An artistic ketubah has a whole life of development and creation prior to its use on your wedding day. You’ve picked out the right one that’s easy on the eyes and meaningful to your marriage, but there was a whole lot of planning by the artist who made it prior to your purchase.
I had the pleasure of meeting with Rachel Deitsch of New World Wedding and touring her studio where all the magic happens. It was especially interesting for me on a personal level because Deitsch designed my wedding ketubah, which now hangs beautifully on my bedroom wall.
Deitsch, a Los Angeles based artist, has a background in illustration. While living in Israel for two years, she painted for pleasure and from there emerged a new style. She used opaque watercolor and print-making paper and liked the end result. Deitsch began designing ketubahs for friends and family. She gained popularity and now has a ketubah business that has taken off in many exciting directions.
“What I love about the ketubah business,” she says, “is that everything I make will have a home.”
Deitsch invited other local artists to New World Wedding to provide couples with a variety of ketubah prints. Guest artists like Tamara Jones and Jill Sykes provide their distinct art pieces and Deitsch reworks them for ketubah purposes. For example, with Sykes’s work, Deitsch receives the oil painting, converts it to a digital format, and adds the ketubah text.
Deitsch has also just recently debuted a line of ketubahs she calls 2nd Generation. She created this line for the couple that cannot pay the regular price of her full scale ketubahs, but would still like to purchase a piece from her line.
She takes elements from existing designs in order to meet the needs of people who want a beautiful ketubah, but don’t have the budget. Many of her whimsical, signature elements are included in 2nd Generation ketubahs, like swirly green trees, jeweled flower buds, and silhouettes of lovebirds, all paying homage to their original cheery and colorful palettes, but are reworked for a smaller print and minimal elaboration.
Deitsch has everything she needs in her extensive studio. Stocked counters, cutting-edge technology, all the watercolors she needs, and her pride and joy: the professional printer. “It allows me to indulge the perfectionist monster in me,” she says. The printing used to be outsourced, but it slowed down the process and caused more stress in the long run. Purchasing the printer and utilizing it in-house allows Deitsch to nit-pick and check each piece that goes out to clients.
“This guy right here gives me an endless sense of possibility.”
And endless possibility, indeed! Deitsch is constantly dreaming up new ideas like wedding invitations that can match a couple’s ketubah. And, first comes love, then comes marriage, and you definitely know what comes next. So does Deitsch. For the “baby carriage” stage of life, Deitsch is also in the midst of designing and expanding a children’s art line.
Deitsch has also partnered with yours truly, The Wedding Yentas! She designs free wedding website templates that are available for customization on mywedding.com. Wedding websites are great for keeping your guests up-to-date on all your wedding plans and festivities. You can include photos, a guestbook, registry information, and of course the details for the big day. They’re free, too! And if you really want a seamless design around your wedding-planning, you can also purchase invitations to match your free wedding website so that your guests can enjoy a theme. High 5 to mywedding.com and Rachel Deitsch for marrying a great concept and beautiful art.
Visit Deitsch’s site and Facebook page for more information about her different lines and to place orders. She provides fabulous customer service, answering questions you may have about ketubah texts and individual art pieces.
