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Bilingual wedding -- toasts/speeches?

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mrscushion

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I realize that not that many of you ladies will have dealt with this, but thought I would throw my question out to you anyway --

For anyone who's hosted a bilingual wedding, did you have guests who only spoke one language, but not the other? If so, how did you deal with speeches and toasts? Did do any translation of some sort from one language to the other?

I'm worried about the American side of my guests who obviously do not speak German and some elderly guests who do not speak English. I WILL have people from both sides wanting to give toasts at either the wedding or the RD, as both sides are a loquacious bunch.

Thanks for any advice.
 

Morgie44

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We had some guests that only spoke Spanish at our wedding, but we did all of the toast in English, because the toast givers either spoke English only, or were not comfortable speaking in Spanish. We did incorporate Spanish during our ceremony and the music during the reception. I think if you have a mix of speeches it, it would be fine...
 

vc10um

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Most important is going to be the emotion conveyed by the speeches. It''s kind of like opera. You don''t necessarily need to understand the language to understand what''s going on.

Granted...the little bits and pieces of humor and specifics may get lost in translation...but the idea and the emotion behind the words will translate to any language.

That being said...if you would like to have someone do a summary translation after the speech or toast about what was said, I don''t think that would detract from the speech. But I wouldn''t do it during, as the speaker may be uncomfortable.
 

princesss

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What about putting a bilingual friend at the table with your German relatives to translate the English speeches quietly as they go?

Not sure what to do for the English speakers with German toasts...
 

mrscushion

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Date: 1/26/2010 10:58:07 AM
Author: princesss
What about putting a bilingual friend at the table with your German relatives to translate the English speeches quietly as they go?

Not sure what to do for the English speakers with German toasts...

Oh. Now that's a straightforward, good idea.
9.gif
Not that many fully fluent people around, but I can probably find a cousin or two who might do reasonably well.

Gosh, I love this board. I also like the other advice, about emotion speaking clearly and words becoming less relevant... particularly if there is a mix the two languages.

Thank you!
 

Clairitek

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Date: 1/26/2010 11:05:40 AM
Author: mscushion

Date: 1/26/2010 10:58:07 AM
Author: princesss
What about putting a bilingual friend at the table with your German relatives to translate the English speeches quietly as they go?

Not sure what to do for the English speakers with German toasts...

Oh. Now that''s a straightforward, good idea.
9.gif
Not that many fully fluent people around, but I can probably find a cousin or two who might do reasonably well.

Gosh, I love this board. I also like the other advice, about emotion speaking clearly and words becoming less relevant... particularly if there is a mix the two languages.

Thank you!
This is a great idea. I went to a bilinglau wedding once with about 330 other people. It was Laotian (not sure if I spelled that correctly) and English. The hardest part for me was how all of the English speaking people would start talking amongst themselves when the bride''s family was speaking and then the opposite when the groom''s family was speaking. It got pretty annoying after a while. Even though I didn''t understand the bride''s family I still wanted to show respect by being quiet and listening. I hope that people are your wedding are respectful! Having translators might help hold peoples attention since they will at least know what is being said, or the gist of it.
 

pinki

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My brother''s wife is Hmong and they had bilinqual invitations that I had to go through hoops to get designed and translated, english on the right panel and Hmong on the left. They actually had 2 weddings and 1 reception. They had a traditional Hmong wedding all in Hmong, and then a week later a traditional Lutheran wedding, all in english followed by the reception. Speeches were given in English, and then re-read by a family member who translated into Hmong. There were only 2 speeches so it wasn''t that bad to sit through. So each side of the family went through ceremonies that not everyone could understand, but like others said here, you don''t need to know the language to understand the emotion and importance of it all.

