I made this ketubah papercut for a lovely couple I met at the Summer Havurah Institute in 2016. They got married in October 2017. When I talked to them about what they wanted in their ketubah, both women had so many beautiful ideas! I saw among those ideas a common thread about nature, organic-ness, openness, and joy. Their mention of butterflies and trees and sky in particular struck me, and ended up forming the most visible natural parts of their papercut. (There is also a cat; can you find it?)

The words of the shehechiyanu are particularly meaningful to these two, and I incorporated the essence of that blessing into the bottom part of the piece. The full prayer is “?[Blessed are you G!d, ruler of the universe, who has] granted us life, sustained us and enabled us to reach this moment”.

One of the women wrote the text herself in a lovely, neat, and delicate hand. We had to do some careful coordinating to make sure the two pieces of paper would work well together, and it came out perfectly the first time.