One of my favorite elements from my wedding – and still one of our most cherished wedding keepsakes – is our ketubah:

{photo from author’s personal collection}

A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract but can be a lovely tradition to incorporate into any wedding.  The wording can be adjusted and customized as you feel appropriate or in consultation with your officiant.   Ketubahs were originally developed to specify the rights of a woman in marriage and her husband’s obligations to her, but have envolved in recent years and are now commonly used by couples as a declaration of their commitments to each other in their marriage.  The ketubah is signed by the bride and groom, two witnesses, and the officiant in a small ceremony just before the wedding, and then is traditionally read aloud to all the other guests during the ceremony.

One of the first ketubahs that inspired me while I was doing research for my own ketubah design was this ketubah from Sam and Dave’s wedding on Something Old, Something New:

Not only is the wording incredibly sweet – but I love the whimsical illustrations (designed by the bride) around the text.  For more illustrated ketubah inspiration, Cara from Octavine Illustration has a lovely portfolio of illustrated ketubahs in both English and Hebrew:

For something a bit more modern, these designs from New Ketubah are just lovely:

You could also ask your invitation designer to adapt your invitation design for use in a ketubah.  Oslo Press created this custom wood veneer ketubah for one of their clients last year – it was such a big hit that the rabbi walked the ketubah up the aisle so that everyone could get a close look!  Are any of you planning to incorporate a ketubah or any other custom marriage certificate into your wedding?

{top photo by nole from oh so beautiful paper for elizabeth anne designs, all other photos from their sources}