"___________________ and ________________ the two lighted candies symbolize your separate lives, your separate families and your separate sets of friends. I ask that you each take one candle and that together you light the center candle. The individual candies represent your individual lives before today. Lighting the center candle represents that your two lives are now joined to one light, and represents the joining together of your two families and sets of friends to one."

If Children Are Involved
"The lighting of the center candle represents not only the union of ____________ and ___________ in marriage, but the unity formed in this new family in which your lives will now shine as one family.

Pastor:
And now, let us participate in another symbolic act. Life is full of many such actions that speak to us of a deeper meaning that we cannot always put into words. You have used ancient symbols in this wedding service—the exchange of rings, the clasping of hands, the bearing of flowers. By such things you act instead of speak in regard to your promises. Now each of you will take a candle. And together you will light one larger candle. This is a vivid reminder that in true Christian marriage our lives are merged, even as we remain individuals.This is a symbolic prayer that God will enhance your own personhood and bless your uniqueness as individuals: but that God will also make of your hands ONE hand...of your hearts ONE heart...and of your lives ONE life.