Trilingual Wedding - Need advice!

Any advice you have or just hearing about your experiences of multi-lingual invitations and ceremonies would be greatly appreciated!!

I received an invitation in English to an English/French wedding. The inserts could be a cool idea, though!

Thanks @SaraJ and @ Rachel! We thought about just choosing which language to send to each household (more work than just printing out 120 of the same invitation and stuffing envelopes, but that's what we've signed on for isn't it!), but then also like the idea of the message the invitations are sending by including all three languages - it shows people that all three languages are important to us / will be part of the day. Also to avoid surprises/confusion for French people in particular for example (they're the ones who are least likely to speak any other language, whereas a majority of our other guests would speak some combination two out of three) who get an invite in French and then show up and a third of the ceremony is in another language...

That's another question, what about ceremonies? Anyone else have input on including different languages throughout this whole experience? Although all the Irish guests DO speak English, it's very important to us to include Irish as well because we're very proud of that and so are the Irish speakers, you see it's an integral part of who we/our guests are!

Mik'mak is not a lost language, it's taught in schools and on several reserves. Please if you are going to use any of that culture, please actually educate yourself and visit someone who lives and breathes the culture. Blood quantum doesn't mean anything if you don't practise your own culture.

I have officiated two ceremonies with someone standing next to me translating (French one time and Spanish the other time). I sent the ceremony wording to the other person so she had time to translate. During the wedding, I'd read a sentence in English and then the other person read it. Worked out fine!

What I have seen done in previous weddings is that each guest recieved an invitation in their native language. For the ceremony I was advised to avoid doing a bilingual ceremony since they tend to be lengthy and repetitive for people that speaks both languages. What we might do is have the ceremony in English with a short reading in Spanish.

@Jessie did you read the post? OP said the Mi'kmaq language was lost in their family. Meaning OP's family no longer speaks it. Not that it is a dead language.

A la Carte Paper on Etsy does bilingual in invites, as do others if you search there. I'm not sure about multilingual but it's worth checking.

Following

@Brittany-I understand that, but she also mentioned that she wants to use aspects of the culture in in her wedding. Culture and language go hand in hand, it's not lip service.

Thank you so much for understanding and actually reading the post @Brittany.

@JessieJV While I respect you have the right to speak your mind, I'm going to refrain from responding to what I think might be a sad attempt to troll a forum on a topic which has nothing to do with how I or you or anyone else interprets or practices my own culture, as is my right. If you have any advice for the subject of conversation - that is, how to put off a multilingual wedding and invitations etc - then I welcome it with open arms. If I want to discuss my Mi'lmaq culture and traditions as they will relate to my wedding with this wedding wire community, then I will make a forum for that specifically. Otherwise, respectfully, please refrain from commenting. Wela'lin! ( = "Thank you" in Mi'kmaq, for those of you who don't know and want to learn a new word! I am a linguist, after all.)

On another note, @JC thanks for the input, I've read that too! We were considering doing the ceremony in different languages but not repeating the same thing over three times - just have readings, etc - and programs that would help people follow along the parts that they mightn't understand. Maybe that could work?

What type of a ceremony is it? Catholic or non religious? If there is a mass some of the prayers of the faithful could be in irish and French and also English. If non religious have the main ceremony in the language most widely spoken but include readings or poems etc in irish and the other language. You could also include some irish/ French song in the ceremony there are beautiful songs In both languages that would be appropriate. As for the invites if your not doing out several versions I would put the bulk of the important info in the most widely spoken language and other sections in the other languages. If you have trouble printing, type them up yourself and send the template to the printers. I'm not sure which country your based in at the moment but most of the printers in Ireland would do that for you.

Wow @maria that's so helpful, thank you! It's a secular ceremony that a friend of ours is going to officiate. We're currently in Canada but are moving back to France (where we lived from ****) permanently in January 2018. In France, you HAVE to get married at the city hall first (we're doing this the day before with only immediate family & wedding party) and then you're free to have a religious ceremony or do your own thing. What that means for us is that we have total liberty in what we consider to be our 'actual' wedding ceremony because we're making it up ourselves and technically we'll already be married! I like your idea of including songs in different languages

I love that you're incorporating so many languages, and I think a tri-fold invitation could be fairly easy to design and also gorgeous. That way, even those who don't speak one or two of the other languages will still be exposed to them, appreciate them, and even learn some phrases!

I know your OP says you're a linguist, but I have to point out that "Irish" isn't a language (and my ancestry is solidly Irish). The language you're probably referring to is commonly referred to as "Gaelic" (and less commonly known as "Goidelic"). If all of your Irish guests speak English, one sentence -- a greeting -- written in Gaelic, on every invitation, shows deep respect for the culture. Something like, "Táimid ag tnúth le roinnt lenár gceiliúradh pósta le leat! (translation: "We look forward to sharing our marriage celebration with you!") would be wonderful.

For those who speak French only, you send a French invitation. For those who speak English only and have no Irish ancestry, you send an English invitation (and it's perfectly acceptable to add the Gaelic greeting to your English invitations). Simple...we're down to two invitations, no trifolds, no inserts, etc.

As far as the "Mi'kmaq language" is concerned, if it's lost, you can't really do anything about that. If you want to honor that segment of your guests, I'd suggest you find out about their culture. Perhaps there's something you could add in somewhere.

To tell you the truth, it's up to you, but I wouldn't do much more than a French invitation, and an English invitation with a nod to the Gaelic speaking guests.

@rachael I am irish have lived here all of my life bar a brief stint in the U.K. Yes Gaelic is the correct term, well actually " gaelige". But day to day we call it irish. SL B says her FHs family are Irish speakers, which is what every one would call it, at least in Ireland! The term "gealgóir" meaning someone who is fluent in irish can be used. But it's not used that much, we would normally say irish speaker.

@ SL B it's lovely to have a secular ceremony, you have so many options. We had a civil ceremony, which is similar we included readings from authors that we liked and loads of music. Definitely pleanty of ways to include the languages, also perhaps some traditions if there are any that are strong in either family.

You have loads of options given for the invites, all would be fine pick which ever you like most. Just remember not to make them too bulky or you will be killed with international postage!

@MrsWrs I love the idea of beer glasses! That's awesome! And I think we'll do similarly, have basic signage and programs etc available in all three languages, without translating the ceremony/speeches - it just would be too long and repetitive for those who speak any more than one language!

@Christine I'm partial to the trifold as well, but @Maria has a fair point: bulky invitations = $$$ in international postage! But this has helped SO MUCH, thank you everyone for your input and feedback and suggestions

@RachelD Thanks for your input, but @Maria has hit the nail on the head: Irish is most definitely a language, and that's how all the native speakers (Gaeilgóirí) would refer to it, although you could also refer to it as "Irish Gaelic" (differentiating it from Scots Gaelic, or even Ulster Irish in the North). I'm curious as to where/in what context you heard the term "Goidelic" used to refer to Irish Gaelic, as to my understanding this refers to the larger celtic language branch group including Manx, Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic. No Irish speaker that I've ever come across abroad, at the Oireachtas, in the Gaeltacht, would use this term. But thanks for your input, I like your advice about keeping it as simple as possible, less hassle = less stress = less money = fewer complications!!

I'm new enough to wedding wire to be honest, and don't usually participate in forums like this (i joined for the craic!) so thanks so much to everyone for your support, suggestions, and sweet comments!! You make this crazy engaged rollercoaster adventure even more fun!