Bilingual Wedding

[lucybelle]

More wedding questions! Woo!

So last night while I couldn't sleep I was thinking that it would be nice to make up programs for the wedding and translate them. The ceremony is super short and almost all of it is in English. My SO's family will be watching via skype and his mom and dad don't speak a word of English. Also, there will be one part where my SO and I read in Spanish and a few people from my family won't understand.

I was thinking just writing up the entire ceremony (word for word), one side English, one side Spanish, so everyone could follow along. But then I thought they'd be able to read ahead and since the ceremony is so short they'd know everything that was going to happen. Is that a silly worry? I don't even know what wedding programs are supposed to look like. My friend who is marrying us does not speak Spanish so she can't do everything in both languages.

Also, while we're at it, anyone know a good FREE downloadable editing program where I can make these programs look fancier than typed up on Word? I don't want to pay for anything because I won't use it again.

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions would be more than welcomed!

[snow_girl]

I think that even if they don't understand the words you are saying, they will see your expressions and get the gist of it. I wouldn't write out the entire ceremony word for word. It might be nice to have the poem translated (thats the spanish part if I am correct?) You could even say "I do' In spanish. Both families will understand that.

[TwoThree]

So, I have absolutely no clue when it comes to wedding etiquette and stuff like that, but writing the program in both languages strikes me as a pretty swell idea. You could hand them (or rather have someone do it) to the guests when you get to the location so they can read along if they don't understand. And you could make them promise on their honour that they won't read ahead!

The person who married us was kind enough to include English for my benefit or I would probably have said "I do" without understanding what I was agreeing for. But that's not a problem for you as you SO understands English.

[mllebamako]

I think if it's a concern to you, you could do a ceremony program but I also don't think it's really necessary. Or maybe you could just type up a translation for your SO's parents so they can be included. I think it's okay not to translate the Spanish poem, it can be like a secret-code moment for you guys

Our ceremony was bilingual (French/Bambara) and when we showed my Dad (who doesn't speak either) the video, we just told him what was being said. We said "I do" in all 3 languages. I think, for you guys, saying "I do" in both languages would be a nice touch!

[kittyo9]

I think typing it up in both languages would be great. I think I would do that if both my SO's mom (who also speaks Spanish but not English) and my parents (who speak English but not Spanish) were watching our wedding. It's a nice way to include everyone. Even though it's short, I don't think there's any "shock factor" that you need to preserve, so you're not really spoiling anything, and they can read along if they want to know what you're saying. What's going to make the difference is the emotion on your face, so I don't think just having the words typed would take away from anything.

You could try making the pamphlet in PowerPoint. It's less restricted than Word. You can change the slide size to the dimensions of the paper you want to use and lay everything out where you want it. I'm used to just tweaking everything in Word/PPT until it looks nice, though.

[lucybelle]

Thanks for the insight guys!

I just went all gung-ho and translated the entire ceremony into Spanish. It was sort of a pain in the ass, but I feel all accomplished now. The great thing about the poem that I'm going to read in Spanish, is since it's popular there's already English translations on the internet! So I just had to copy-paste for that part. Still need to figure out what my SO's going to read. And if he picks something too hard to translate I just won't do it!

I've somewhat thrown together a program on PowerPoint, where it's the easiest (for me at least) to put things where ever you want and add pictures and such. I'm doing one in English and another in Spanish. Think I might print one on one side, and the other on the other side. That way my "Cuban" relatives (my mom and uncle are all into being Cuban, when they're only like 1/4 Cuban) can pretend to follow the Spanish part I'm doing it all grey-scale and I hope to print it out on nice colored card stock.

I think it would make my SO's parents reeeeally happy to have the full translation. The other day my SO's mom said "I can't believe I won't be at my son's wedding" and it made me feel really bad. So I think this is the least I can do.

I'm still playing around with the Spanish one to try to fit it all on the same page. Right now I'm like 6 lines short! I think if I make the font any smaller the parents wouldn't be able to read it. hmmm....

[jennten]

Thanks for the insight guys!]
I'm still playing around with the Spanish one to try to fit it all on the same page. Right now I'm like 6 lines short! I think if I make the font any smaller the parents wouldn't be able to read it. hmmm....

Have you changed the margins at all? Looked at fonts that are smaller but still readable? (As opposed to just changing the size of a font)

[Kristin91]

Have you changed the margins at all? Looked at fonts that are smaller but still readable? (As opposed to just changing the size of a font)

Sometimes if the font is Arial vs Times New Roman it's easier to read because it doesn't have the extra lines on each letter. That might be helpful to make the font slightly smaller?

[ioanna]

So glad you're going with this! I'm certain they will all be very grateful, especially your SO's parents

[nicole]

I just made a "sort of" wedding program- just in word. I went on dafont.com to get some different fonts, played with word art a little, I think they look good! Just trying to figure out how to print double-sided and have everything on the right page now! I really wish Microsoft still included Publisher with it's program package, it would make everything so much easier!

Also, my SO's cousin married a Mexican guy- her entire ceremony was in Spanish, and she didn't do what your doing- the Americans just sat and twiddled their thumbs till the ceremony was done lol