A question about wedding

[Cristiana]

Well I dont know if this might be a silly or a serious question, but I was thinking about it few nights ago.
When I try to sleep my mind gets full of every kind of thoughts lol..

Talking about international couples where you and your SO speak two different languages.. In which language will the wedding be celebrated/was celebrated?

I mean, let's pretend I am from Spain and he is from Germany. My family doesnt speak German and his one doesnt speak spanish (or just a little bit). We decided to celebrate it in Germany, with our families, friends and everybody.
Which language do we chose? German because it's in Germany? English?

This may sound so stupid but is something I've been thinking about

[Lostviolinist]

Really a tough one. Some people might try two different ceremonies. I thought about having screens with subtitles if it is scripted enough but that has it's own issues. Maybe they don't need to understand. Just a special program with explanations could be enough for those that don't.

We've thought about it too. Since only my parents and sister would attend on my side I thought it was good enough to just hold it in Chinese and I would personally explain beforehand what everything meant. Well, in the end we decided we were too poor for a ceremony and won't have one at all. haha.

But, assuming a wedding ceremony is important to you, I hope you can figure something out.

[whatruckus]

When my brother and his wife got married, it was interesting. She's Vietnamese and we're Chinese (Cantonese/Toisanese). When they were doing the Tea Ceremony, her family would speak their parts in Vietnamese and then after, explain in English. My side of the family would speak in Chinese, and then explain in English. Mostly because my brother and his wife have a lot of non-Asian friends, or they're like me and my brothers/cousins where they don't speak Chinese or Vietnamese fluently. I found this to be a great idea because I could watch them speak in both languages and still understand.

Also, we all live in the US and they got married in NY.

[snow_girl]

Could you not have a bilingual ceremony? The person that is marrying you, could say the thing and then someone could be beside them saying it in the other language right after.

[Cristiana]

Could you not have a bilingual ceremony? The person that is marrying you, could say the thing and then someone could be beside them saying it in the other language right after.

Yes this could be a good choice.
The most simple answer is always the one you'll never think of

[differentcountries]

This fall, I was in a bulingual wedding in Turkey. The bride was Russian, the groom Turkish, and the guests were Russian, Turkish, English and Scandinavian. The actual wedding ritual had happened the night before, with the imam. At the party, the Russian guests kept mostly to themselves because they spoke neither Turkish nor English. They had their own section in the wedding where they gave speaches to the bride, sang to her and gave her some token gifts that symbolized fertility. Then was a Turkish section where people would hang their money or gold coin gifts on the bride and groom. There was a Turkish band playing and singing in Turkish. The main languages were Turkish and English. There was some talk about that someone should translate to the Russians, but the only person who knew English, Russian and some Turkish was the bride.

[Dziubka]

My SO and I both know German and Polish and so do a lot of our friends, but our families only speak one language.

Our friend translated (albeit very -errm- creative and freestyle ) what registrar said.

If we had had a bigger wedding I would have asked to get the speech beforehand (or would have asked a friend to do it, so I wouldn't already know it) and make a translation on something like a powerpoint presentation, that we'd show during the ceremony. Kinda like subtitles.

[MissButterfly]

Not a wedding story, but relevant anyway: I was visiting Finland a few weeks ago and attended a church service in Swedish. The people there who only spoke Finnish received ear plugs with a receiver device, and a woman in the back of the room would sit there with a microphone translating the whole ceremony at the same time it happened. A friend of my friend was kind enough to do the same for me in English, so I could follow everything at the same time as it happened in my ear. I had never seen/experienced anything like this before but it was really cool and worked well! Though it might be a bit of an expensive option, maybe some venues have such equipment available. I know my dad went to a bilingual wedding once and they just had the programmes in both languages I believe. At least there are lots of options

[whatruckus]

Not a wedding story, but relevant anyway: I was visiting Finland a few weeks ago and attended a church service in Swedish. The people there who only spoke Finnish received ear plugs with a receiver device, and a woman in the back of the room would sit there with a microphone translating the whole ceremony at the same time it happened. A friend of my friend was kind enough to do the same for me in English, so I could follow everything at the same time as it happened in my ear. I had never seen/experienced anything like this before but it was really cool and worked well! Though it might be a bit of an expensive option, maybe some venues have such equipment available. I know my dad went to a bilingual wedding once and they just had the programmes in both languages I believe. At least there are lots of options

Wow, that is really nifty and I like that!!

[differentcountries]

It also depends a bit on weather of not you want to have everything planned, with a timetable and everything, or if you wing it more. The upside of "German planning" is that it is easy to describe the events and translate the speackes and so on, but usually at least part of the events will be something not planned, or it could be not everyone is willing to give away their works and jokes forhand. Also, if you have an ongoing transation; is one person willing to be the translator the whole day? Or is there a system where more people can do the translator job? Can the people who speak more languages translate for themselves? Is it imporant that everyone understands everything, or are you ok with some getting more the general gist of what takes place?

The other part of the wedding is the more social side. Have you arranged the table so that people are mixed but at the same time there is a possability that someone who knows more than one language can translate? Lots to think about... And then you have the different wedding traditions as well.