It’s a wedding tradition to have some sort of unity ritual within one’s wedding ceremony. I think candles are the most common, followed by sand. I have seen a tree planted by my matron of honor at her wedding on their farm. And my parents attended a wedding that used glass that was later blown into a unity sculpture (this sounds so cool!). For our wedding, we made a unity braid. Landon and I truly believe God brought us together and He is equal in our marriage so it made sense that our unity ritual involved God’s knot.
I also like that it is something that can hang in our house as a reminder and a symbol of our wedding and marriage. Sometime last year I put up blue painters tape on the wall just outside our bedroom door. It was temporarily representing the space our unity braid would someday hang along with a few wedding pictures and bible verse. As much as the blue tape grew on me, it definitely became a weird conversation starter every time someone came over!
About a month ago I finally took the plunge to see how much a shadow box frame would cost to be custom made in the measurements I had taped on our wall. $140 was a bit high but I hadn’t really thought about what was a realistic budget. That same day I got the quote at Hobby Lobby, I found a shadow box (in almost identical dimensions no less!) in their aisle with all the other display boxes and frames. It also happened to be 50% off. So I bought it for all of $15. Score! After finding that piece, I had three matching frames already on hand waiting to be used and my wall was set to be completed in no time.
Unity Braid Background
Traditionally, a unity braid uses cords of three colors; gold, purple, and white. Gold stands for God, purple for the groom, and white for the bride. Our wedding colors were navy blue and white so I swapped the purple for navy. Our pastor read the following verses as Landon held the hoop and I braided the chords.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
I love that we have this little wall space outside our bedroom to hang our unity braid. It’s a beautiful daily reminder of our special day and the vow we made to each other and to God.
I love how you incorporated you special day with God’s blessings as a theme for your wall by your room. Thank you for sharing the beautiful story. And it looks awesome!
How did you place your unity braid in the box and what type of box did you use? It sit a simple shadow box?
How were you able to place the braid inside the shadow box upright? I would love any advice or suggestions as we did braided ours in 2015 but haven’t displayed it nicely.
Hi there! I used a small pin (like a sewing pin) to hang the binder hoop that my braid is attached to. That was it! You could definitely use small pins placed all the way down the braid to keep it in place too.