Ketubah styles
Classical ornament, illuminated borders and time-honored layouts.
Traditional ketubahs carry the visual language of the past: illuminated borders, symmetry, gold, and hand lettering that echoes centuries of manuscripts. They are the natural choice for an Orthodox or Conservative text, and they anchor a ceremony in continuity. The finest examples are painted or papercut entirely by hand.
Jerusalem, Israel
Trained at Jerusalem's Bezalel Academy, Danny Azoulay works in hand-cut paper, painting, and gold leaf to create ketubahs rooted in classical Jewish ornament. His studio has produced marriage contracts for couples on every continent, each one built around detailed papercut borders and luminous color.
Melbourne, Australia
Nikki Green hand-scripts and paints each ketubah in gouache, watercolor, ink, and 23kt gold or silver leaf on heavy Fabriano paper. Her contemporary designs blend the visual language of ancient manuscripts with motifs drawn from the Australian landscape, making every contract a one-of-a-kind commission.
Jerusalem, Israel
Jerusalem-born artist Noam Shargorodsky creates handmade ketubahs using oils, watercolors, and 23k gold leaf under the studio name Ketubahome. Her pieces draw on Jewish texts and Israeli landscapes, with Jerusalem, the Old City, and the Western Wall recurring throughout her work.
Newton, Massachusetts, United States
Mickie Caspi has been designing Judaica and ketubahs for decades, working in watercolor, gouache, pen and ink, and gold leaf. Her contracts lean traditional and finely lettered, with border ornament that echoes historic illuminated manuscripts.
New Salem, Massachusetts, United States
Amy Fagin creates illuminated ketubahs in the manuscript tradition, using acrylic, pastel, ink, and collage. Under her studio Twentieth Century Illuminations, she treats each contract as a small illuminated painting, richly detailed and built to last.
South Africa
Born and raised in South Africa, Angela Munitz draws her ketubah designs from nature observed and painted directly. Her work is soft and botanical, built on close attention to flowers, leaves, and light.
Our guide walks through modern vs traditional, papercut vs painted, and how to match the art to your text.
How to choose a ketubah