I like the unity candle thing. We didn't do that because it wasn't practical to try candles on the beach in the wind ;~D Maybe we could have done sand ;~D
But, we needed ours to be short and quick. We didn't have chairs on the beach for the guests, they were standing. Kept it to just a brief blessing, vows, and done in about 6 minutes.
I'd never seen the sand thing before. It was a good analogy, nice symbolism, but I like the candle thing better, and I also think one or the other would have been enough.
Becky
I was bad during the wedding. When they went to lite thier candle, I whispered the story to my kids of a cousin of mine who did that at her wedding and as she turned away her veil brush the candle and caught fire. That material a veil is made of burns fast, luckily the groom smacked her in the head, (LOL) fast enough and put it out. I had the kids laughing and Mack had to tell us to behave:)
Becky