We recently had the pleasure of working with a couple who was looking to display their Ketubah at their wedding reception, and wanted to work with our artists to create the perfect work of art to compliment the style and color theme. We were excited to face this challenge, but it also made us realize: this Ketubah will be about far more than matching the reception, but matching the couple themselves! An awesome modern ketubah is more than skin deep.

Finding the color scheme for your wedding can be confusing and a maybe even a little frustrating—where do you start? How do you know what is too dark and what is too light? Will the tablecloth match the centerpieces match the carpet? Will a color come off as too harsh or cheesy? How can I look modern without giving the cold shoulder to tradition?

Every now and then we find a great resources for wedding planning that goes above and beyond the typical “Check out our vendor list!” (though we love them too!). For that, we thank wedding planner extraordinaire Preston Bailey for his incredible What’s Your Color Story wedding palate picker. This tool is everything we are all about: rich color, tasteful design, and personal meaning.

With an uber-easy to use design layout, the This Is Not a Ketubah team has fallen in love with this awesome tool, and we’re excited to share it with our couples here with our other design musings. As a modern art collective ourselves, we know the importance of well planned and well executed colorful works of art.

By calling on modern masters to create some awesome fun designs for all types of couples, we think sharing Preston’s color palate selector is great for any wedding type—Jewish or otherwise! We’d love to work with you a personalized custom Ketubah that matches your wedding in every way possible: color theme, and your own passions and interests.

In the mean time, have a meaningful Yom Kippur!

Jacob
Team Ketubah

Converse makes everyone feel like an All-Star. A Converse-inspired wedding? Count me in! Being part of the Jewish Wedding universe means lots of Shanah Tovah-ing this time of year, plus the added bonus of stumbling across some truly incredibly wedding pictures.

Check out this awesome wedding we found with awesome California-nerdy style—we love it! (There are more than a few members of our collective who call ourselves nerdy and artsy, so we reserve the right to use it without offense!).

This picture says so much about everything This Is Not a Ketubah is about—from the laid back Converse style to the incredible color of the Chuppah and the progressive ceremony—we couldn’t wait to share it. Thanks to Allyson at The Wedding Yentas for sharing this!

Ashleigh and AJ’s wedding reminds us that a modern Jewish wedding calls for a modern, cool, colorful Ketubah. Though we haven’t gotten a look at the Ketubah these two signed, we know that no matter their observance we would have loved to provide a gorgeous text to match the vibrant colors and bold style and funk these two have. From interfaith and progressive Ketubahs to traditional orthodox ketubah texts, we’re happy to include your family information right into the text!

And even though this couple was straight, we can imagine an equally thrilling and fun gay or lesbian wedding. Since we appreciate love in all its forms, we’re happy to offer a queer ketubah enclosed in drop-dead-gorgeous art.

The idea that Jewish weddings and their Ketubot need to be stuck in the 18th century isn’t what we’re all about. Instead, we strive to bring designs inspired by the best modern artists from the 20th century for your dream wedding in the 21st. The best ketubah ever? With the right couple, we want to make it happen!

Jacob
Team Ketubah

Our vision is to help every couple who is getting married to get a Ketubah.

A Ketubah — honoring your marriage vows by memorializing them in a just awesome way — is too important to come up with an excuse not to get a great one.

You never found a Ketubah you loved? We’ll solve that: not only are our Ketubot unique and great art to hang on your wall, but we can create a custom Ketubah based on your tastes and desires. So not having found an awesome Ketubah is not an excuse.

A Ketubah is too expensive? Don’t worry, we offer various price levels, including our recently-launched “contract with blanks” versions where you write in your names yourself. This saves us a lot of work so we can offer a very affordable Ketubah.

(If that’s still too expensive, contact us and we’ll work something out!)

No text you’ve found captures your relationship? Don’t worry — we’ll work with you to find the write text, or help you write your own vows to best capture your own relationship.

Too much work to make it happen? Don’t worry, we make the process simple and fun. We’ll even organize everything with your Rabbi – so you don’t need to think or worry about it!

Signing a symbolic contract to sanctify your commitment isn’t meaningful to you? In that case, a Ketubah isn’t for you and we can’t help you — and we will with you the best of luck and Mazel Tov anyway!

