[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/gay-weddings-ink-with-intent-celebrates-lgbtq-weddings-inclusive-custom-wedding-certificates-and-ketubahs\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/gay-weddings-ink-with-intent-celebrates-lgbtq-weddings-inclusive-custom-wedding-certificates-and-ketubahs\/","headline":"Ink with Intent celebrates LGBTQ+ weddings with inclusive custom wedding certificates and ketubahs","name":"Ink with Intent celebrates LGBTQ+ weddings with inclusive custom wedding certificates and ketubahs","description":"LGBTQ+ inclusive Burlington, Vermont\u2013based artist Adriana Saipe of Ink with Intent wants you to know that ketubahs and wedding certificates can be both modern and classic.","datePublished":"2018-06-12","dateModified":"2018-06-12","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/kpalladino\/#Person","name":"Kirsten Palladino","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/kpalladino\/","identifier":2,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/76421eab241dc39d43a493849d7bc676e4b1c60c6b1167f727466599b6882eca?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/76421eab241dc39d43a493849d7bc676e4b1c60c6b1167f727466599b6882eca?s=96&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Equally Wed","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","url":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","width":218,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Ink-with-Intent_Good-Earth-wedding-certificate-equally-wed.jpg","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Ink-with-Intent_Good-Earth-wedding-certificate-equally-wed.jpg","height":974,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/gay-weddings-ink-with-intent-celebrates-lgbtq-weddings-inclusive-custom-wedding-certificates-and-ketubahs\/","about":["Ceremonies & Traditions","Planning","Planning","Sponsored"],"wordCount":2316,"keywords":[" marriage equality"," two brides","art","botanical","design","Jewish","ketubahs","LGBTQ weddings","Quaker","sponsored posts","two grooms","wedding certificates"],"articleBody":"LGBTQ+ inclusive Burlington, Vermont\u2013based artist Adriana Saipe of Ink with Intent wants you to know that ketubahs and wedding certificates can be both modern and classic. Of all the wedding advice we\u2019ve given over the years on Equally Wed, I\u2019m most aligned with the sentiment that your commitment to one another is the detail that matters most. And it\u2019s important to really savor that commitment\u2014the big \u201cI do.\u201d Saipe, a talented and kind artist, is ready to help you commemorate your marriage. Saipe\u2019s company, Ink with Intent, a preferred Equally Wed vendor, is all about celebrating you and your beloved\u2019s specialness that no other couple has, what makes you you, with her custom ketubahs and wedding certificates. If you\u2019re Jewish, you already likely know what a ketubah is\u2014a marriage contract, of sorts. And if you\u2019re not Jewish, you\u2019ll be relieved to know that you too can have a wedding certificate beyond what your government provides to you as a legally recognized legit couple (shout out to the Supreme Court Justices who made sure we can now get legally married in all 50 states of America!). And if you happen to live in a still-oppressed region of the world where marriage equality is not a reality, Ink with Intent believes a wedding is a wedding, no matter who\u2019s getting married. So not only can you order Ink with Intent\u2019s custom wedding certificates and ketubahs from anywhere in the world, you can rest assured Saipe and everyone on the right side of history fully recognizes your marriage, no matter what the government and society say. Which is pretty much the premise of a wedding certificate anyway, the idea that the people who show up for you in your life\u2014and at your wedding\u2014are making a commitment to honor your marriage with their support and love. Saipe began designing for her shop Ink with Intent in 2013 when she realized that the world needed more ketubahs and wedding certificates that were simple, contemporary, colorful and inclusive of all types of couples. She was planning her own Quaker-Jewish interfaith wedding when she began her my hunt for the perfect ketubah. \u201cI absolutely loved the idea of participating in this ancient Jewish tradition and of having a beautiful rendering of our wedding promises hanging on our wall,\u201d she says. \u201cBut as I searched, no ketubah I found seemed to fit the quirky, interfaith celebration we were planning together.Many designs featured symbols and places that didn\u2019t speak to our interfaith family. Other designs were beautiful but lacked the vibrant color and simplicity that I crave as an artist. And no designs seemed to speak to our shared experiences as a couple. Since I\u2019m a professional artist, in the end we decided to simply create our own. And the design we landed on perfectly captured the time and place where we first fell in love. It\u2019s hanging on my wall as we speak. And every so often, I\u2019ll stop to reread it and relive all the emotions of the day we signed it together.\u201dSince then, Saipe\u2019s company Ink with Intent has grown into a team of four women devoted exclusively to wedding certificates and ketubahs. We caught up with Saipe to get her take on the meaning behind wedding certificates and ketubahs, and how she makes each one a lasting personalized celebration of each couple\u2019s marriage. EQUALLY WED: What is the meaning of a ketubah?