We wanted to do something different from the typical Unity Candle and Unity Sand, I mean we were getting married at the Grand Canyon! As I searched Google & Pinterest I found some pretty unique Unity Canvases that couples painted by hand, or by throwing paint at a canvas. It got wild.

So an idea clicked!

At the time, my dad was really getting into the "Pour" technique. Every day he was sending me a new photo of one of his poured art pieces and it made me think this could work! So I tasked him with coming up with how to make it work. As you can see from the above photo we used a 12x12 canvas that was held up on 2 wood boards so we could move the piece from side to side after the pour.

I love this project because it's easy enough to do, surprisingly not too messy, and creates a one of a kind art piece for the home.

This was the perfect way to symbolize the joining of our families and hangs in our home in a prominent place.

Things You'll Need:

• Pour paint.

  • We used 5 different colors including white.

  • Each color represented our parents

• Tall Vase or

• Canvas

  • We kept it small with a 12"x12"

• Something to catch the excess paint with - you'll see in the photos the wood tray.

• Handles fo the Canvas - K.I.S.S. - We didn't want to possibility get paint all over our wedding day outfits so my dad just added some wood slabs on the back of the canvas.

How we did it:

1. Each parent got their own color to pour into the Unity Vase.

2. In between each color Yorle and I poured a little bit of white paint. I'm not sure if this is necessary but I think it helped from not being a a big brown mess!

3. The vase was then poured onto the canvas by Yorle and I.

4. We used the wood handles to move the the poured paint around on the canvas.

What we'd do differently:

Not much! The Unity Canvas was such a fun and different part of the ceremony. But just a few notes:

• If you're traveling, like we were. Have a nice snug box to put the canvas in while it's drying. Ours moved around in the bus and has a few smudges.

• The extra white paint probably wasn't too necessary.

• Select a few bright colors and at least one color that's a darker base. For example, our blue could have been darker to help create more contrast.

I love our Unity Canvas because it ended up looking like the our galaxy. Which is how I look at our family, each member of our family and friends are represented in the swirls and dots and they make up our galaxy, just like we make up theirs.

Other Favorite Design Touches

Photography by: GMitchell Photography