What makes a ketubah from Kethubah different? Every ketubah at Kethubah is a piece of artwork, designed and created by Melissa Dinwiddie, and featuring her hand-lettered calligraphy, elegantly integrated with the rest of the artwork. Many ketubot you will find on the web or in stores have typed texts, which often seem to be hastily added to the artwork as an afterthought. Ask yourself, how well do the text and the rest of the artwork fit together?

Although Kethubah does offer the option of typed custom texts for those couples who want them, Melissa is a calligrapher first and foremost, and she painstakingly letters all of her standard ketubah texts by hand, letter by letter, stroke by stroke. It is these hand lettered, calligraphed texts that are reproduced on Kethubah's ketubah prints. If you order your ketubah personalized, Melissa personally calligraphs your personal information into the blank spaces within the calligraphy texts, so the entire ketubah text appears as if it flowed directly from Melissa¹s pen at the same sitting. The difference is clear: Melissa's calligraphy ketubah texts are beautiful works of art in their own right, not secondary to the decoration.

Because the English word ketubah (plural is ketubot) is a transliteration of the Hebrew word for Jewish marriage contract (lit. ³that which is written²), it is sometimes spelled many different ways. For example, in addition to the most common spelling of ketubah, you may find: katubah, katuba, ketuba, ketubba, ketubbah, kettuba, kettubah, kettubbah, kettubba, kutubah, kutuba, and more variations as well. However you spell it, a ketubah is a piece of Judaica required for every Jewish wedding.

There is a precept within Judaism, hiddur mitzvah (sanctification of the commandment) that holds that whenever an object is required for ritual purposes, it is a good thing possible. This is why there is beautiful Judaic art in general, and also why there are beautiful ketubot. In its most traditional form a ketubah is a legal Jewish document, a prenuptial agreement, outlining the (mostly financial) responsibilities of the groom to his bride, and required at every Jewish wedding. Because of the precept of hiddur mitzvah, it has become customary for ketubot to be made into works of art. Traditionally a bride would keep her ketubah under her pillow, but nowadays wedding couples like to frame their ketubah and hang it in a prominent place in their home after the wedding. You can find the most beautiful ketubot in the world at Kethubah.