Bilingual Wedding Officiant..

tiffanyrenee08

Hi all! I'm new here. Just got engaged last month. The wedding is planned for June 8th of next year.
I was hoping someone here would know if there is somewhere I can go to find a bilingual officiant/minister .. I live in Missouri. I need to find one who speaks English and German. My fiance's grandparent's on his mother's side only speak german. They know some English but not enough to understand what all will be said. Do you think it would be a good idea to have one who speaks both? They won't necessarily have to repeat everything in German, but maybe just a couple sentences so they know what is going on (ex: you may kiss the bride..) ?

Also, my fiance doesn't know i'm trying to do this.. I was hoping it could be a nice surprise.

calliopeia2013

Congrats on your engagement!  I think this is a very sweet and thoughtful idea if you'll have non-English speakers attending your wedding.  I also think it might be a bit tricky to find, though if the wedding is somewhere where there's a large German community, you might have some luck. 

If you can't find someone, my other thought was maybe to make up a few of your programs translated into German?  Not as good of a solution, I know, but still a nice thought.

GoodLuckBear14

I wouldn't surprise him with something like this. 

Your heart is in a good place but as someone who attends Greek Orthodox mass, please don't do this. The mass is twice as long because everything is said in English and then in Greek.  If you just want the officiant to say a couple of phrases in German, anyone can learn to do this.  It is not like he/she would have to be fluent in the language.

tiffanyrenee08

We actually might not have much luck .. So that was actually my back up plan! : I should do their invitations in German as well, correct?

tiffanyrenee08

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_ceremony-ideas_bilingual-wedding-officiants?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:10Discussion:9762a656-876d-4c18-89ab-3939eb35865aPost:4fe073fb-6764-4e6a-a8c0-9270e8b7ff11">Re: Bilingual Wedding Officiant..</a>:
[QUOTE] I have the German invitation text that we used. I don't know if it's super formal - he's never been to a German wedding, so it's just wording that we found online and both liked - but it's one of the wordings that we found on a few different sites. I can PM it (and a translation, if needed) to you if you'd like.
Posted by Schatzi13[/QUOTE]

OOhhh yes, that would be wonderful! I would appreciate that very much. Thank you. <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />

Loveandmangos

You could have one or two readings done in German, and they can be done by a family member rather than having to seek out a bilingual officiant.  My partner's family speak Spanish and are quite religious, while my side is all English and not religious in the least.  Rather than translating everything, we are having the religious readings done in Spanish and a secular poem in English.  Perhaps there are some key passages that have meaning for his grandparents that you can do in German just for them?