Looking to host a bilingual wedding and embrace two languages? We’ve got you! There are so many ways to incorporate different languages into a bilingual wedding – from the invitations and website to the music choices and everything in between!
Invitations and website
Your wedding invitation is the first taster that your guests will have of your wedding! And then your wedding website is where they will go to get more detailed information about the Big Day. Use these spaces to share that your wedding will be bilingual and introduce your guests to the concept by using both languages in writing!
Related: Wedding Websites [Part One], [Part Two], [Part Three]
Wedding ceremony
Your wedding ceremony is the perfect place to include personal touches! Celebrants and solemnisers love working with couples to include special poems, readings, hymns and rituals. It’s also a great space to have both languages represented.
If you’re working with a bilingual wedding celebrant or solemniser, particularly one who is fluent in both languages, they could speak in both languages at different points in the ceremony.
Make sure to include both languages in the printed ceremony programs and mass booklets.
Related: How To Personalise Your Wedding Ceremony
Translations
Where appropriate, have a trusted friend or family member translate special readings and poems. You won’t need to translate everything, as sometimes the emotion behind the word is what’s communicated.
You could have some readings or poems shared audibly, with a written translation in your ceremony program. Or you could have the same reading shared by two people, each in a different language.
There are so many options!
Your wedding signs
I’m a big fan of wedding signs! They create opportunities to direct your guests and to inject some personality too. Use your wedding signs to show off the two languages you wish to highlight.
Consider the welcome signs, seating plan, menus and labels on favours and adapt them for your bilingual wedding.
Music choices
Select music in both languages! Once your guests join the dance floor, they’ll enjoy a music choice which reflects the languages you love.
Bonus: choose a band or DJ who is fluent in both languages and able to speak or sing to the crowd in both!
