Adriana Saipe began her hunt for the right ketubah for her own Jewish-Quaker wedding in the summer of 2013. Looking around, she quickly realized that the world desperately needed more ketubahs and wedding certificates that are contemporary, colorful, and inclusive of all couples. So, because Adriana is an APWer and when APWers see problems they like to fix them, she started Ink with Intent, and now she makes ketubahs and wedding certificates that are so pretty you’re going to want to set aside some money for a big ol’ frame to hang it in your favorite spot in your house, kind of like this:
Adriana told me:
When I was newly engaged in 2013, my mom heard a story on NPR about APW and immediately bought me the book. The day it arrived, I read the whole thing cover-to-cover. After reading the book and then the blog, I learned to let go of the parts of our wedding that didn’t feel as meaningful, while focusing on the parts that resonated with us deeply. Enter, our ketubah.
We had a disappointing search for a ketubah that reflected our values and aesthetic as a couple. So, we decided to try making our own. The process of designing and writing our ketubah together was incredible/infuriating/beautiful/so, so important for us as a couple. We had to dig deep and be totally honest with each other and yet speak to our highest hopes. Looking back, that struggle was one of my favorite parts of the wedding.
But once I had created one ketubah, I couldn’t stop. I still had so many ideas about what love and partnership look like to a contemporary couple. So shortly after my wedding, my shop Ink with Intent was born. It turns out, we weren’t the only couple having trouble finding a contemporary and customizable ketubah or wedding certificate that spoke to the heart. This month, a little more than a year after I opened my small side business, I’m quitting my day job so that I can focus on Ink with Intent full time.
APW’s community has definitely influenced how I’ve built my custom ketubah and wedding certificate business. In fact, when I imagined who I was designing for, I pictured the open-minded, fun, and big-hearted couples right here on APW.
Ketubahs with flare
All of the designs on Ink with Intent are super customizable—no two pieces are ever a hundred percent alike. Things like names, date, texts, fonts, colors are included right there in the base cost of Adriana’s designs (which ranges from $155 to $270) and then any extra customizations (adding elements or significantly altering the design) are just $25 to $60 each. And Ink with Intent isn’t just in the kutubah business. If you’re not planning a Jewish wedding, but still want something to commemorate your ceremony, Adriana has a whole line of gorgeous Quaker-inspired marriage certificates that double as guest-book alternatives. (Because hello, who doesn’t want this hanging in their home, with all of their guests’ signatures on it?)
Or if you’d rather start from scratch, you can always hit Adriana up for a custom design (like the one at the top of this post, which I’m dying over), which range in price from $300 to $450, depending on complexity. To make sure the design turns out exactly how you’re envisioning it, Adriana will even meet up with you and your partner on Skype, and together you’ll flesh out and idea before she sends you a free (zero obligation) sketch and a quote.
And on top of all that (because girlfriend is really about the customer service), if you need help figuring out what to put in your design, once you’ve picked it out, Ink with Intent offers a range of text options for your artwork, including interfaith, secular, egalitarian, and even the original 2000-year-old Aramaic text appropriate for Orthodox and Conservative weddings. Or you can write your own text, which Adriana will have translated into Hebrew for you (she works with a network of rabbis, Aramaic scholars, and native Hebrew-speaking translators to ensure completely correct translation). Adriana will even work directly with your rabbi or officiant to make sure the ketubah accurately represents you and your wedding—and that it’s approved.
You see, having planned her own interfaith wedding, Adriana gets that options aren’t just about the pretty. It’s about making sure you have marriage document that reflects your relationship. As one of her couples put it:
After ten years of being together, my partner and I have decided to marry, this coming August 31st, and as part of the planning, decided it would be meaningful to us to sign a marriage contract, or ketubah, as part of our wedding. However, to find a ketubah that would respect and celebrate our same sex nuptials, as well as our interfaith relationship, seemed impossible. After searching through site after site, and finding that nothing really reflected who and what we were, my partner came upon Ink with Intent, and much to our shock, after reviewing hundreds of ketubahs, there it was! Not only did this ketubah have the clean, modern look we wanted, but the visual was perfect, and the words reflected what we felt—that in joining together, we were sharing the values of both of our backgrounds. Dealing with Adriana made the experience even more positive. She was pleasant, thoughtful, easy to work with, and efficient! Our ketubah arrived as promised, in perfect condition, and it’s everything we knew we wanted but began to think we’d never find!
Whenever I go to Meg’s house, one of the first things I notice is the ketubah she has hanging on her wall. There’s a reason you’ve spent hours and hours searching for just the right one. But the good news is, you don’t have to anymore. Because once you see Adriana’s work, you’re not going to want to look anywhere else.
Get a 10% off your INK WITH INTENT Ketubah or marriage certificate when you use the coupon code “apw2015.” click HERE to browse Adriana’s Designs!
