Is anyone having a bilingual wedding? I'm having a hard time figuring out how it will go.

BrideMexico · November 2013

Any ideas? Suggestions?

-Thanks ladies!

HisGirlFriday13 · November 2013

I didn't have a bi-lingual wedding, but I think that, in order to be helpful, we're going to need more information?

Which two languages? Why? Do you have some people who speak ONLY one language or the other, and if so, how many and how important (parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.)? What kind of ceremony are you having? Is it religious? How much of it would have to be bi-lingual? Could you do programmes with translations?

emilie250 · December 2013

We're also having a bilingual wedding. Here's how we're doing it:

- Most written things are in both French and English (save the dates, invitations, website, thank you cards, etc). We've decided not to do French and English versions of the invitations so that guests know ahead of time that the wedding will also be bilingual.

- Our ceremony will be in both French and English. Although some of the Anglophones do not understand French, we've decided not to translate everything but keep the ceremony primarily English with some parts in French (i.e. for things that the officiant says and we repeat, FI will be speaking in English and I will be speaking in French; we're also doing some parts in French even though some guests may not understand)

- Toasts will be primarily in English with some portions potentially in French

I hope this helps!

stephiec225 · December 2013

Hi! I was racking my brain over this for a couple of months as well. My fiance is French and I'm American. Many of his friends and family do not understand English and very few of mine speak French. We mostly want all of our loved ones to feel like they are a part of our day, and not outsiders who don't understand, so we tried to make all of our ideas stem from that feeling as much as possible.

In the end, we decided to do invites and programs in both languages (so that people would know that the ceremony will be bilingual and to help people follow along during the ceremony). The font is fairly small but we had all of the information in English next to the same information in French (with the exception of Names and addresses which weren't translated and were only written once). Our programs will have one page in each language with just the ceremony order on them.

Our ceremony will be primarily in English (our priest doesn't speak any French) but we will have some readings and prayers in French done by friends and family of my Fiance. We will also do two sets of vows - traditional ones repeated in English and we will write our own in French (YIKES!!).

We are trying to incorporate music that everyone will know at the reception and the toasts will be in both languages as well.

Good luck and happy planning!!

btoh · December 2013

Thank-you for posting this topic! I am having one as well and have definitely been struggling.

Much of my family speaks English and Spanish, but some (including my mother) speak only Spanish. Fiance's family speaks only English.

My main concern is during the actual ceremony, how do translators work? Do they stand in the corner and translate? Has anyone used one that can share the experience?

Also, can anyone include invitation photos? Just for an idea of how to do it in both?

Thanks

majesty318 · December 2013

We just decided to do both Spanish & English invitations. We are ordering from Etsy so we are just going to have the seller do some in Spanish with appropriate wording and some in English with appropriate wording.

We are thinking of doing just 1 response card in both languages.

Is anyone having a bilingual wedding? I'm having a hard time figuring out how it will go.

Re: Is anyone having a bilingual wedding? I'm having a hard time figuring out how it will go.

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