Client Spotlight

Every wedding is a beautiful and exciting blend of two individuals and two families.  But not every wedding is also a blend of two religions and two cultures, which is just one of the reasons why I’ll always remember working with Sumit and Adam on a custom ketubah for their “Big, Gay Hin-Jew Wedding.”  These two wonderful souls approached me last April about the possibility of commissioning a custom ketubah that captured Adam’s Jewish heritage, Sumit’s South Asian roots, and their shared love of traveling the world.  Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into that project!

Adam and Sumit were kind enough to share their thoughts on how we arrived at their final ketubah design below.  But before we dive on in, I’m just going to leave this video here of their wedding day. It was shot by the uber-talented Live Picture Studios. (Warning: tissues necessary!)

All of these stunning photos are by Ajit Singh Photography and shared with permission.

So, without further ado, a mini-interview with Sumit and Adam!

We eventually landed on a Ketubah design that featured the Hebrew, Hindi and English for “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,” surrounded by multiple references to your world travels. Why do these three languages and the pattern have significance to the two of you?

The languages represent our backgrounds. The Hebrew represents Adam’s Jewish background, the Hindi represents my South Asian background, and the English represents the bridge.

This ketubah is emblematic of the convergence of our two worlds. Adam is Jewish and I am Hindu. For us, this document was an opportunity to weave together our backgrounds and to recognize where we came from. As such, we had our grandmothers serve as witnesses on the ketubah. Surely, every time we will stop to admire our ketubah in our days ahead, we will never lose sight of where we came from.

Although having our grandmothers sign our ketubah was an unconventional move—so was our big, gay Hin-Jew wedding. Like the ketubah, which melds together our backgrounds, our wedding brought together our Jewish and South Asian traditions. We had two officiants—a cantor and a Hindu minister (both women!)—preside over our wedding. We had a band as well as a DJ, so we could dance to music we both grew up to—from classic rock for Adam to Bollywood for me. We requested guests to dress in Indian or Western cocktail attire. We wanted our wedding to be a canvass of the different colors and stripes of our lives.

Beyond a reflection of our backgrounds, the ketubah is a memento of our travels together. Adriana so beautifully helped us incorporate visual reminders from some of our most memorable trips together: The blue hues remind us of our time on the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini. The Islamic star pattern came directly from a table in Istanbul where we paused to have tea. The Mughal arch transports us back in time to our visit to the Taj Mahal in India. Finally, the gold outline brings us back home, where our New York City apartment décor features gold accents. These reminders of our travels were also on display at our wedding: our table numbers corresponded to framed postcards of cities we have visited together; the food stations were also a nod to some of our favorite world cuisines.

Most importantly, Adriana helped provide deeply meaningful language for our interfaith, same-sex ketubah. Our ketubah is a promise to hold on to our traditions, while respecting each other’s, and making room for new traditions together.

How was your experience commissioning custom artwork from me for your ketubah?

In the months leading up to our wedding, Adam and I visited nearby Judaica shops for ketubahs, but nothing resonated with us. As we flipped through the many options, nothing spoke to us. I am so glad I found Ink With Intent on Instagram. Adriana helped us create a deeply personal and meaningful ketubah—one that we will cherish for years to come.

Adriana was so professional, responsive, and wonderful. The saga that is wedding planning can be marked with a lot of stress. But Adriana brought a sense of calm into this part of our wedding planning. The whole process from start to finish—as our ideas became colorful reality—made for a truly enjoyable exercise. I would urge every couple embarking on marriage to consider Adriana for their ketubah or wedding certificate. Adriana: Thank you, शुक्रिया, תודה

Be right back, ugly crying over here.

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Last winter, during the depths of Vermont’s shortest, darkest, and coldest days, I had the great pleasure to work with Annie and Michael on a custom wedding certificate featuring Washington DC’s famous cherry blossoms. Needless to say, working on this special illustration was a very welcome break from the winter blues!

Recently, the newlyweds Annie and Michael were kind enough to send me some stunning photos of their special day. The pictures even included a shot of an incredible surprise flash mob coordinated by their friends! The couple was kind enough to let me share some photos here as well as answer a few questions about their experience working together on a custom wedding certificate. Thank you so much, Annie and Michael!

Photos by Lauren Bulbin.

Why do the Washington DC cherry blossoms and skyline have significance to the two of you?

Even after years of living in DC, Michael and I agree that we get a huge charge out of the first glimpse we catch of the skyline whenever we return to town from time “outside the Beltway.” It doesn’t matter if we’re driving or flying, it’s always fun to see these iconic buildings and memorials appear in the distance.

Beyond this, we’re both really familiar with some of the most recognizable buildings (the Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson Memorials; the White House; the Capitol) from running miles and miles around the city over the course of the last several years. In fact, Annie’s morning runs to work take her right down Capitol Hill, and Michael’s lunchtime jaunts have him looping both the White House and Washington Monument. You’d think we’d lose the sense of wonder that seeing these things for the first time inspires, but we haven’t yet.

