This Ketubah is named “From the past into eternity” as it traverses a historical artefact whilst recognizing a love that transcends time and iterates into eternity. For this brief, the bride provided photos of her grandparents’ Ketubah (pictured below, left hand side) and thought it would be special to use the visual language and structure of theirs for her own.
In response, together the Bride, Groom and I ideated and configured a visual outcome that used the architecture and chief symbolism from her grandparents’ Ketubah yet updated it into an modernist rendition. The above image contrasts the similarities and differences of both Ketubot, then and now.
The Ketubah frames the Hebrew within two tablets, alluding to the 10 commandments which provide the building blocks for the conduct of a life that is good and honourable. The two tablets express the affinity between husband and wife, reflecting the intrinsic commitment, care and responsibility mutually undertaken by them in their voyage through life and beyond.
In the original Ketubah, the symbols for the 12 tribes of Israel were encased in medallions and these were sketched and carried across into the refreshed iteration, together with soft watercolour overlays of the 7 species of Israel placed between the medallions.
The Menorah from the original Ketubah also populates the apex of the revised one, yet here the ring from the groom’s grandfather’s Barmitzvah which in turn has become his wedding ring sits on the central column of the Menorah. By pairing the Menorah from the bride’s grandparents Ketubah with the heirloom wedding and Barmitzvah ring from the groom’s grandfather, these aspects from both bride and grooms’ heritage find synthesis together and ultimately symbolize the unity and coming together of the heritage of two families fusing into one.
In each tablet, above the bride and groom’s names are inscribed their grandparents’ wedding dates on the outer edge of the tablet, and their parents’ wedding dates on the inner rim of the tablets. This inward flow of information gestures the way in which through each generation, these souls have been travelling through time until they were born into this world and found one another.
Therefore, through all these elements, the Ketubah aesthetically and thematically shares a strong harmony with wedding ceremony itself as well as the heritages of both bride and groom, creating a special intrinsic connection between the past and the present as the couple passage into forever.
Images from the wedding ceremony courtesy of Hello Chloe May Photography: https://www.hellochloemay.com/
