The World Is Born in a Hug

On October 8, 2017, I married my best friend Gili Getz. It was a glorious event.

Before I share with you the thinking behind the jewelry I designed for us, I want to give thanks to a few small-business owners in my community who made our wedding so perfect: Kerry Ryan of Bluenido designed my dress; Stephanie Caplan of The Ketubah created our hand-written custom ketubah; Liz and Jamie from Abraço Coffee & Bakery catered and hosted the reception; and Sandra Hakim, the chocolatier of Baseema Chocolates, created beautiful strawberry truffles. All good, good people. Love them to death.

And now, the jewelry:

Our Wedding Bands

The jewelry I design is always about a relationship between text and form. For Gili and me, I designed the same wedding band, both about 5mm wide with a satin finish. Gili’s was in 14K white gold and mine was in 18K yellow gold. Since the letters are cut through the bands, this particular design is made possible by high-end 3D printing, achieving an elegant and precise letter form.

Sometimes, I take off the ring and hold it up towards the sunlight. The rays pass through the text which says in Hebrew: The World is Born in a Hug, or Ha’Olam Nivra BaHibuk.

My Necklace

As artists, Gili and I both have a dynamic relationship with our Jewish heritage. We experience it as a source of creativity, which is why we parted from the traditional text and wrote our own wedding contract.

Our ketubah, or Jewish wedding contract, speaks the same lovingly kooky language that has emerged between us over the past six years since we first met. It’s a playful kind of Hebrew with some English mixed in.

While I won’t share all the secret idioms embedded in our ketubah, I will show you the part I selected for my necklace. Translated from Hebrew, this passage describes the magnitude of our love:

Like the numbers of stars in the universe, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000;
like the numbers of cells in the body 37,200,000,000,000;
Who's my love? Me, Who's my love? Me. Numerical poems.
A jolt of loving; Let there be light
It is all valid and binding

The central elements of my necklace’s design are the large numbers that form two circles, like orbiting stars or flowers. One circle represents the estimated number of stars in the universe, and the other is the estimated number of cells in our body. The rest of the text hangs down like a waterfall or tassels, accentuating the cleavage. The words are cast in sterling silver, and in the zeros, I set tourmalines, sapphires, and diamonds.

With language so dear and personal to me, I wear this necklace often. Sometimes I wear it under my garment as a private reminder, and sometimes I wear it above—as a declaration of love.

With spirit,
Yael

The ceremony was held at Tompkins Square Park.