I have a funny story to share with you.
My sister forgot to get married.
That is, they left the marriage license at home, and consequently didn't get anyone to sign it, and therefore were not legally married.
So, in the eyes of God, their souls were bound irrevocably together. However, in the eyes of the state, they were still two starry eyed lovers who had gone to church and then thrown a big party.
They didn't realize this until about 11:15, when we were packing everything up to get out of the reception site in time.
Under more "normal" circumstances, they would've waited until the next morning and tracked the priest down after Sunday mass at his home parish, and sheepishly asked him to sign it with them. However, they had chosen to have their wedding celebrated by a friend, a Dominican Father who is living in another state, and they didn't know when he was leaving on Sunday.
Luckily they knew he was staying at his (local) parent's house. So at about 12:15, they knocked on the door. Father Joe was thankfully still up, and they got married, for real, at his parents kitchen table. The priest's mother got pictures. I'm dying to see them.
In lieu of showing you my sister's "real" wedding photos, here's a few pictures of Jewish marriage certificates from Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Collection.
enjoy!
A link to the Beinecke Rare Book Collection website.
Jo you are wonderful..and sweet....
ReplyDeleteIs that second one from the bottom cutwork?!? They are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteYou were right! It's cutwork from Bozzolo, Italy from the year 1780.
ReplyDeleteThe Beinecke description:
Marriage contract, manuscript, ink and paint on vellum, dated the first of Elul, 5540 at Bozolo (1780). According to the scholar Shalom Sabar, this ketubah is the product of a workshop in either Ancona or Lugo. The bride’s family, Cantoni (also spelled Canton), was the dominant Jewish family of Bozzolo. The bridegroom’s family, whose coat-of-arms decorates the top border, commissioned the ketubah. The text is framed by an elaborately painted and cut-out border. The inner frame contains large birds perched on branches, while the exterior frame contains medallions with biblical and other figurative miniatures set in rich floral decoration.
I also found out that these beautiful, hand-lettered marriage certificates are called ketubahs, and they're still a common practice in jewish weddings.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, while collecting these beautiful images as design inspiration, I never picked that up.
A friend told me about 2 seconds after I posted the link on facebook.