Bilingual wedding receptions?

twanda

Hi all,

My fiancee is not from a native English speaking country and I am wondering what way to go about the various speeches at our wedding reception. I am sure lots of you have been in this boat also, and would appreciate it if you could give some advice. Did you translate speeches and say them in both languages or did the brides side just use their own language and the grooms side theirs? Did you come up with any 'novel' ways of making sure everyone attending understood what was being said?

Thanks

Diddy Kong

My other half's family are Italian-Irish so at our wedding in August, the speeches are going to be English only (only some of them speak English) except for mine. I am planning to do the opening of the speech, the thanks to all for coming etc in both English and Italian.

I suppose it depends on how many of your guests actually can speak the language. One suggestion is that you both do the speech, so it would be half and half.

prinz

I'm getting married to a german in Germany later this year. We decided to cut speeches etc., to keep everything at an absolute minimum. Basically I will thank everybody, mention the absentees etc in English and she will do the same in German. There will be no best man speech, or anyone else for that matter. Plus there'll be no long talks about how we got together, blah blah. Literally just the thanks for coming, have a good time, 5 minutes tops.

Seoid

I was at a bi-lingual wedding in Spain a while ago and as the best man spoke both Spanish & English, he translated the speeches and gave his own in both languages. It did go on a bit longer than otherwise but at least it was more interesting - the ceremony was all in Spanish - so tedious when you don't understand it!

mikeystipey

Hi Twanda, I'm getting married to a Chinese girl in November in Dublin...at the moment my plan is to get the English speakers speeches (i.e. mine, best man, etc) into Chinese and get them printed up on some little booklets or scrolls and have them on the table of my fiancees parents and anyone other Chinese guests who don't have great English. I will also get my fiancee's Dad's speech translated from Chinese to English and have those for all the Irish crowd. This will all take a bit of work but it really appeals to me because it saves every speech being said twice and also gives people something to take away with them. Will print the booklets or scrolls myself, no need for anything too fancy. As regards the actual translating will hopefully get friends on both sides to do that and I won't have spoiled all the speeches for myself because I can't read a word of Chinese anyway

An alternative plan is to hire a Powerpoint projector and have them projected onto the wall behind the speakers but this could be difficult to coordinate and one more thing to worry about on the day

Best of luck with everything!

galah

Getting married to an Irishman in Germany - for the mass, we've translated all the readings and stuff in a mass booklet, and have it mixed during the ceremony as well (e.g. the 'prayers of the fairthful' will be done in English and in German in turn, and we have an Irish piece as well.)

For the speeches - my dad will hold his in German, and the best man will hold his in English - most of my friends have both German and English, so strategically placed, it should be ok. Sure the sentiments are always the same, anyway ;-)

twanda

Thanks for the replies everyone. I can see there are a lot of possibilities now.:)

cavangirl21

Hi there,
my sister married a swiss guy and he said his speech in both english and German. It worked very well. His brother , who was best man, spoke only in German, and my Father spoke only in English. This meant that the speeches weren't unnessecarily long. Hope this helps.

daycent

Was at a wedding in Germany a few days ago (german bride, Irish groom). The brides brother translated the best man's speech in sections (they took turns). Worked quite well, although some of the stuff was lost in translation! And half the room laughing at the same joke a couple of minutes apart. Also half the Germans were bilingual. Strange one!