Junie and Avner's Chicago Honeycomb Pavilion Ketubah

They became friends first, then eventually started dating, having had the fun challenge of spending some of those early days dating in Covid lockdown. Imagine the stories they’ll have for their future grandkids (tfu tfu tfu!).

When Junie met Avner for the first time, she had this strange gut feeling that he was going to be a very important person in her life.  At the time, she thought that meant finding her footing in a new city and making a new friend, but clearly it became much more than that - every step of their journey just felt “so right” to her.

For Avner there was no one moment when he knew Junie was “the one”, but every step of their relationship felt completely natural. When they moved in together, it felt like they had been living together for years. Marrying her was obvious after that!

Julie and Avner's Ketubah

Julie and Avner are an interfaith couple, so they wanted to respect the tradition of the ketubah while creating a piece of art that felt like it represented what they stood for as a couple. They also knew that they wanted their custom hand painted ketubah to tie Chicago and their specific venue into the art without being too overt because that's the backdrop to their love story.

Here are some of the ideas we brainstormed on our first call:

Julie and Avner were getting married in the iconic Honeycomb Pavilion in Lincoln Park (also known as the Peoples Gas Pavilion, a name none us approve of). 

The geometric design of this amazing structure immediately got my creative juices flowing. Here are some layout idea sketches I sent Junie and Avner:

Sketch C was a winner! Julie and Avner also wrote a beautiful custom text for their ketubah, so that their marital contract would reflect their values and promises to each other for the future of their relationship. We translated their unique text to Hebrew for them. 

I was so excited to start painting. I loved working on the abstract ketubah. Painting each layer of the pattern was truly meditative and mesmerizing, I felt like I was in a trance, in the best kind of way. 

What was your favorite moment of the wedding day?

Getting Married!! But more broadly, being able to celebrate with all of our favorite people at once - it was truly an incredible experience. Specifically, the moment we re-entered air conditioning after our very muggy ceremony. We got to step away from everyone, eat some delicious bites, try our signature cocktails, and breathe a sigh of "we did it" and finally get to put all of the work behind us and celebrate together.

What advice would you give to other couples just starting the wedding planning process?

100% recommend a day-of coordinator (if not a planner) - just having a professional to bounce ideas/questions off of is so hugely helpful. We wanted to do anything we could to minimize stress day-of! Whether that means delegating things to friends/family or going simpler on the planning, it's so worth being able to set aside all the logistics on the wedding day and just take it all in! Also, you'll be told upfront that there's a lot of decisions that aren't set in stone yet - it'll make life easier if you try to choose as if it's the final decision early in the process.

Tell me something that happened at your wedding or wedding planning that you wouldn’t want published in the New York Times

Our dog, Bean lost our car key at Welcome Drinks (kind of)... they were clipped to his leash and fell off at some point. Fortunately they were recovered and we were able to resolve this before the wedding! Phew! 

Avner and Junie's gorgeous wedding photos are by Ed and Aileen Photography. 

Mazel Tov Junie and Avner! Wishing you a lifetime of crisp fall days, adventures with Bean, scenic hikes, baseball games, travel, laughter and love! L'chaim!