Morgan
Team Ketubah

Check out this guy’s head covering! And his massive… Shofar! Bring in the New Year! This awesome shofar blowing has been making its away around the interwebs for a while, and what better time to share it with friends than before Rosh Hashanah. Also it deserves way more than 246,000 views, and I thought we could help!

Believe it or not, Rosh Hashana isn’t just around the corner anymore… it’s this week! When my mom sent this to me I was glad to see it in my inbox. From the all-white dress of the Rabbi (or is he a Cantor?), the white tallis, the awesome Rosh Hashanah hat on his own rosh, style-wise he’s got it down.

And then, there is the man event: the Shofar itself. Aesthetically, this shofar has got it goin on: the curvature, swirl, colors and texture. And to top it off: This guy knows how to play! Even if you don’t make your way to shul to see the shofar blown itself (high recommended!), everything about this shofar blowing is enough to get your Rosh Hashana fill!

Now, lets think about this video from a Ketubah perspective—what can we as a collective learn? After all, at the core of our modern designs is a commitment to tradition and Judaism. Usually at This Is Not a Ketubah, we are big fans of bold color, but this shofar blower knows that sometimes you gotta put aside tie-dye in favor of simplicity and reverence.

As for the Shofar, an artist could spend all day studying & and inspecting that one fine piece of ram’s horn on a sketch along! Once we consider color, movement, and emotion, we’ve got ourselves a massive learning experience, and an expression of commitment to traditional values.

Perhaps most exciting about this video is the note at the bottom, supporting interfaith families and converts to Judaism. In this time of celebration and reflection, This Is Not a Ketubah is proud to be more than just producers of beautiful & modern commissioned Ketubot, but a resource and friend in the Jewish community.

Shanah Tovah!

Jacob
Team Ketubah

A common question we are often asked is: how wacky, over the top, wild, creative can we be on our Ketubah?

There are a few ways to approach this question.

One answer is: as long as you satisfy the technical requirements of the Ketubah, why not be as creative as possible? While we’re within the constraints of the Jewish requirements for the Ketubah (ensuring the contractual text can be clearly read, for example) — why not experiment?

Indeed, the Ketubah is a perfect place for the personalities of the couple to shine through. And sometimes, our personalities a colorful side that shine through! There’s no need to follow what everyone else does, especially in the most intimate and special of contracts we ever sign.

On the other hand, our communities and traditions do matter — and, of course, we want to hang our Ketubah proudly for the world to see, so we also want to make sure we don’t go too “over the top”.

And the “over the top”-ness depends, to a large degree, on which community you come from. Chassidic Jews have a different approach than Gay Jews. (Our personal attitude, here at This Is Not a Ketubah is, although we ourselves are somewhat traditional, we support Jews, Judaism, and Ketubot — and the marriage, commitment, and power that they represent — no matter what, in any form or manifestation it takes!).

The most important point, above all, is that the Ketubah must represent the beauty of the couple — in all of your idiosyncratic details. Each couple is different, each person is different, each is united in a different way — but all under the same Chuppah. How can a Ketubah best represent this for you?

For our team, Shabbat means a slice of the ridiculous—a light note to end the week. This week, we couldn’t help but use our blog to share the most ridiculous fashion item we’ve found to date.

We applaud their--err--creativity, at least.

Sure, we’ve all been to a wedding where the Bride has gone a little over the top with the latest, most fashionable shoes. As people who design bold, colorful Ketubot as a hobby, we never really let it get to us. We said “Eh, its her day, let her do whatever she wants with her feet—more power to her!” Besides, it is well-known Jewish party etiquette: remove fancy shoes before dancing… you could kill somebody with those heels!

Let it be known that crazy shoes aren’t limited to strictly Jewish weddings. From interfaith celebrations of the big day to much-delayed legalizations of gay and lesbian weddings in NY, we are equal-opportunity shoe criticizers.

Yet outside the range of ‘moderately unattractive,’ there is a streak of “Wow. That is museum quality!” When we saw these styles, we couldn’t stop laughing, and it wasn’t exactly because they provided us the un-ending joy of blissful marriage. Some of us were laughing at this grand experiment called capitalism… how could the market ever support something so absurd, modern, and dare we say beautiful?

