Homemade God’s Knot (Cord of Three Strands)

When planning my daughter’s outdoor wedding, we were a little hesitant to plan a unity candle ceremony for fear it might be a windy day and it would be impossible to keep the candles lit. We debated on some other options, including an idea of pouring sand into containers that we seemed to keep seeing everywhere. We finally settled on another option that we heard about that was the braiding together of three cords.

The most popular version of this is the God’s Knot. You can see an example on the God’s Knot Website

This is based on a verse in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 4:12 to be exact) which says, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

We really liked this verse and the promise and symbolism it contained and it was decided that we would use this in the wedding ceremony. When we looked a little closer at the God’s Knot that was for sale, we agreed it was very attractive, but it was basically and ring and three cords. Maybe . . . we could make our own!

God's Knot Cord of Three Strands

Our Cord of Three Strands went together quickly and our final cost came in at just a little over $10. We used drapery tiebacks that were available at Hobby Lobby for $2.99 each. {* See update below **} We bought one in white, one in gold, and one in beige, but you certainly can use other colors with meaning and symbolism to you. Here’s a picture from the Hobby Lobby website of the tiebacks:

** 3/8/14 Update: Since making this project in the summer of 2011, it appears that Hobby Lobby no longer carries the drapery tie backs I used (the Wrights brand), nor is that product on their website. However here is a link to a similar item on Amazon: Curtain Tieback Ropes

To make the Cord of Three Strands, besides the three tiebacks you will need a ring. We used a 2″ D-Ring from the fabric store. A two pack cost $2.09.  I also used a needle and thread in coordinating colors, a glue gun, and a wire cutter.

Gjod's Knot Cord of Three Strands

The drapery tiebacks have fabric covered wire loops on each end. On one end, pinch the loop together.

God's Knot Cord of Three Strands

Next you will bend the pinched end over the straight side of the D-Ring and then glue it back down onto the cord so that it is attached to the ring, but not actually glued to the ring. After I glued it, I still used a needle and thread to make sure it would hold together really well.

God's Knot Cord of Three Strands

I used my wire cutters and snipped off the loop on the other end of the cord. If you don’t have any kind of wire snippers, a heavy duty scissors could probably do the job. It is not very thick wire. Repeat this with the other two colors of cord.

God's Knot Cord of Three Strands

And here is the final result in use at the wedding. We used a white colored hair elastic to wrap around the end when they were done braiding. (I think we put the preacher in charge of hanging on to that, but I can’t quite remember)

The Cord of Three Strands symbolizes that not only do the man and woman come together and form a union, but with God as the third component, the union has been made even stronger.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

You might also like to read the other wedding articles in this series:
Make Your Own Wedding Jewelry 
Sew your own $5 Bridal Veil Tutorial 

Need a few more bright ideas?
Sign up for the monthly email newsletter to learn about my latest content and tips for frugal homemade living.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

35 Comments

  1. I love the three-cord strand. I want to share with you my anniversary gift-giving for couples at my Church. I use a macrame cord, an “O” ring, and a stained, narrow wooden kitchen cheese/cutting board. I can tell you how I assemble the items I you are interested. It is my designer gift, and I am cautious about sharing.

    1. You are so right. I wondered why she wasted time cutting the loop apart. So simple to just open the “D” ring.

  2. I love it, so I bought the materials. I wanted the actual purple but I couldn’t find it so I pick a peacock color to represent the groom. I also could find a decent size D ring so I bought a Darice gold ring, it’s about the size of a bandle bracelet. I also found some cute items to make it more stylish. I can’t wait to incorporate this beautiful ceremony into our wedding. I want God to be included into this because He is the one who made it possible.

      1. Beverly,
        Do you know how wide these drapery cords are?

        I managed to find one cord at Joanns and its 3/8.

        Thanks!

