Italian-English wedding interpreting during ceremony and dinner: Irene and Rolando

Working together

When it comes to weddings, I want to meet my couple at least virtually before the wedding day to have a more direct and personal bond. On this occasion we dived deep into the wedding planning, though they had already shared many key details. During the call we discussed the ceremony and my service, setting out together where I would be and the timing needed to translate from one language into another. Irene and Rolando seemed reassured and happy to know how their wedding ceremony would be done with interpreting.

As with every interpreting assignment, preparation is the first crucial step to ensuring excellent service. For wedding assignments, one of the first tasks is to check with the Italian town hall that all documents have been delivered on time and agree when I’ll take my interpreter (this is when the interpreter assumes legal responsibility for faithfully translating the wedding aloud to let let those who do not speak Italian understand and feel involved). I then gathered and translated the guests’ speeches as well as Irene and Rolando’s vows. Finally, I simulated similar situations and I practiced pronouncing the name of the bride and her witness.

Services Irene and Rolando chose

Irene and Rolando asked me to be their Italian-English interpreter during their wedding ceremony to translate the celebration’s wording and Irene’s answers. I was by the celebrant’s side, facing the couple.

The couple asked me to help them during the reception to allow their families to talk to each other with no language barrier. They planned to have a unique table where the newly husband and wife would be sat together with their parents and Rolando’s brother: I was to sit between them, strategically positioned to listen to and translate aloud what each party said.

Both during the ceremony, the aperitivo, and the dinner, I interpreted in liaison mode which allowed me to translate aloud the discussion between two or more persons sentence by sentence. This is the way I prefer to translate at weddings, so that people who don’t speak Italian can follow the ceremony and at the same time the celebration rhythm can be kept, avoiding someone speaking for too long in a foreign language and boring the guests who don’t understand it. During the reception too liaison interpreting was ideal: the two families could talk to each other naturally.

Difficulties

Irene and Rolando were super in providing all the info I needed the first time they contacted me, and they were available to answer any questions from my side. This made my job much easier! However, a week before the wedding they wrote to me asking if I could celebrate their wedding in a symbolic ceremony since the documents needed by the Italian town hall weren’t correct and they didn’t have enough time to provide new, correct ones. Luckily, while we were trying to solve this issue, the town hall informed us that everything was ok after all and assured us the ceremony could take place as planned in the presence of a town hall representative.

Irene and Rolando were supported by a wedding planner I got in touch with a few days before the wedding. We talked about the schedule for the day, when I would arrive, and the room where I could change for the ceremony. But when I asked where I would sit during the reception, she told me I was supposed to sit at a different table from the couple. This was a problem because meant I would have to stand behind their parents during the entire dinner. This position, in such a convivial situation like a wedding meal, is less than ideal, because the guests would have had me behind them and could have felt uncomfortable. Luckily, this turned out to just be a mistake and I sat at the couple’s table, between the two families.

Another situation that caused tensions were speeches by the guests and witnesses at the reception. Though I asked to be sent any speeches in writing in advance, Rolando’s witness didn’t meet this deadline and told me he was going to improvise his speech. As an interpreter I didn’t have a clue about what he would say or if he would have quoted a famous author, and this makes my job very tough. Moreover when it was his turn, the drink was flowing and all the guests had already had a few, including him. Far from ideal! Luckily the speech was short and easy, and I translated him without any problems.
A similar situation happened a bit later with some other guests who were carried away by the festive mood and decided to share nice words to the couple improvising a speech that wasn’t agreed or prepared. Not everyone is able to talk in front of an audience, especially after having a few (or more) drinks, and doing this could result in a speech without any structure toit that is almost impossible to translate. I was lucky enough to have to interpret only a few easy sentences.

What the client has to say

Fill out the contact form if you want me to be by your side for your Italian wedding as an English-Italian interpreter.

With my help you can not only have your union legally acknowledged in your country, but also allow all your guests to talk and feel included during the celebration.
Outline your needs in the form and I’ll get back to you with my quote within 48 hours.