!

     After a lot of thought, we came up with a fun and unique idea...we wanted to make sushi!  First of all, we love sushi. Second, Matt had been learning how to make it. Third, how many people can say that they made sushi at their wedding? It was perfect! I wrote up a whole reading created that explained the symbolism behind everything that was going into the sushi. Here's a few excerpts:

About Making a Meal Together:

"Creating a meal together is a bonding ritual that people engage in to show their appreciation for one another. This act is symbolic as various ingredients, such as different aspects of their own personalities, are combined to create an incredible dish of love. This dish must be prepared using s traditional recipe, meeting, courting, falling in love, but to make the dish truly your own, you must add in your favorite seasonings, such as laughter."

About a Higher Power and Family:

"To make a sushi roll, the couple begins with a sushi mat. Without this, the couple could never create the sushi, it is an integral part of the process of coming together, and represents a higher power. Next the couple lays down a sheet of “nori” or seaweed. This will be the part of the dish that encircles everything inside and holds things together when everything seems to fall apart. The nori represents family." 

"After rolling theses ingredients together, they will cut them into 6 pieces. 2 are given to Johnica’s parents, and 2 to Matt’s parents. The remaining 2are  eaten by the couple themselves.  This act of ingestion as a unit represents the melding of the two families who will each have grown larger after this day."

About the Rice:

"Next, the couple adds sushi rice to the roll. Rice is traditionally thrown at weddings because it represents protection, fertility, and money. Things that all newly wedded couples need! The rice also holds things together, much like the nori, but it also fills up the roll, and gives it substance and a very distinct flavor. The rice represents their love for one another as it protects them from harm, prepares them for creating a family of their own, and sustains them with enough wealth for a comfortable living."

About the Salmon:

"Now the couple will add salmon to the roll. Salmon has long been considered a symbol of knowledge, wisdom, and determination. Fish in general are deeply symbolic in a religious sense, and have come to represent things such as happiness, luck, creativity, adaptability, faith, and unity. The salmon in this dish represents all of the things that make them unique individuals as well as a unique couple."

About the Veggies:

"Finally, the couple adds in vegetables to represent themselves, the cucumber represents Johnica because it is green in color and represents life…which is her passion to study. The carrot represents Matt because it is orange (or course!), and because it is full of starches, just like Matt is full of energy."

     Sadly, in the end it was going to be too costly, and too cumbersome for an outdoor wedding, in Texas, in July. (Plus not all of the parents were as excited about eating sushi as Matt and I were.) So we scrapped that idea (despite its obvious awesomeness) and continued looking for something else.

Family Flowers

   Upon further research, I found where some people had used roses for unity ceremonies.  Many people, apparently, will have a batch of white roses on one side and red roses on the other. The couple would take one rose from each and put them together into another vase to symbolize their unity and the joining of their families.  We decided to use colorful faux gerber daisies (as I don’t like roses, and we weren’t using real flowers) to symbolize our unity and the coming together of our families. 

      As you know, we had six wedding colors, so we needed a flower of each color. Each of us comes from a family of four.  We decided that we would have our mothers hold the flowers that represented us...orange for Matt, and pink for me. (Why pink you ask? Because I wanted my side to have the pink, blue, and purple and Matt's side to have the orange, green, and yellow...and my dad and brother really didn't want to have to hold a pink flower. :p) Our fathers held the flowers to represent our parents....green for the Matt's and purple for mine.  Our brothers represented...well...themselves.  Derek (Matt's brother) held yellow, while Jake (my brother) held blue.

     One of our mutual friends is set to read the symbolism of the flowers before the ceremony starts.  The plan from there is for another friend to sing a Phil Collins song that I love as Matt and I go collect the flowers from our respective sides, hug our family members, and return to the center to place the flowers in a single vase together. The vase has six different colored ribbons tied around its neck to represent the individuals coming together.

Tying the Vase and Making the Flowers 

     We found the vase at a garage sale for a dollar.  Using the six colored ribbons from Micheal's that I had used for everything else, I tied on a pretty bow. Like the flowers, the bow represented the coming together of our families. I had three colors on one side of the bow and the other three on the opposite side.  I really liked the idea of the six colors being tied together in a bow that surrounded the vase for our unity ceremony. 

     To make the flowers, we purchased six faux gerber daises from Hobby Lobby. (Yes, the same ones that I got for the bridesmaids.) I cut the stems and wrapped each of them in a matching colored ribbon.  I hot-glued the ribbons down and that was that!