How to Plan a Bilingual Wedding

Multicultural, multi-faith weddings can be a melting pot of joyous, colourful celebrations where two cultures merge for one beautiful bash! But what happens if you need to consider multiple languages within your wedding? Planning a bilingual wedding sounds like a challenge but there are steps which you can follow to ensure no one feels left out, they have access to all the information they need, and you remain in control of your wedding plans.

First things first, (not a hard-sell, just a fact), you need a wedding website! Building a wedding website on Say I do means you can customise all of the different elements available and personalise them to make sure it’s reflective of you both as a couple and an extension of your overall wedding ‘theme’. Having a digital hub is the best way to share information with your guests and will end up becoming an integral wedding planning tool. When creating your wedding website and including your event details, we would recommend you write them in both languages. For example:

Please RSVP by 29th December | Veuillez rsvp avant le 29 décembre

Handily, we also have an option to turn on RSVP translations for your guests. Currently we can accommodate translations for English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German and Italian. This way your guests can respond to your wedding invitation with confidence.

As our wedding websites are so highly customisable it might also be a good idea and nice touch to include some information on the culture of your country. As well as what your guests can expect from the location and wedding ceremony. These personalised details will make your guests feel close to the planning and look forward to your unique celebrations when they come around.

Next up, your invitations. Your wedding invitations are likely to be the first piece of communication your guests will receive from you in relation to your big day. So whether you are keeping it digital via email or printing traditional paper invites to match your wedding website it’s wise to keep everything cohesive and accessible by creating invitations in both languages. Depending on how much information you wish to give away at this point you could either create two different designs to separate the languages or include both translations on one.

When it comes to your actual wedding there will be some moments throughout the celebrations when your guests might appreciate a little help. Some elements of a wedding ceremony don’t require words at all, such as a fire ceremony, hand-fasting, lighting candles, smashing glass, and of course the first kiss. But other parts such as readings, speeches etc prove a bit more difficult to communicate. If you and / or your partner are bilingual, why not say your vows or speeches in both languages? Providing they're not too long! You also have the option to hire an interpreter if you think this might be necessary. Alternatively, you could provide printed out written translations for guests to follow along as things are happening.

As you have possibly already worked out, planning a bilingual wedding will require a little more work and effort. But in the end your guests will be super happy to be attending your special day no matter what and will appreciate any thoughtful details to make the experience more inclusive for all.