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(music by Barry London)
This article was originally published on March 28, 2008. We are reviving it as part of the Best of the Storque series. Enjoy!
If you’re following the Handmade Wedding Series, then you probably appreciate a good love story. LoucheLab and her husband Ned have a particularly handmade story of falling in love (well, it’s high tech, too). Blogging, artwork, photography, web cams, artist books and international romance all converged to get these two souls together. Below, you’ll find LoucheLab‘s account and photographs, as well as a special video portrait we produced with them (which does have some spicy mature artwork by the artists, so be forewarned if you are watching this with your child — this is an adult love story, after all!).
Ned and I met by accident. (Which is a pretty big accident, considering that we lived about 7,000 miles from one another.) I was living in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Ned was living in the Meat Packing District in New York while packing up his studio to move to Brooklyn. We had both started blogging 9 months before — after painful break-ups. So Ned was surfing random blogs and got into mine, went to my Flickr page and looked at my art and then wrote me an email.
It was basically my art and his words that brought us together.
We spent almost a year apart; then I flew to New York at Christmas to meet him for the first time. Before I came he said, “I want us to make art together while you are here.” My art was always very solitary, so I asked, “What do you mean?” and, he said, “I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out.”
And we have: we made graffiti and paintings, and we took a lot of pictures of one another. After I went back to Israel, we kept on talking on webcam all the time; it was on 24 hours a day. He would wait ’til his midnight, which was my 7:00 AM, and we would talk before I would go to work, and I would rush home from the office to see him. It was like living in one apartment with a window into the other room where he was, without being able to touch one another — besides with words and art.
In the course of the months apart, we both created a lot, we expressed our love, the sexual frustration and the emotional roller coaster state with photography and paintings and street art and t-shirt making and computer art and so on. The whole relationship, between his blog and my blog and our Flickr accounts, was very public, and we had people all over the world encouraging us through the difficult times and happy for us, when finally, we made the choice of me moving to New York so we could start a life together offline.
[Me signing our Ktuba (illustrated wedding contract in the Jewish tradition). We wrote the text together and I illustrated it.]
We first decided to get married so I could stay in the United States, but as the preparation started, it became a very small part of it all. Because art was such a big part of our relationship, and because as a part of our relationship we beat all odds and made the rules as we went along, it was really obvious to us that our wedding would also be like that — intimate and important and very art inspired.
[This is me working on the Hupa. It's a big blanket like thing that in Jewish tradition serves as a roof the couple need to get married under. I spray painted about a 100 ravens on it, and my hand was sore for about a week after. The stars in the middle are tattoos we got together when I came to visit New York and met Ned for the first time.]
The theme of the wedding was ravens, because of — well, a lot of things, but also because they mate for life after having a relatively long period of just playing the field. (Below, you’ll see me getting my wedding tattoo. I illustrated it.)
It was basically a Rabbi who is a friend and about 20 friends and family members in our studio in Williamsburg. A lot of what we made was a spur of a moment idea that took shape. Ned edited a cool music mix and we thought “this would be a nice give-away,” which lead to me spray painting 40 CDs with a cool pattern, and us burning copies ’til 5:00 in the morning.
Our Rabbi told us that although we didn’t want rings, we needed to exchange something of value. So we decided to get rings after all, and on the train on the way to the store, we tried to figure out what they would symbolize for us — and what being married means to us. We talked about learning and making mistakes and this being a beginning rather then a happy ending: we got both rings engraved with “Human” on the inside.
The idea of writing and illustrating our own Ktuba actually came from Josh the Rabbi, which I was really grateful about. I wouldn’t have thought about it myself. Also, he suggested making some art or writing something to express how we feel about weddings and marriage, which is how the wedding book I made came to be.
We didn’t have a DJ or a band or 300 people in fancy dresses or flowers or a white dresses: we had only people that we wanted there (including my sister on webcam from Israel). We had to deal with a lot of feelings and fears beforehand, rather than having too many arrangements to take care of. While the wedding was going I realized I forgot one of the decoration projects I wanted to do, but it didn’t matter. After the ceremony, Ned’s parents took everyone out to Union Picnic for dinner, which was at the time our favorite restaurant. Even still, we hear from people who were there about how significant and intense the whole event was, and how it’s one of the most memorable events they can think of.
[Ned getting his wedding tattoo. He designed it.]
The handmade wedding theme caught on, and we got artwork from three or four artist friends as gifts, and Ned’s dad designed and printed a book of the wedding pictures for us which we show off to anyone who wants to know what the wedding was like.
I always hated weddings before. I used to work for a catering service and the way so many wedding are about food or about showing off was really repulsive to me. With the way things went with our wedding, I can say that this was the best wedding ever, which is cool because it was mine!
[Married!]
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47 comments
Sign in to add your ownSchmutzerland says:
This is quite possible the sweetest story I have ever heard/viewed. I am all faklempt!
4 years ago
weirdwolf says:
I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to get to know Ned and Aya during the making of this portrait. Inspired, wise and passionate, they want to share their love with the world! I can't say enough wonderful things about these two... Ahhhh love...
4 years ago
staroftheeast says:
AWESOME story!!!
4 years ago
NestaHome says:
That is the cutest video ever! Great job :)
4 years ago
Slowshirts says:
Thanks for sharing this story! I am proud to own some of your amazing work!
