A-7 day ketubah marathon painting for the hand painted ketubah of Lucy Malka and Dan

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If there’s one thing we’ve learned at Judaica Man, It’s that we have to be very careful not to upset a bride. Because she can burst into tears at any moment. All it takes is someone telling her two weeks before the wedding that there won’t be pink flowers under the chuppah, only purple ones, and suddenly it’s the drama of the life, and you find her crying for two days straight 😭

After the summer season of orders finally calmed down and Levia could actually enjoy time with our kids, We got a message from a bride, Lucy: “Hey I heard you do ketubah designs! My wedding is on the 20th of August and I’m hoping to get the text from the Rabbi very soon. I wanted to know your prices/availability. I know it’s quite soon, we’ve had a few other artists cancel us so please let me know if it would be possible. 🙏”

At first Levia recommended a printed ketubah, since there was no way to do an original design in three weeks. But once we sensed that she felt like her whole world would fall apart if she didn’t get the design she’d been dreaming of. Levia asked if she already had an idea in mind, just to see whether Levia could even paint it in the time we had. Lucy Malka sent a concept, and because the design only covered the top portion of the page, it actually looked doable in such a short time. Levia felt her distress, and we couldn’t just leave a bride like that.

Lucy Malka is the type of client who knows exactly what she wants and exactly what she loves. Sometimes that’s actually a bigger challenge than starting from a blank page, because you have to understand their style precisely in order to bring their vision to life. Especially when she tells me she wants “grapes in a minimalist style,” and at the same time Levia understand she also wants flowers… How do you combine the two?! A real challenge, right?

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But with this bride, everything just flowed! She was simply a joyful, funny, warm bride who was a pleasure to work with. Levia truly asked God to help her and bring her joy with this ketubah. And then it happened! Suddenly the inspiration arrived: the Wisteria, a beautiful flower that strongly evokes grapes since it’s purple and hangs down/cascades the way grapes do. She decided to combine it with colors that matched her wedding palette, and off we went! Levia understood that Lucy Malka has a gentle, refined soul that loves nature, and the design needed to reflect that.

Lucy Malka wanted to be married through an organization that guides her on all the Jewish wedding religious processes. So, we needed to get the kosher ketubah text from them and then send them the ketubah design draft for approval before the wedding. Even though Levia always makes sure every ketubah she creates is kosher by the Jewish law, she deeply appreciated how carefully this organization attended to every detail. But time was running out, and their approval only came a week later, after Levia called them herself to explain in Hebrew that it was urgent, since Lucy doesn’t speak Hebrew. With everything that came up around this ketubah, Levia was afraid there might be more problems. So She also decided not to risk shipping the ketubah during the actual week of the wedding, in case something went wrong with the delivery too. In the end, what started as three weeks of painting for her turned into one week to finish an original ketubah artwork!

One more thing we forgot to mention we suddenly realized that Lucy Malka’s wedding date fell on the exact same day as our own daughter’s Bat mitzvah celebration 😱

Asaf understood the pressure and told Levia: “Stay completely positive with her, don’t tell her about any of the difficulties. She’s stressed, she’s a bride, she just needs to be calm and happy.”

So Levia didn’t tell her about the Bat mitzvah. And she found herself planning our daughter’s Bat mitzvah with our girls while painting day and night…

But we didn’t give up on making her happy, all the way. Levia added touches of gold and copper leaf along with gold painting to the ketubah, even though she had very limited time to prepare for our own daughter’s Bat mitzvah… Yes, a bride is a bride.

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Here at Judaica Man, we simply don’t know how to rush or do things “good enough.” Every single detail gets refined, and refined again, because that’s the only way to reach true artistry.

We remember this ketubah like a real marathon! But honestly, with all the love and gratitude Lucy Malka showered on us the whole way through, it was worth every bit of it. There was a Holocaust survivor in Jerusalem who swept the streets well into old age, and he used to say: “The greatest thing in the world is to do kindness for someone else.”

Thank you so much, Lucy Malka and Dan, for giving us the opportunity to bring joy and help another bride it was a pleasure to work with you!

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