Getting worried about language barrier!

I went to a wedding recently in Spain (bride is Spanish). The ceremony was in Spanish and they had an English order of service which basically told us all what was going on (e.g. the vows were written out word for word for the guests).

I'm not sure about having a translator. I've seen that done before and to be honest it took away from the ceremony a little bit for me. On that occasion the marriage was officiated in Japanese and the translator translated (badly) into English. It was super distracting... But that might have been because the translator wasn't very good and I didn't know what she was banging on about.

I'd just make a long Polish order of service and put literally everything in there.

Hi Halloweeny,

Thanks for your reply. I was thinking the same about translating. I really don't want to end up with everyone being too distracted. A Blow-by-blow order of service definitely makes sense. We're going to be DIY-ing those so we've got plenty of time to sort those out.

Thanks

x

I've shot plenty of multi lingual weddings- most of the time they do have a translator tbh, more so that everyone feels included. Especially during the speeches although it means you get staggered laughter!

Our Minister speaks both English and German so the ceremony is dual langauge. The readings and speeches will be printed out in English but spoken in German. Invites and our wedding website are written in dual langauge.

For the seating plan we are not sure yet what to do, we have some family that speak only 1 language and with friends is a mixture of dual and single languages.

I've been to one bilingual wedding and one trilingual. In the bilingual one (English and Hungarian), they had the order of service printed out in both languages, and one reading in each language, with a translation text provided for the language it was NOT in, IYSWIM. The speeches were all written out in advance and translated by the bride's sister so she didn't see any of them beforehand, with copies provided to all the tables where they would be needed. There were only a few completely non-English-speaking guests, and they were all seated with people who could translate for them.

At the trilingual one (English, Spanish and Swiss German!) most of the guests had a little English so the OoS was just in English with translations of the readings as above. The groom and best man both did short bits of their speeches in Spanish and Swiss German before switching to English for the majority. Again I think people were mostly kept in language groups but there was a bit more mingling as more of the guests spoke English.

To be honest I think you can't realistically expect much beyond simple pleasantries if people have no language in common and are having to use an interpreter, so I wouldn't try too hard to mix people up.

Thanks everyone, I was working myself up into a bit of a panic!

I think I'll definitely look into doing a bilingual programme with translated readings. My OH's sister will be doing a reading so I'll ask her to look for something in Polish. The BM speaks both Languages so I may ask him to do his speech in Polish.

Now, on to tackle the seating plan!

x

For our wedding we had three languages to consider. English, Cantonese and Latvian. That caused us a bit of a headache too for the speeches. I wasn't keen on saying a paragraph in English then having two translations since I felt there'd be too much of a delay. In the end we decided to do the entire speeches just in English and one of our BM's translated into Latvian at the table at one side of the room and ditto for Cantonese at the other end of the room. Both did it quiet(ish) and knew the gist of the speech to make it easier for them.

To be fair most of our families could speak English with probably a couple of people on either side who couldn't speak any at all. The rest probably could have got the gist without a translator.

The one thing we didn't do though was mix the tables because we wanted people to feel relaxed rather than "ooh, how do I communicate with this person?" If that makes sense.

Obviously you know your families better and if that would be an issue or not.

The weddings I have been to all had translators but I really wanted to tag this post for ideas mainly because I am going to a wedding in Poland early next year and to get some ideas for the groom.?

Oh you're going to have the best time! I went to my first Polish wedding in May this year and it was fantastic!

x

Wow!

I think you're right about the tables, I don't want it to be awkward during the meal. Luckily my fiancé's siblings speak english and all 3 of them are attending so I can have one on each of the Polish speaking tables to translate speeches.

x

Oh that sounds lovely!!! what a great idea!

x

Oooh another great idea! thanks.

I think I might add this to the program

x

Oh I know I will if there parties are anything to go by then I know how the wedding is going to go?? plus I have photographed quite a lot of multi lingual weddings??

Hi

I had a bilingual wedding as my H is French.

Ceremony was in London so had an orderm of service in English and then everything translated into French, so the French could understand it.

My H gave a speech in French and English. Best men speeches translated as so was my dad's speech.

Invites in fnench and English and explaining the different traditions

I'm afraid my wedding was a bit segregated as I kept all English and all French tables as thought it would be less awkward.

As a silly thing, I had translation cards for the tables, easy conversation starters for French and english

Thanks for your advice. I'll be using the conversation starters for sure!

x