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A favorite Christian wedding tradition is the lighting of the unity candle. The set-up includes three candles: one that represents the bride, one that represents the groom, and one that represents their covenant marriage.
The way that the candles are lit reflects the leaving and cleaving of the bride and groom. Genesis 2:24 says, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
Usually the mothers of the bride and groom light the bride’s and groom’s candles, the two outside candles, to mark the symbolism that out of their families the bride and groom came. This step is most commonly done after the mothers are walked down the aisle and before the bridal party enters.
After the vows are exchanged, or after the pastor pronounces the bride and groom as husband and wife, the bride and groom move towards the candles, each taking their own lit candle and lighting together the middle pillar candle, symbolizing their two lives becoming one.
Being a fairly modern addition to the Christian wedding ceremony, the tradition stems more out of conceptual symbolism than out of historic ritual. For example, the concepts that Jesus is the Light and that we are to let our lights shine before men in order to reflect God’s glory (Matthew 5:16) make the use of flames a poetic depiction of two Christian lives becoming one. Once the two flames merge and create a new flame, there is no way to then separate out the two individual flames. They are inextricably one.
Some prefer to have the candles already lit before the guests enter. This symbolism would lean more towards the candles representing you and your fiancé, and the unity candle symbolizing your one flesh. Having your mothers (or mothers and fathers) light them, however, would lean more towards the candles as symbols of your families. The unity candle would then symbolize the joining of families. Neither choice eradicates the other; it is simply an emphasis on your perspective of the symbolism.
Original Blog Reference available from : http://www.thesweetchristianbride.com/the-tradition-of-the-unity-candle