Finally, we had an early spring wedding. A late season blizzard blanketed the city in snow just a few days before we tied the knot, and yet, the cherry blossoms persisted.

In what other ways was Washington, DC incorporated into your wedding theme?

Michael has lived in Washington, DC since 2012; Annie, since 2015. The city has been the backdrop to our entire relationship, and we knew that we wanted our friends and families to experience our version of the city for our wedding. In fact, all of our wedding weekend events took place within walking distance from our home. We started the weekend with hosting our guests at a favorite local bar, Tunnicliffe’s Tavern, and kicked off the big day with a Wedding Day 5K for all of our guests along the Anacostia River. (Participation prizes? Plastic tumblers with the skyline sketched on the side.) We got ready at home, together, and took a short stroll over to Eastern Market, where we held both our ceremony and our reception.

Annie’s cousin designed the programs, which reflected the skyline/cherry blossom theme that Adriana’s wedding certificate set, and the skyline outline also showed up on our seating chart and online invitations. We used different Carlos Carmona Medina postcards, inspired by DC neighborhoods in place of traditional table numbers—and even commissioned him to do one of Eastern Market with us dancing in the background to use for our thank you notes. The band from DC’s famous New Vegas Lounge played the reception, and even the liquor stocked at the bar was (mostly) of DC origin.

How was your experience commissioning custom artwork from Ink with Intent for your wedding certificate?

We found Adriana through A Practical Wedding, and loved the idea of (1) working with her to create unique artwork to commemorate our wedding, and (2) asking our loved ones to sign their names as as they witnessed our commitment to one another—particularly because we self-officiated the ceremony! (Another special way of incorporating DC into the event: Serving as our own officiants, as permitted by a law on the books in DC, as well as in a few other states.)

We emailed Adriana about 5 months before the wedding to set up a 30 minute Facetime consult, during which we had a good time getting to know one another, heard a little bit about her story, and told her a lot about ours. Going into the call, we weren’t entirely clear on what art we hoped she’d create—there was a moment when it looked like the Blue Ridge Mountains might carry the day—but Adriana was able to listen to us and describe how she could design an image that met our goals of being place-specific as well as not too far removed from the natural world. We loved the idea, and also loved the no-commitment sketch she shared within the following two weeks (as promised)! We ended up signing a contract in mid-December, and had the certificate in plenty of time for our March wedding.

When it came time to figuring out logistics, Adriana and her team shared some very useful suggestions, right down to best gel pens to use for signing. I’d say we’d love to work with her again, but as neither of us ever foresees the need for another wedding, we’ll be content with the beautiful art we have.

Thank you, Annie and Michael! It was a joy to work with you on such a special project.

 

 

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When Josh and Cait reached out to me last March to talk about a custom ketubah featuring the Queensboro Bridge, I was…intrigued. I’ve spent a decent amount of time in the NYC area, and hadn’t ever thought of the Queensboro bridge as a particularly romantic icon. That is, until Josh and Cait shared their story with me.

As we talked over skype about their vision for a custom ketubah, it came out that the very first home the couple ever shared had overlooked the bridge. In their words: “We wanted to incorporate the Queensboro bridge into our ketubah because it reminds us of the years we spent in graduate school getting to know each other: the first apartment we shared in New York City had a stunning view of the Queensboro bridge and the East River, and this view of the bridge will forever remind us of our first home together.” Such sweetness.

As Josh, Cait and I started to talk through the details of the design, we kept coming back to a night scene that would highlight the twinkly lights of the bridge and the buildings in the distance. When they looked at the ketubah hanging in their home, I wanted them to feel as though they were transported back to that apartment, snuggled up inside on a chilly evening, watching the sun go down and the bridge light up. I also wanted the ketubah illustration to have a clean, minimalist aesthetic, and to not get too bogged down in the details.

Needless to say, it was an absolute joy to work with Josh and Cait on something so personal. Josh and Cait were married this past July in a stunning Jewish wedding in Pacific Palisades, CA. They told me, “during the wedding ceremony, our rabbi shared the story of how we met in New York City and explained the significance of our ketubah’s design.”

Josh and Cait were kind enough to send me some lovely feedback about their experiences commissioning a custom ketubah (which can be an overwhelming process when planning a wedding!) They said, “when we came across Ink With Intent, we were very excited to learn that custom ketubahs could be commissioned by the artist. While there were many beautiful options already available on the website, we had a particular vision in mind for a more personal ketubah, and we reached out to Adriana with our thoughts on a custom design. She was extremely helpful, thoughtful and professional throughout the entire process of commissioning the work. She was upfront about all costs and timelines involved, and she delivered drafts and the finished product on time or before predicted. She was also very welcoming of any changes we requested after we saw each draft, and clearly wanted to deliver exactly what we wanted (and she did!). We had an absolutely wonderful experience working with Adriana, and would highly recommend her to anyone seeking a beautiful custom ketubah!”

Thank you so much for your kind words, Josh and Cait. And Mazel Tov on your brand new marriage!

And thank you to Josh and Cait’s uber-talented photographer Scott Clark for persmission to share some of their wedding photos here.

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