Dual-language STDs and invites, anyone?

[mrscushion]

My first post in this forum -- hi

!

Has anyone had experience with bilingual/"dual-language" STDs and stationary? I was just browsing STD inspirations online when it occurred to me that all my stationary might have to be in two languages, as people from two continents are being invited. I searched PS but couldn''t find any relevant threads. Has anyone dealt with inviting people who speak different languages? Did you just choose English and that''s it? Or did you go dual? And if so, did you one set in two languages or print two sets, one in each language? (Costs!

)

Anyone remember relevant PS threads other info that might help, please let me know. I thought I''d ask.

 

[Honey228]

It''s pretty much up to you, depending on the money that you want to spend. Also, if it''s a more common foreign language you might be able to find a company that readily makes them or if it''s a rarer language you might have to go more custom.

http://melissasmitten.blogspot.com/2008/07/bilingual-wedding-invitation-etiquette.html

I like the idea of interweaving texts if it is easy to read and doesn''t look too busy.

Here''s an example of one language on each side: http://www.oliostyle.com/wedding/fleurdelys_invitation.php

 

[Honey228]

I also saw a lot of split ones like these.

 

[CDNinNYC]

We have a number of guests overseas and thought about doing two sets of invites/STDs but the hassle and cost was too much and we just went with English.

 

[mrscushion]

Great stuff, honey228, thanks a lot! I like Melissa's stuff on etsy, too! Thanks again.

CDN, thanks for the opinion -- I hear you on the cost.

 

[Octavia]

A friend who is a graphic designer is doing our stationery, so we don''t have to worry too much about costs. We did two sets for save-the-dates, one in each language. I''m still trying to decide how to do our invitations, I think it would be neat to have both languages on them but fitting it all in could be difficult. My friend and I still have to sit down to talk about invitations, so I''ll probably ask him if he has any good ideas or if we should just do two sets again.

I know that some of the girls on Weddingbee did dual-language (and I think even triple-language) invitations, so that''s a good place to go for inspiration!

 

[Clairitek]

I recently received an STD that had both languages on it- French and English. They were really neat! I liked seeing the words in a different language than my own.

I think that the invite that Honey posted before is really tastefully done.

 

[mrscushion]

Thanks for the help, Octavia and clairitek! It's true, it is kinda neat to see words in other languages and learn what they mean.

 

[smiles]

most of the ones I have seen are a folded invitation (like think birthday card or greeting card when it folds in half) usually the front has the monogram or a quote or something and then each side on the inside has a different language....

 

[allycat0303]

I ordered mine in two languages (Vietnamese and French), all on the same invitation. I saw the proofs and it looked ok (a lot of writing though). We had to put both languages because my father''s family would have been insulted if it was only English. So we split it. Fiance''s family is french and mine is Vietnamese. All of our friends speak french and English, so English was the language left OFF the invitation even though it''s the language we both speak together.

 

[mrscushion]

Thanks smiles and alleycat. Everyone''s input is v. helpful for this w-planning rookie here.

 

[glueck]

Our invites are in german and english. We decided to mke invites and rsvps in each language separately. They were diy invites, so its wasnt a complicated process.

Here is another inspiration design for dual language invite. I think it came from Handmade by Alison in Maryland.

 

[wannaBMrsH]

We did our Save the Dates in English and Spanish separately. We printed about 120 in English and about 30 in Spanish.

Here is the English one.

 

[wannaBMrsH]

And now the Spanish one. I have to add also, that we had to reprint our cards when our TA messed up our reservation and we had to change the travel dates.

 

[AmberGretchen]

One of my friends, who is Chinese, had dual-sided invitations, with English on one side and Chinese on the other - I thought that worked nicely

 

[mrscushion]

Thanks, ladies.

glueck: just wondering, did you do save-the-dates for your German guests? I think they are not as common in good old Europe from what I''ve been told.

 

[teapot]

i had dual language invites.

I ordered basically two sets. One in each language. My invites were A6 sized and I didn''t want to crowd everything. However, I have received invitations with two languages on it. Usually they would split it and have one side be in one language and the other half in the other. I have also seen it where it was done on the reverse. The one thing you need to be sure of is to have people who are native speakers of the alternative language read it. My cousin''s invites were riddled with typos and misspellings since she didn''t have others proofread it.

 

[Octavia]

mscushion, my fiance was so confused about what save-the-dates are! He keeps calling them invitations. They really aren''t done in his country (which is or isn''t considered "Europe," depending on who you ask

) but since his friends and family have to make travel arrangements to the US, we''re sending them anyway.

 

[mrscushion]

Thanks, teapot. I don''t know yet what I am going to do -- still 18 months to go till my very tentative Sept 2010 date -- but I''ll keep you posted.

Octavia, I know what you mean. There are going to be a whole bunch of things like that for me in the wedding planning process, I can already tell. The issue is that I am used to how weddings are done here in the U.S., but my mom (who will want to be very involved) and the rest of the fam is overseas.... and it looks like the wedding will most likely be in Europe as well.

 

[glueck]

We did do STD for European family and friends. Many of them thought it was the invitation. It really isnt necessary here, but because we have having a destination wedding in the summer, we really wanted to give as much notice as possible. Europeans take summer holiday seriously....LONG vaycay...so we wanted to be factored in early! We are glad we sent them.

 

[mrscushion]

Date: 3/17/2009 9:06:24 PM
Author: glueck
We did do STD for European family and friends. Many of them thought it was the invitation. It really isnt necessary here, but because we have having a destination wedding in the summer, we really wanted to give as much notice as possible. Europeans take summer holiday seriously....LONG vaycay...so we wanted to be factored in early! We are glad we sent them.

Thanks! I am doing a DW, too. I just have to make sure that the STD is as simple as possible so it doesnt get confused with the invite.

 

[dreaming of the day]

Hi, and welcome!

I have invitations going to Portugal, Greece, Switzerland and Holland. My STD''s were all in English, and most of my invitations were too. I did, however, do the Greek invitations in Greek! I didn''t bother with the Portuguese, Swiss, or Dutch because we were only sending about five or less of each. We did about 25 invitations to Greece. It was important to us to do those invitations in Greek because many were going to smaller villages, where they may not speak English - for most of those invites, we are not expecting attendance, but we know they will hold on to them as a keepsake. It was hard to do, because the wording is so different and I couldn''t just google a greek wedding invitation - so they were very simple, but I was very proud of myself (it is my Fiance''s father''s side that is Greek).

Hope that helps!