Bilingual Weddings – The Invitations (II)

by HelenMarch 11, 2009 4

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It’s enough work thinking about the style of your invitation, the color and motif. Should they give something away about the dress? Should they hint at the color scheme or the flowers? And what about the content?

While there is clear wedding invitation etiquette about how you word a wedding invitation as well as examples that you yourself have been sent, what if your wedding is multicultural and you need invitations in two or more languages?

There are so many things to think about, most of them practical. In an ideal world your invitation would be completely bilingual and would be sent that way to everyone. But when deciding this you must, of course, think about cost. Do two languages mean paying twice as much for printing, packaging and posting? Here are some thoughts on getting your bilingual invitations to suit your taste and pocket.

Can your guests be divided into clear language groups? If so, one alternative is to send monolingual invitations to the guests according to their language group.

To do this you need to be really organised and have spares of each version in case of late invitations or handwriting mistakes.
Of course, you probably want all your guests to capture the international spirit of the day. If so, what about booklet-like invitations with the languages facing each other on the inside? You can put the guests’ names on the side that corresponds to their language group.
Make it in a two-sided card-format and print on both sides. With this choice you might have to ditch the decoration, but it’s practical, clear and, if you choose good material, elegant too.

There are also some cultural issues that you should take into account.

Are there any specific traditions in your country regarding wedding invitations – size? color? How can you accommodate them?
Remember that you might not necessarily be able to directly translate the texts? Try and stick to a certain word count, so that your invites are balanced.
Should your language go in a certain type of font? Be careful when giving computer files in non-Roman alphabets to the printer and make sure he or she has the software to read and print them properly.

Source: Sunlit Letterpress