Your vision is my inspiration

Are you engaged? Congratulations! Planning a wedding (and a whole life together) is exciting. If you are including a ketubah, or Jewish Marriage Contract, as part of your wedding tradition, then you are in for a treat.

A ketubah is a way to plan for the future, both through the vows/promises you are making to each other and through a work of art that you will keep in your home forever.

Creating custom ketubahs is one of my absolute favorite projects. I love working with each couple to tell their love story through art. 

THE PROCESS

You tell me your story & the inspiration behind your ketubah

This includes elements you want to incorporate into your art – it can be a place or multiple places that are special to you, symbols of your relationship, music, items that are meaningful to you, even pets!

I once had a couple who asked me to paint them having a picnic because they are big foodies and picnicking is one of their favorite pastimes. Another couple based their ketubah on their likeness as part of a redwood tree, because they were getting married under one. Yet another couple I had the pleasure of working with based their ketubah on the view from their window. And one of my favorites based their art on contact dancing and their spiritual journey. 

You work on your ketubah text (with my help of course!)

A custom commissioned ketubah includes any text of your choice, so you can choose one of my standard texts, or even write your own. And I am here to help with it, of course.  (Also, check out this hilarious ketubah text that one couple I worked with wrote! Your text can truly be completely your own). 

I start sketching

Once we get together a list of the ideas we want to include in the art, we discuss layout. How your text and your art will coexist in the piece. I will put together a few composition sketches.

We work together to develop the composition based on your favorite of the sketches, until I get it just how you want it.

We discuss colors

I usually ask you to send me some of your favorite color schemes from around the internet, including from my own collection. 

Why a hand painted ketubah?

While I have many beautiful ketubahs in my collection, including my luxury ketubah line, there is nothing quite like the experience of commissioning unique piece art that is created just for you. The custom ketubah process is quite different than ordering an already existing ketubah. With a ready-made ketubah, you pick a ketubah you love and you know exactly what it will look like when you open up that box and unwrap the gold ribbon. With a custom ketubah, you are adding the element of surprise. I will create your custom, hand painted ketubah from scratch and you get to keep the original painting. No one else in the world will have the same ketubah art as you!

A ketubah as unique as your love story

A hand painted ketubah tells your story. Whether you know exactly what you want your custom ketubah to look like, or you don’t even know where to start, I am here to guide you through the process. We will start of with a zoom or phone call (or a coffee date if you happen to be local here in Los Angeles!). I love getting to know my couples and hearing your unique stories. I will draw (pun intended) on your memories, experiences, and stories to come up with a concept and aesthetic that suits both the story you want to tell and your artistic sensibilities. Your hand painted ketubah can be as clean and simple or elaborate and detailed as your heart’s desire!

It’s a partnership!

My job is to make your vision come to life (whether or not you already know what that vision is!). We will work together to nail down a sketch that makes your hearts sing. Then we will discuss color scheme, visual preferences, and more! I will work my tuchus off to make your ketubah is all you dream of, but it’s a joint project so my being able to do my job sometimes requires some homework on your end. Homework can be things like scouring the internet for your favorite images and paintings, so I can get an idea of the kind of art style and color scheme you are drawn to. It can also be sending me pictures of yourselves (an engagement photo shoot is always a special treat for me), or of your favorite things. I get to see many cute pet photos this way!

Get creative!

You would be amazed at the creativity of some of the custom ketubahs I have had the pleasure of painting over the years. You have Herman and Marcie who wanted a really clean, graphic, modern aesthetic for their ketubah. Then there was Dahlya and Aaron who met as teenagers and then reconnected 20 years later to make history. They wanted their ketubah to tell the whole story.   I’ll never forget Davi and Josh who wanted to be represented as their spirit animals on their ketubah! And possibly my favorite, the most humorous and clever ketubah idea of all time came from Andrew and Allison. They got married in the heart of the Covid pandemic and as such couldn’t have any guests at their wedding. Instead, they had their stuffed animals as their guests, and they wanted their ketubah to reflect this! They even sent me a power point of every stuffed animal with the story of when and where they got it and why!

I would love to hear your story!

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