For Jewish people who are getting married a ketubah is part of the tradition. They are done by professional artists who draw them up making them a keepsake for generations. There are different popular ketubahs and their are different artists who do them. We started out having the ketubah of my wife’s great grandparents reimagined in a modern form. The design they had was so beautiful that we wanted to incorporate elements from it in our own ketubah. Then we thought about what we also liked from our parents and grandparents ketubahs as well as my great grandparents.
We talked with our parents, grandparents and great grandparents asking them if they would mind if we mixed and matched various things from each of their ketubahs in our own. We were fortunate that all of them are still living. Every single one of them started to at least tear up when we asked. They were honored, but we felt that the honor was ours to be allowed to make our ketubah based on pieces from each of theirs.
We took pictures of all of them, and we looked closely at the words of each one. We found uniqueness in each of the six ketubahs in making ours that would be the seventh made from portions of their six. If you are Jewish, you can appreciate this even more. for those who do not know, the ketubah is roughly a prenuptial agreement that is a promise rather than a being a protection. It is not meant to be something a couple uses if they split, but rather it is a beautiful prose of promise to the bride of what she will have. The tradition is one that has been around for a long time and is still honored today. It is not a legal document, but it is one that is expected to be honored by the couple it applies to.