A Hindu Jewish Ketubah for Rebecca and Vinayaka

Meet Rebecca and Vinayaka. This beautiful couple wanted an interfaith ketubah that would honor and celebrate their respective backgrounds and religions: Jewish and Hindu. 

Little did they know that I am fascinated with Indian culture and art and henna patterns are often the inspiration behind many of my most intricate ketubah designs! I even have a specifically India inspired ketubah in my ketubah collection. Rebecca and Vinayaka decided to commission a completely original hand-painted ketubah, so that I would tell their unique story and no one else would have the same ketubah design. 

We started off with brainstorming the most important elements that this beautiful couple wanted to make sure to include in their ketubah art:

• Tree of life (maybe "Love Tree" with couple)
• Henna Patterns
• 8 Gods that guard 8 directions (maybe as a border)
• Mountains
• Hot air balloon (for sure!!)
• lotus
• marigold
• Om symbol
• Shri symbol

I got to work and presented them with a few sketches:

Sketch 3 was the winner. Plus Vinayaka and Rebecca decided to include a "Love Tree" in their ketubah. A Love Tree is a signature artistic element I introduced back when I first started painting ketubahs -- it was a creative way for me to combine my background as a figurative and portrait painter with my newly found love of traditional Judaica and Ketubah art. In fact, I have a full Love Tree Ketubah Collection! 

In Judaism, The Tree of Life (Etz haChayim עץ החיים) is a mystical symbol. It is used in Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) to describe the path to G-d or holiness. Inspired by this concept, I paint the happy couple with their bodies blending into one, intertwined with the roots and trunk of a beautiful tree -- a symbol of their relationship, their connection, their love and passion for each other and the journey on which they are setting forth together.

I asked Rebecca and Vinayaka for a favorite photo of the two of them to use as a reference for their custom Love Tree. This is the gorgeous photo they sent me:

Next we worked on ketubah text. We made the ketubah in English, Hebrew, and Hindi! 

For their color pallette, Rebecca and Vinayaka chose to go with jewel tones to match their gorgeous wedding color scheme. I got to work on their custom ketubah. I was especially excited to dig in and spend lots of meditative time painting all the intricate henna patterns. 

 

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Rebecca and Vinayaka loved their custom hand painted ketubah! I was thrilled when they shared photos of their beautiful wedding with me. These gorgeeoooouuus photographs are by Jonas Seaman Photography. 

Mazel Tov Rebecca and Vinayaka! Thank you for choosing me as your ketubah artist. I had a blast working on your very unique Hindu Jewish Ketubah. May your marriage be blessed with many more joyful, colorful moments. L'chaim!