Bilingual Wedding?

I had a small intimate wedding, only 10 guest. all but 1 my mom Understands English so I had the ceremony in English but the officiant translated the ring exchange and handfasting to Spanish because that was the main thing she needed to understand and what had the most meaning out of the entire ceremony.

We are kinda. we are having some signage in Portuguese and our pastor will be saying a Portuguese prayer. we will be having some Brazilian music and deserts as well

My friend is half Puerto Rican so she had a bit of the same problem. There were only a few people in her family that only spoke Spanish (none of his family speaks Spanish) so she did one reading in English and the second in Spanish, and then the pastor did the crucial parts of the ceremony in both English and Spanish, I know the blessing of the rings was one of them. If I were you I'd try splitting it in half where different parts are in each language and then decide which parts I think are the most important and have them in both. Good luck!

I am persian and my fiance is American. It is really hard to mix both cultures on ceremony and reception. The worst thing is picking music.

My FH and I are also having a bilingual wedding in Mexico. Most of all of the mass will be in Spanish, but we will have a program with translations of the readings and copies of the prayers. Most of my FH’s family speaks fluent or advanced English and my family doesn’t really speak English, so most of the reception stuff will be in English. If there are some things you really want translated for everyone to understand, you could get a translator for those, but I think you’re right saying it could get tedious listening to everything in both languages. I heard a story from a wedding planner who did an English/Russian wedding and all the speeches at the reception were in the speaker’s native language with no translation.

As long as there is a good balance between the languages, I wouldn’t feel put off as a guest if I couldn’t understand everything. Sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles. Best of luck with all the planning!

I've actually been to ceremonies with a translator and honestly it's not boring at all, it's really fascinating to watch two people come together that way. Something that might ease your mind is a ceremony usually isn't that long-term; your guests wouldn't be sitting for 2 hours listening to a ceremony in 2 languages. It's a short time and if it's important to you and FH to have everyone understand the ceremony, Go for it!

I went to a wedding done in Spanish with an English translator. They translated the entire ceremony. Probably about half the people there didn't speak Spanish (including the grooms). I don't think anybody was bored. I'd much rather have the ceremony be little longer and understand what's going on then it be shorter but I don't know what they're saying. Plus I like that it shows both families cultures being blended together.

Each of us is mixed. Some of his family only speaks Cantonese while some only speak Vietnamese. My family has members that would need a Spanish translator and I think we could go without one that speaks Urdu lol. Given how complicated the above scenario would be we decided on just keeping it monolingual.

I think some parts being translated are cool- like the Welcome... but translating the whole thing is unnecessary .... if people have been to a wedding you know what’s happening. Your vows should be in whatever language you both understand. I’ve been to many weddings where vows were in a Spanish and haven’t heard any negative by the English-only speakers

My FH is from Mexico. Depending on which ones and how many of his siblings come up, I think it would be nice to have some things in Spanish. They speak varying amounts of English, from almost none to fairly fluent. He said that he doesn't care, but I think when it gets closer he might. I don't think we would translate everything, but we might do my vows in English and his in Spanish. And maybe a reading or something in Spanish. The DJ is bilingual so any important announcements can be done in both, and I have a short list of bilingual officiants to choose from.

Fellow Salvi here!! I can't offer too much help because I actually have the same question as you but you aren't alone haha

I am in a similar boat.

I am going to have most of the wedding in English because the ceremony itself will be in the states.

During the reception some of the speeches I am varying, some speeches in English and some in German. And my husband and I will speak to the crowd in both languages.

I would find an officiant that speaks both Spanish and English. I would find two different short pieces, he can read one in English and the other in Spanish. I feel the time would add up for the reception and ceremony if everything was translated word for word. But it's your day!