\u00a0INK WITH INTENT: The ketubah signing ceremony is a crucial part of a Jewish or Jewish-Interfaith wedding in which the couple, their officiant\/Rabbi, and two or more witnesses sign a document before the public wedding ceremony. Many actually consider the original 2000-year-old ketubah text to be one of the earliest feminist documents, since it was one of the first times in history that the bride was given certain assurances in the context of her marriage and not simply \u2018exchanged\u2019 as property. It really has a fascinating history! These days, most couples use a more poetic \/ modern interpretation of the original ketubah text, one that celebrates their union and lays out their promises to each other in marriage.Who can get a ketubah?A ketubah is typically appropriate for couples where at least one partner comes from a Jewish or Jewish-interfaith background.\u00a0And there are as many ketubah texts out there as there are ways to be Jewish! Whether you come from a Conservative, Reform, Secular or even generally unobservant background, if you or your partner identifies with their Jewish heritage, incorporating a ketubah into your wedding can be a deeply meaningful addition to your wedding.How does a ketubah differ from a wedding certificate?A wedding certificate is a beautiful tradition that has gained popularity among couples from all religious and secular backgrounds. In this custom, each person who attends your wedding is asked to sign a wedding certificate as a formal witness. It\u2019s a lovely and meaningful way to include each guest at your wedding in the ceremony. And at the end of your special day, you\u2019ll have a unique piece of artwork covered in the signatures of your loved ones to hang in your home for the rest of your lives. Many couples now use the wedding certificate as a more meaningful alternative to the guest book. The modern wedding certificate originates as a Quaker tradition, but they are now used widely among couples from all backgrounds!Tell us about the Quaker tradition of wedding certificates and about LGBTQ+ ceremonies within the Quaker tradition.When you have a traditional Quaker wedding, you must get married \u201cunder the care of\u201d a Quaker Meeting house. Part of that involved getting a document that formalized your union and that was signed by every person who \u201cwitnessed\u201d you getting married. When a witness signed your certificate, they were affirming that they would honor and support your marriage for all the years to come. And traditional Quakers took this promise very seriously!Quakers have a grassroots approach to making important decisions (such as whether to perform LGBTQ+ weddings under the care of meeting.) This means that each meeting house had to decide for itself what they would do as opposed to there being any sort of top-down edict. As such, Quaker meetings across the country were beginning to perform religious LGBTQ+ weddings as early as the \u201980s. It was quite radical at the time, and the majority of Quakers I know are quite proud of their religion\u2019s welcoming history. My mom remembers her meeting marrying their first LGBTQ+ couple in 1982, and this historical letter from the editor from The New York Times confirms it was happening in Wisconsin too!You had an interfaith marriage ceremony. Any advice on how couples can honor both faiths in their certificate as well as wedding planning advice in general?My husband comes from a Jewish family and I come from a Quaker family, and we found it shockingly easy to combine the two traditions in our wedding! It turns out, they\u2019re extremely compatible on the philosophical level. We decided to have a modified Jewish ceremony (complete with a ketubah, a chuppah, circling each other, reciting the seven blessings, and smashing the glass) with the addition of some Quakerly silence and reflection. I\u2019ve actually worked with a number of Jewish-Quaker couples since then, and have created some cool hybrid ketubah \/ wedding certificates that feature the traditional ketubah text above with space for each guest at the wedding to sign below.What’s your view on marriage equality? Have you worked with LGBTQ+ couples before?I\u2019ve always believed in equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community. It\u2019s never even been a question for me. When I started my company in 2014, I was determined to make the experience of working with my company an affirming and positive experience artist for every single couple who reached out. Over the years, that\u2019s taken the form of making all our texts available for couples no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation; offering multiple partnership terms so that people can choose the language that best represents their relationship; designing ketubahs and wedding certificates whose artwork attempts to speak directly to the LGBTQ+ community; and, most recently, working with some incredible queer translators in Israel to tackle the issue of gender-neutral writing in Hebrew (an innately gendered language). I\u2019m also always listening to our LGBTQ+ clients for how we can make the experience of working with Ink with Intent even better. There\u2019s always room to grow!Do you paint your ketubahs and marriage certificates by hand? What are the materials you use?I work by creating a body of hand-painted textures and then digitally collaging them into finished designs. My background is in fine art painting, but I found myself being drawn to a more playful, contemporary style when creating ketubahs and wedding certificates. The nice part about working with digital art is that I\u2019m able to show our clients a proof of their text and design, exactly as it will appear, before it\u2019s finalized. The final products that are shipped to our clients are fine art gicl\u00e9e prints. These aren\u2019t your typical ink-jet prints; they\u2019re super vibrant and last for decades!Do you ship internationally?