Shachar and Shalini's Custom Day and Night Papercut Ketubah
Shalini and Shachar's love story is a meet-cute worthy of Hollywood. Once upon a time, two strangers were seated next to each other on a 6 AM flight from Cleveland to Boston. He was traveling for work, she was flying for her sister’s birthday. A book she was reading for her book club sparked conversation. They ended up talking the entire flight. But, despite the strong connection, Shalini and Shachar lost touch, as is usually the story with such chance encounters.
But fate had another plan!
I can only imagine the looks on their faces when they ran into each other by total chance at a restaurant years later. The rest is history!
Shalini felt Shachar was special from the first day she met him. But she knew for sure that he was the one after spending a Christmas holiday stranded in a snow storm in Buffalo at her parents' home with Shachar, her parents, daughters, dogs and sister. Not only did they survive, but they had a great time despite losing power and being stuck in the house with the whole family for the entire weekend. She knew then that he was a keeper!
For their ketubah, Shalini and Shachar wanted to create a beautiful and meaningful piece of artwork that would be full of symbolism of significant events, illustrate aspects of their life together, and celebrate their backgrounds.
Here is what we came up with during our brainstorming session:
- Blue coming from one side
- Gold coming from other side
- Moon or Star of David on one side Gold coming from Om sign
- Simple/Elegant/Classy
- Asymmetric but balanced
- Met on an airplane!
- heart and paw print tattoo from Bark Mitzvah
- Butterflies
- Maybe a tiny bit of henna
- Ocean/Beach for Nahariya, Israel
- Sun/Sand for yellow gold
I got to work sketching.
Since so much of their concept was connected to color and background, I decided it would make more sense to create a digital mockup rather than a pencil sketch like I usually do.
Here is the first round of sketches I sent them:
Seeing the mockups helped Shachar and Shalini get a very clear sense of what they wanted, so they guided me until we make their final layout mockup, including even a photo of the beachside in Nahariya and photo of a beautiful sunset from their trip to Maui :
They gave the green light and I got right to work!
Shalini and Shachar say that the most important values in their marriage are trust and balance.
They feel that their ketubah captures their devotion from the intertwined couple and the balance illustrated by the contrast of light/dark and sunrise/moonlight.
They signed their ketubah at the Henna party:
And their ketubah even got dressed up for the wedding day using the garlands that they exchanged during the Hindu portion of their wedding ceremony, isn't that beautiful?
Shachar wrote descriptions of all the symbolism in the ketubah for their guests at the wedding, how cool is that??
Shachar and Shalini said the best thing about their wedding was how their families, who had never met previously, melded together effortlessly.
Here is their advice for couples just starting out in the wedding planning process:
Listen to your partner, be willing to flexible with one another and trust the process. Your wedding day is a beautiful celebration of your love. In the end, it is not the details that people will remember, but the love and happiness that they see between you two.
Gorgeous wedding photos are by Edric Morales, EM photography.
Shachar and Shalini, I am so honored that I got to tell your amazing story in your unique and whimsical ketubah! May you continue to be each other's Yin and Yang, and may your marriage be blessed with joy, laughter, adventure, family, and many more romantic coincidences! Mazel Tov!
Want to learn more about commissioning a one-of-a-kind ketubah or a painting to commemorate a special moment all of your own? Knock on my inbox! Emails make my day.
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