Help! Bilingual Officiant Needed!

kmow

My fiancé and I are desperately searching for a bilingual (Spanish and English) officiant for our wedding in Colorado... His family speaks Spanish only and mine English only so it is very important that we incorporate both into the wedding ceremony!!

We would like to do the ceremony in both languages (maybe 1/2 and 1/2 or sentence by sentence/paragraph translation). And we would really like someone who can do a non-denominational or secular ceremony.

Any ideas on where to look? The internet has been no help thus far...

Thanks!!
Kelli

Jen4948

Is it possible for you to hire a translator who will work with your officiant?  Your officiant could perform the ceremony in one language, and your translator would then translate it into the other during the ceremony.

thejucheidea

Yeah, I would go with an interpreter instead of having a bilingual officiant. I used to work for the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute as a translations and interpretations services coordinator and definitely recommend a simultaneous interpreter, as that's definitely the more natural way to have a bilingual situation, as a bilingual officiant may not be able to translate your personal vows or what you're saying in response to him/her without sounding awkward. One place that I found while Googling was this one: http://www.coloradointerpreter.com/

If you're working in a budget, you might want to contact CU Boulder -- I think they have interpreter training there for foreign language majors, so an advanced student may want to get some real world interpreting experience. In Nashville, however, interpretations are only about $90-$120 an hour depending on language, so a professional might be in your budget.