I love when couples meet once and then re-meet under different circumstances when the timing is right. That’s how it went for Genevieve and Anis, our latest featured Real Weddings Couple.
A non-Jewish couple ordered a Ketubah from us, and while not the first, we wanted to know more about why they chose a Ketubah. They decided to write their own custom Aramaic Christian text in Syriac script on our “The Love Song – Red Ketubah” by Debra Band.
How did you two meet?
“Our families knew each other. I met Anis briefly in 2008 and thought he was attractive (but didn’t tell anyone, not even him!) We saw each other again at a wedding in 2013 and immediately hit it off!”
For Genevieve and Anis the most important thing was family and friends. “We wanted to honor our connections and to create a warm and relaxed gathering for everyone to spend time together.”
I’ve always loved my friends Ketubahs and thought it would be an interesting piece of art to incorporate into our ceremony and into our home.” – Genevieve
But tradition played a key element as well, Genevieve explains, “We are Assyrian and our liturgy is in Aramaic. We feel a very strong cultural and religious tie with the Jewish community, especially with the communities that came from Iraq and Iran, the same countries our families are from. I’ve always loved my friends Ketubahs and thought it would be an interesting piece of art to incorporate into our ceremony and into our home.” Even though they are not Jewish themselves, they felt a connection to the tradition of the Ketubah.
“We do not have such a tradition for our marriage. We view the marriage bond as a covenant, not a contract. The Ketubah design that we picked is inspired by Near Eastern designs – in fact the rosette in the artwork is very similar to the rosette found in ancient Assyrian designs. We worked with our priest to finalize the wording for our art – it is not a contract, per se, but rather, a memorialization of our marriage vows that we said during the service.”
We love hearing your unique stories of how you use our Ketubahs. Do you or someone you know have a story to share? Email us or comment below!