\u00a0We ship worldwide! Most of our clients are in the U.S., but we also send a large number of ketubahs and certificates to Canada, Europe, Israel and Australia.How do you guide your couples in choosing a certificate\/ketubah?\u00a0I think picking a ketubah or wedding certificate really comes down to a gut connection with the artwork. In my experience, when a couple finds the right design for them, they just know! The nice thing about my work is that it can be adjusted and tweaked in a lot of different ways, so I highly encourage people to reach out if something is almost exactly right for them, but needs one or two changes. Some couples also come to me because they\u2019re looking for something specific (say, a beach scene) and they\u2019re not finding it in my regular collection. Luckily I have a huge body of illustrations that aren\u2019t part of my normal collection, so I can usually show a client a few options that they hadn\u2019t seen before. I always encourage people to reach out if they\u2019re not finding what they\u2019re looking for!Along those lines, I also work with a lot of clients on a totally custom illustration. That process is a little different than just choosing a design from my shop. We\u2019ll first meet over phone or skype so that we can talk through their vision. Then I\u2019ll put together a sketch and a quote for the project, and it\u2019s totally up to the client if they\u2019d like to move forward. No hard sells over here. Custom work is a very iterative process with lots of opportunity for feedback from the client before a piece is finalized.You’ve got a baby on the way. Congrats! When should our couples get their orders in? And typically how far in advance do you recommend couples order a ketubah or a marriage certificate?Yes! Our second daughter will be arriving some time in late July.\u00a0Luckily, I have a team of incredible women who will steer the ship and process all our regular orders while I\u2019m out on maternity leave. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll also still be lurking around in the background because, what can I say, I love my job. But if you\u2019re potentially interested in a custom illustration, I recommend that you reach out as soon as possible!What are your most popular designs?\u00a0There\u2019s actually a pretty good distribution of sales across the different designs, which probably reflects how each couple is unique in their tastes! But I have noticed a recent trend toward the botanical illustrations (which I loooove) as well as the super clean \/ contemporary Etched in Stone Collection. For ketubahs, the Tree of Life designs are always a favorite because of their beautiful symbolism.That star map ketubah is incredible. Will you tell us about it?The idea for this ketubah actually came from some awesome clients a couple of years ago. They wanted a ketubah that captured the exact night sky on their wedding date. After doing some digging, I found a bunch of incredibly detailed astronomy websites that will show you the night sky on a specific date in a specific place. Now I have the \u201cStar Map\u201d ketubah and wedding certificate as one of our standard options. You can to select the horizon line (there are cities, oceans, forests, and more to choose from) and I\u2019ll create a custom night sky that captures a specific date and place. Most people use their wedding date, but I\u2019ve also done the date people met, the date they got engaged and other important dates. It\u2019s a really striking design, and definitely one of my favorites to do!Anything else you want to add?Wedding certificates are truly for everyone! While they originated as a Quaker tradition, the ones I make are quite different from the official certificates you need if you\u2019re being married \u201cunder the care of a meeting house\u201d (though I do make those too for my Quaker clients). I\u2019ve had clients in the past be worried about cultural appropriation, but, as a Quaker myself, I can say that these truly are available for everyone.This post is sponsored by Ink with Intent, a preferred Equally Wed vendor. Equally Wed only works with equality-minded companies. If you’re interested in sponsoring a post, get in touch at advertising (at) equallywed (dot) com.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Ink with Intent celebrates LGBTQ+ weddings with inclusive custom wedding certificates and ketubahs","item":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/gay-weddings-ink-with-intent-celebrates-lgbtq-weddings-inclusive-custom-wedding-certificates-and-ketubahs\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]