Man...thinking back on all that I can''t believe I got all of it done! I ended up handling most of it as my brother was in the Navy and out at sea, his wife lived in Kentucky and the weddings were where I live, in Wisconsin. Not only did I have to work on all the American wedding nuances and errands, but I also had to do all the Hmong wedding tasks like finding a Shaman to do the ceremony, buying silver bars as a dowery, and finding a whole pig to eat at their dinner for the Hmong ceremony. It''s so weird looking back on it; no wonder why my own wedding seems so easy to plan!

Cj
 

princesss

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Date: 1/26/2010 11:05:40 AM
Author: mscushion

Date: 1/26/2010 10:58:07 AM
Author: princesss
What about putting a bilingual friend at the table with your German relatives to translate the English speeches quietly as they go?

Not sure what to do for the English speakers with German toasts...

Oh. Now that''s a straightforward, good idea.
9.gif
Not that many fully fluent people around, but I can probably find a cousin or two who might do reasonably well.

Gosh, I love this board. I also like the other advice, about emotion speaking clearly and words becoming less relevant... particularly if there is a mix the two languages.

Thank you!
Glad I could help.
1.gif
I think bilingual events are so much fun! I went to a wedding once where me, my dad, my siblings, and the bride were the only people fluent in English (I think her husband spoke some English, but at the time wasn''t very comfortable with it). We found ways to communicate and had a blast! People can definitely understand emotion if they can''t understand words.
 

mrscushion

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Date: 1/26/2010 12:30:25 PM
Author: pinki
My brother''s wife is Hmong and they had bilinqual invitations that I had to go through hoops to get designed and translated, english on the right panel and Hmong on the left. They actually had 2 weddings and 1 reception. They had a traditional Hmong wedding all in Hmong, and then a week later a traditional Lutheran wedding, all in english followed by the reception. Speeches were given in English, and then re-read by a family member who translated into Hmong. There were only 2 speeches so it wasn''t that bad to sit through. So each side of the family went through ceremonies that not everyone could understand, but like others said here, you don''t need to know the language to understand the emotion and importance of it all.
Man...thinking back on all that I can''t believe I got all of it done! I ended up handling most of it as my brother was in the Navy and out at sea, his wife lived in Kentucky and the weddings were where I live, in Wisconsin. Not only did I have to work on all the American wedding nuances and errands, but I also had to do all the Hmong wedding tasks like finding a Shaman to do the ceremony, buying silver bars as a dowery, and finding a whole pig to eat at their dinner for the Hmong ceremony. It''s so weird looking back on it; no wonder why my own wedding seems so easy to plan!
Cj
Whoa, pinki, I can''t believe you did all of that. Kudos. Makes my own planning efforts looking pretty easy in comparison!
 

mrscushion

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Date: 1/26/2010 12:16:27 PM
Author: Clairitek
Date: 1/26/2010 11:05:40 AM
This is a great idea. I went to a bilinglau wedding once with about 330 other people. It was Laotian (not sure if I spelled that correctly) and English. The hardest part for me was how all of the English speaking people would start talking amongst themselves when the bride's family was speaking and then the opposite when the groom's family was speaking. It got pretty annoying after a while. Even though I didn't understand the bride's family I still wanted to show respect by being quiet and listening. I hope that people are your wedding are respectful! Having translators might help hold peoples attention since they will at least know what is being said, or the gist of it.
Thanks for the anecdote, Clairitek, that's of course what I'd like to avoid. My wedding is a lot smaller and I think (hope) the attendees are more polite than that, but still, some translation would be useful to prevent this problem (people getting deadly bored) from happening in the first place.
 

yssie

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Date: 1/26/2010 9:37:20 AM
Author:mscushion
I realize that not that many of you ladies will have dealt with this, but thought I would throw my question out to you anyway --

For anyone who's hosted a bilingual wedding, did you have guests who only spoke one language, but not the other? If so, how did you deal with speeches and toasts? Did do any translation of some sort from one language to the other?

I'm worried about the American side of my guests who obviously do not speak German and some elderly guests who do not speak English. I WILL have people from both sides wanting to give toasts at either the wedding or the RD, as both sides are a loquacious bunch.

Thanks for any advice.
YES!!