4 years ago
creationsbylonni says:
Very cool! Beautiful and personal.
4 years ago
brepettis says:
I love this video. It is the best love story ever.
4 years ago
lapomme says:
Great artworks and intense couple. This is so moving! Makes me want to get married all over again.
4 years ago
huntersdesigns says:
beautiful story, thanks for sharing
4 years ago
wabisabibrooklyn says:
what a lovely story. it almost makes me wish I hadn't eloped!
4 years ago
elisasherejewelry says:
This is a very romantic story! Exactly what a wedding should be.
4 years ago
mermaidclaire says:
What a dreamy romance! Artistic collaboration with your true love is a dream few get to experience. Great work on the video, Tara! Inspires me to start blogging... ;)
4 years ago
qwynwyn says:
Thanks for sharing your story about the relationship and the wedding!
4 years ago
PetereneDesign says:
Wonderful, inspiring story.
4 years ago
mykonos says:
lovely story!!
4 years ago
thefunkyfelter says:
thank you for sharing. i really enjoyed your video and wonderful story of love.
4 years ago
daniellexo says:
beautiful xoxooxox
4 years ago
brooklyncrafts says:
this is such a beautiful and inspiring story! thanks for sharing it with us all.
4 years ago
lisa143 says:
inspiring, honest and true love. many years of happiness to you and Ned !!
4 years ago
eliwill says:
aw, sweet.
4 years ago
missbatch says:
what an incredible story and beautiful video. thank you for sharing it.
4 years ago
jillhannah says:
Yes, I'll take one of those, please.
4 years ago
livefunky says:
a beautiful story that touched my heart... i wish you a lifetime of happiness together. :)
4 years ago
livefunky says:
I need to add that I love your neck tats!
4 years ago
Plumbellina says:
The best thing in life is to live, love, and create art together....I wish you the best~ Fantastic art & photography~
3 years ago
floreti says:
Aya and Ned thank you so much for sharing your story. It is very inspirational. May your life together be filled with lots of happiness and your love grow stronger every day. Congratulations! Irina Floret
3 years ago
LoucheLab says:
We are the best! We are the best! Thanks again Tara for letting us express ourselves in video. Most of my family, aside of my sister who was following the wedding on a webcam didn't get to see it, this was such a great thing to share with them and almost made up for them not being there. You really made us look good!
3 years ago
thetimeisnow says:
Watching your shop for a while now, didn't know the sweet story behind it. Inspiring for every occasion, not least of all a wedding. Also didn't know you were from Israel. Small world.
3 years ago
luxe says:
when i got married (5 short years ago) i didn't have anyone helping me plan and so i kind of underdid it and we had close friends at a planned wedding in vegas. i had no clue where to look and wanted unique things, vintage dress, etc, i wish i had someone to help me find that. anyway, since then, i did notice that there aren't so many cool cake toppers and bridal wraps or shrugs, so i started making some.
3 years ago
BargainHeadbands says:
I loved this story the moment I read it.
3 years ago
shayhaugh says:
Beautiful..As my fiance and I plan our wedding we are trying to incorporate ourselves and what we think of marriage ..Beginning a life together is a journey and you want to start it right..With all the love and commitment you have for eachother.
3 years ago
berrymorin says:
Congratulations. This is what weddings are truly about.
3 years ago
winipoo says:
That was a great story! Thank you for sharing it with us :-)
3 years ago
nontrendy says:
awesome!
3 years ago
weirdwolf says:
Yay!! Aya and Ned continue to inspire me. Their dedication to their passions, creative collaborations and to each other... Truly wonderful human beings.
3 years ago
stella213 says:
hi there, I enjoyed the story too. I make keepsakes from ladies wedding dresses. I dont do anything you cant do if you are a seamstress. I am here for people that dont sew or dont have the time. Check out my ideas in my Etsy store. Make your wedding dress into a handmade family heirloom to be used and seen by many generations to come.
3 years ago
APunkinCardCompany says:
sweet!!
3 years ago
luluanne says:
adorable!!!
3 years ago
MeghanT says:
So touching. I am a sucker for love stories. A STACK of romance novels in my basement attests to this. Thanks for sharing yours!
3 years ago
flyleafbooksstudio says:
So sweet and very cool at the same time - mu husband and i are both artists.
3 years ago
expressyourself says:
Wonderful couple and so touching store. Good luck to you guys with everything in your life.
3 years ago
alfakosdesigns says:
awww! wow! so originally handmade and lovely life stories! Love it!
3 years ago
Beadsforpeace says:
Wow... what an inspiration! I love it how they are true to themselves and not following the myth that wedding has to be expensive to be meanigful! Their small and simple, yet focused, creative and meaningful wedding sounds so inspiring to me! Thanks for sharing! =)
2 years ago
dantescave says:
I'd love to know what his cool music mix for your wedding was...do you have a playlist? Your story and the creativity you shared is so special. This is what you have...enjoy every moment...I lost my artist & singer-songwriter man suddenly. We shared 18 years of over the top happiness...what a gift he was!
2 years ago
luckylife says:
I adore louche lab and am so happy to see the two of them "in person". What a lovely and beautiful wedding that must have been. Thank you for sharing your story. xo Melis
2 years ago