  3. I just wanted to let you know, I bought those exact cords at Hobby Lobby today in the same colors. They also had black, and dark brown. (:

  4. please inform me of where you got the cords from, I am getting ready to start a marriage ministry at church and I am thinking of getting cords of strands for the women in the ministry that are married

    1. I started doing some searching to reply to your question and have come to the conclusion that Hobby Lobby must no longer carry the drapery cord product I used. The brand I used is “Wrights” and here is a link directly to their site where it looks like it can still be ordered although I don’t know what color selections may still be available. http://www.simplicity.com/p-4201-allison-26-twisted-tieback.aspx?VariantID=10816 I have updated the instructions above to show this as well.

  5. thanks so much! this is great!

    i found the same type of cords at Bed, Bath and Beyond, since there’s no Hobby Lobby near me, and they were $3 each.

    I wanted a dark blue, but not sure if i have time to dye, but it’s nice to know that that is possible!

    i think i might get a metal ring that opens, to avoid the sewing and wire-cutting. we’ll see how it goes!

  6. Have had this page saved for months now! Ready to go buy supplies and make this for my June wedding. Thank you for the detailed list of stuff and tutorial. Appreciate it!

  7. Thank you SO much! Your daughter’s wedding looked beautiful.. I am definitely doing this for mine on 10/13/13. Do you have the words that the preacher said by any chance? That is, how he introduced/explained the ceremony… I’m assuming he also used the verse. Thank you!

    Brooke

    1. Sorry, I don’t have any of the words the preacher used. If you provide the verse, most preachers can do a great job of coming up with some thoughtful and appropriate words on the subject.

  8. Am getting married on friday 12/7/12, and by looking at this site…i end up making my own god’s knot myself..my colors are red n orange so what i did i got red n white and it was impossible to find an orange colot so i bought another white and dyed the white in orange dye and it came out fine.

    1. hello there,
      My fiance and I are trying to do the same thing you did but with lime green. What kind of dye worked for you? Thanks much!

      1. I’m not sure what others have used to dye the cords, but I would wonder if the Rit brand of dye would work. People have used Rit dye to color all sorts of things over the years, so it would certainly be a good place to start. I think it comes in a pretty wide variety of colors too.

  9. Hello Bev
    I am getting married on 12/12/12. I love the idea of adding God to our ceremony. When I seen Gods Knot I wanted it. However to have it shipped to our location would have costed over $50. I took your advice and made mine for $11.37. Thank-you so much for the complete detailed way of how to do this. I love mine.
    In Christ’s Love, Amylynn

    1. With all the costs involved in a wedding it’s nice to be able to save money where you can. Glad you found these instructions helpful!

  10. My wedding is November 10th. I fell in LOVE with this went to hobby lobby today and found my exact wedding colors eggplant, gold, and champaign..cant wait hope it works! really dont feel like spending 40$ cause im paying for my wedding myself! Thanks for the tutorial was a BIG help 🙂

    1. Best wishes for your wedding day! That’s great you found the colors you needed – and you’re saving money too 🙂

  11. Thank you so much for this article, I can't wait to try this! I was thinking 40.00 was a bit too much to pay and I really wanted to use a color other than purple. However, I love the concept. You have made me a VERY happy bride-to-be!

  12. Once you have the supplies you can make this project very quickly. Hopefully you will have time to make it before your wedding. Best wishes to you!

  13. Thank you so much for the DIY! I saw God's Knot while,looking for wedding ideas and fell in love withbeauty and meaning of it. Im getting married Saturday June 23, 2012 and didnt have time to order it but prefer handmade anyway!!

  14. We felt that the color symbolism was not that important either and it was really the act of braiding with the reading of the verse that was more powerful. I also tried this first with rope from the fabric store and the ends fray like mad! The drapery cords with finished ends worked soooo much better.

  15. Nice!!! We also are having an outdoor ceremony and didn't want to take a chance with the unity candle, so we wanted to do the "God's Knot" but they cost $30-$40 and we thought that was insane. I wanted to make our own, but finding PURPLE rope, even at craft stores, is almost impossible. I like the idea of just picking three other colors; you'd have to skip the reading of the color symbolism, but in the end, is that really that important? Thanks for giving us this idea!