Yep, we did. Because even though none of us would be caught dead in these bad boys (well, maybe Roxie… as the shortest one of the bunch, she does love a nice pair of spike heels), there is something about the unabashed creativity and subtle beauty of haughty, gaudy shoes. To each his own—we’re big fans of variety.

Sure, the designers of these killer shoes might have had modern design for the distinguished buyer in mind, but we like the idea more than the final product. Breaking convention, demanding high-art aesthetic over all else, and blending of traditional function (everyone needs shoes, right?) and a keen eye for style give us something to cheer about.

So as you power down the computer tonight, start the engine inside your head on the most creative Ketubot you could possible want. We’ll be waiting (even if it is inspired by ridiculous shoes). Shabbat Shalom!

Jacob
Team Ketubah

We recently had a couple who urgently needed a Ketubah.

It was Tuesday afternoon. Their wedding was on Saturday. They Googled “overnight Ketubah” and came to our site. The Ketubah was needed so quickly that there was no time to even think or plan — we just needed to do, to get them the urgent Ketubah so quickly!

The problem was, their rabbi was supposed to create the Ketubah but effectively forgot to. Oh no!

We usually recommend buying a Ketubah at least 2 months in advance; if it is a commissioned Ketubah, then at least 6 months in advance. Usually less is needed, but this ensures extra time in case there’s any delay.

But what happens when someone forgets it, and you need one days later?

We started by speaking in detail with the couple: what is the wedding date? What kind of Ketubah do you want? Which Ketubah text? It happened to be a same-sex couple who were wonderful to talk to and deal with on the phone, a very lovely experience.

We then realized that, for the Ketubah to arrive before the wedding, we needed to ship it STAT. By Tuesday night, the Ketubah was done — Jacob and Yael were up until 1am finishing it! Wednesday morning it went out, next day mail — so it should have arrived by Thursday.

Nothing is ever so easy. There was a delay for unknown reasons at the Fedex center in Memphis, so the Ketubah just sat there for an extra day.

We were nervous all day Friday: the Ketubah was supposed to arrive then, one day late and one day before the wedding — but this leaves no leeway in case there was any error.

Jacob kept calling Fedex all day long until — voilà — they confirmed the arrival, Friday at 4pm. Just in time!

Nothing is more exciting before Shabbat than to see the GREEN LIGHT from FedEx!  Even better is getting the incredible emails from happy couples exited about seeing them! Its been a great week for the This Is Not A Ketubah team… now time to unwind at shul!

Shabbat Shalom!

Jacob

Team Ketubah

In the past we’ve pointed out the challenges of how to say the plural of Ketubah, but never to stop and ask ourselves: Does this have an actual meaning itself?  Could it stand alone without the cultural and traditional relationship with weddings?

All Hebrew words are centered around a cluster of three letters which serve as a ‘root’ of meaning.  Different surrounding letters and vowel sounds compliment the root to signify different meanings based on the same idea.  To give an idea of this effect in English, consider the words for beard, stubble, goatee, and clean shaven.  They all revolve around the same idea, and therefore would have the same ‘root’: facial hair.

The root of the word Ketubah—Kaf-Taf-Bet—means “writing.” For me, this rings true to one of my dad’s favorite phrases from Jewish text. “And so it written!” he would proudly declare  after pretty much anything he thought deserved authority.

The idea of the Ketubah as ‘writing’ speaks to its traditional purpose: put down on paper the obligations of husband and wife before marriage became a purely civil affair. Over time, the Ketubah has changed in purpose from something solely about traditional contractual obligations to expressions of affection, love and emotional commitment among a couple dedicated to each other.

Yet even with these changes—including to express the love of interfaith couples just as much as same-sex couples—stay true to the original meaning of the Kaf-Taf-Bet root.  They serve as physical writing of what individuals feel in their hearts.  For this reason many progressive Ketubot include a couple’s wedding vows—the ultimate record of emotion and commitment.

This Is Not a Ketubah is all about providing awesome, colorful backdrops to whatever writings a couple may choose to include inside our beautiful frames. We strive to make our art match the beauty of whichever text our couples choose—and that matches their custom tastes!

Thanks to our friends at the Jewish Virtual Library for their Ketubah insights.

Jacob

Team Ketubah