Bilingual wedding?

To add: we live in Ottawa, so getting a bilingual officiant shouldn't be a problem. I am just wondering that, if we don't really speak French in our day-to-day life (just at work mostly) should we bother to have any part of the ceremony in French - it would be for their consideration.

You're talking about a real minority of guests who speak French only (149-6). I might consider creating programs in French that would inform the French speaking guests of the order of the ceremony (there are google translator programs that will make that as easy as copy and paste and a mouse click). I might consider adding your vows to the program in French so that they could follow along. After the ceremony, the word "party" is universal, so I wouldn't spend much time on that. However, a few French phrases in honor of them at the reception would be appreciated, and maybe a song or two in French. Beyond that, I don't know how much more you can do. I think they'll appreciate your efforts.

Centerpiece those are all great ideas. I definitely agree the wedding doesn't have to be 100% bilingual but I want a way to feel like they are still involved in the day. All your suggestions achieve that. I wasn't planning on making programs but in this case it probably makes sense, at the very least giving FH's dad the programs so he can distribute them to his siblings.

A friend of mine had a very similar situation. They did the bilingual program, and had the soloist sing a french love song instead of one in english. It was really lovely

A friend of mine had a similar situation. Her family speaks primarily English, his Spanish. The programs were in English and Spanish. They soloists were bilingual and sang each song in English and Spanish. The Officiant was also bilingual and did the ceremony in English and Spanish. I found it to be very accommodating for the guests and very beautiful for the groom's grandmother who only spoke Spanish.

My partner's sister did her ceremony in English, Lithuanian and Ukrainian, even though only their families knew any Lithuanian or Ukrainian (they even had guests attending who spoke exclusively Lithuanian or Ukrainian and no English whatsoever). It was important to them that it was held in all languages, and even though most of the wedding guests didn't understand what was being said for a majority of the ceremony, everyone understood and appreciated that it was meaningful for them. At the reception, their parents also did parts of their speeches in Lithuanian or Ukrainian. It was really sweet and special.

When we do this, we do the opening reading in two languages, with one of the guests joining our officiant so it's read in English and then the other language. When we get to the vows, one partner often says their vows in one language, and the other partner in the other, and the pronouncement is very often announced by us and then repeated by a family member.

@MrsPoutine, I'm so happy you asked this! My mom is French, I was raised bilingual in the US, and FH and I attended the same bilingual school growing up, so we'd really like to include some French touches (although we won't have any non-English speakers). I'm looking forward to borrowing other people's ideas, because I can't even begin to wrap my head around this

The suggestions above are great!

If you do use Google translate, PLEASE have a native speaker look it over first. The program is often good enough for "getting the gist," but can also produce embarrassing errors or just plain nonsense.

@sandpiper - not to worry - we would translate anything written ourselves. We both went to French elementary & high schools and FH also did his university degree in French. I've seen some funny stuff come out of google translate haha.

Thanks for the advice ladies, very helpful! And thank you Celia - nice to get ideas from an officiant perspective. In terms of family members, who usually makes those kind of pronouncements? Both my dad and FH's dad speak French and could do it - they're the people closest to us who speak the language. OR - since we can easily get a bilingual officiant - maybe it makes more sense for them to do the announcement?

Saaaame. I *may* have family flying in from Peru and Guatemala, and he *may* have family flying in from Germany. However, his German family all speak English, and most of my relatives do as well, but it just doesn't come as naturally.

I'm considering Spanish stationery for my int'l family and having the officiant's ceremony message written in Spanish and German for them to keep and take home. All spoken portions will be in English.

FH's mother and some family speak mostly Spanish, my family speaks English. Our officiant is bilingual. We'll do both languages for programs and the ceremony will be about 1/2 and 1/2. I like the idea of one person saying the vows in English and the other in Spanish. My officiant also asked me what 5 sentences I would want to learn in Spanish...so maybe he has plans for us already...