Melissa Dinwiddie, Ketubah Artist

“Ketu-what?”

Ketubah artist.

(See my work at Ketubahworks, or read on for more info.)

It’s pronounced kuh-TOO-buh. (Or if you’re Israeli, keh-too-BUH.)

A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract, and a customary part of every Jewish wedding. In its most traditional form it’s actually a prenuptial agreement, intended to protect the bride in the event of the marriage’s dissolution. The original wording is over 2,000 years old, and still in use in orthodox Jewish communities. Nowadays, however, for many couples the ketubah is more akin to wedding vows.

Made into a beautiful work of art.

There’s a precept in Judaism that says that if an object is required for ritual purposes, it’s a mitzvah (a very good thing) to make it as beautiful as possible.

Hence the custom of turning what is at its core a dry, legal document into a beautiful work of art!

I’ve been making ketubot since 1997 (and Quaker wedding certificates, illuminated wedding vows, and all manner of lifecycle artwork). In 2005 I created a line of invitations and stationery to coordinate with my ketubah designs.

Interested in more info? You can get the whole story, and see my entire line of ketubah prints at Ketubahworks.