This is something we haven't figured out how to address - none of FI's family speaks Tamil, lots of my family doesn't speak English - or speaks very very little. I'd love both sides to be able to understand all the toasts in their nuanced glory, but having them translated during or right after just seems - overkill, somehow, especially as we're expecting a few (5-6) people to want to say something. I'm resigining myself to the fact that we may just have to make do with some in one language and some int he other, and a lot of translating going on at the tables..
 

wannaBMrsH

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We did EVERYTHING bilingually (sp?) from the beginning. We did our STD cards in English and a then fully in Spanish. We sent out information packets in English and also full information packets in Spanish for our destination wedding (it took me HOURS to translate all the excursions and activities!) and we also sent out English invitations and Spanish ones as well as English Thank you cards and Spanish Thank you cards.

We had English programs and Spanish programs and our ceremony was not necessarily fully bi-lingual, but we had some things in English (welcome, vows, two of the readings) and some in Spanish (exchanging of gifts: lasso, coins, bible & rosary, one of the readings) and the programs really helped everyone figure out what was going on during the "other" language portions.

For the reception, we had English and Spanish menu cards with assigned seating. The toasts were actually the most surprising because BIL doesn''t speak Spanish, but he translated the highlights of his speech to us for my family! I was so touched! My sister''s speech was very sweet and short and everyone understood what was said and then my father spoke to me in Spanish, but thanked DH and all of our guests in English. He doesn''t ever speak English and he hates that he feels that he he''s "messing up."

I think my "translate everything!" mantra caught on with everyone! haha! As far as music, we did a mixture as well. DH and I danced to a song in English for our first song; I danced a song in Spanish with my Dad; he danced to an English song with his mom and our last dance was in Spanish.

That said, it was a HUGE undertaking and we worked with a graphic designer to create the invitations and a Monogram suite and then I customized all the Spanish to it. We then printed all of our stationary (menu cards, invites, programs, information packets, etc.) and assembled everything on our own. Not everyone has that kind of time...maybe you can use a few ideas or see if you have any members of your wedding party that could help you with the translations?
 

mrscushion

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yssie, wanna -- thanks for posting. It''s nice to see that other people have this issue, too. Your feedback gives me good perspective.

wanna -- I am also going to do fully bilingual stationery, although my save-the-dates went only to the Americans.
 

cleokizzy

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i think it would be fine. my gut tells me that my moh will speak in Filipino when she does the speech and i wouldnt be bothered if others can''t understand it... the speech is directed to me anyway
 

iheartscience

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My brother''s wife is Swedish but they had their ceremony in the US. The ceremony itself was a Catholic mass and was in English, but the reception was more bilingual. Apparently it''s a Swedish tradition for whoever feels like it to get up and say a few words. Of course all of the guests who actually did that were Swedish. From what I can remember they did their speeches in Swedish and some of them also said a few words afterwards in English. (Basically a summary.) None of the English speakers really minded not know exactly what was said.

All of the printed material for the wedding was only in English. Most of the Swedish guests spoke English pretty well so I don''t think it was a problem.
 

mrscushion

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cleokizzy -- thanks. It''s good to know that I may be worrying a bit too much about this. That said, while a speech is mostly meant for us, I do also want to make sure my guests aren''t bored to pieces sitting through it.

thing -- it''s nice that the speakers at that wedding summarized their speeches in English. I hope my guests will do the same. Swedes speak really good English!
 

parrot tulips

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I had very few guests who only spoke Korean, but there were some. We did our ceremony & speeches in English. Luckily our DJ spoke a little Korean, so he said a few words of welcome at the beginning of our reception, but that was about it. I think it''s nice to incorporate a little bit of both languages. Translating EVERYTHING becomes a bit tedious as a guest, though. My cousin had a full Catholic mass in both languages, and at the end of the 2 1/2 hour ceremony (of which the English translation was so bad, it may as well have been Greek), I wanted to tear my hair out.
 
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