Spice up your Site

We see lots of wedding celebrations where guests speak more than one language, and we are loving it! My own wedding was a blend of English and Italian, and neither side spoke the other language, which made logistics challenging. We hired a translator for the day, and I’m still not sure what happened during the English-language speeches, but my husband and his Italian family were in stitches (as in laughing SO hard that wine was spurting out of their noses) pretty much the entire time.

We receive lots of inquiries about whether it is possible to use Glo to create a wedding website and email wedding invitations in multiple languages (hint: the answer is YES!) and whether we have any top tips to offer. I always point couples toward this fabulous example of a dual-language wedding website and online wedding invitations.  Along with this example, here are the top tips we like to share:

Multi-language pages

Some couples start out thinking that they need to create different websites for each language or different pages, but what we recommend is to simply include both languages on the same page. This is much easier for you logistically and it also signals to your guests that you are planning a celebration catered towards everyone that is attending (and not favoring one set of guests over the other.) Plus, most guests are really excited at the idea of attending multi-language weddings as the know they’ll have a chance to experience different cultures coming together in celebration.

Multi- language Page titles

Along with including both languages on a page, be sure that the page titles on the menu reflect this as well. Information is not useful for a guest if they don’t know where to find it.

Multi-language Events & RSVP questions

On glosite.com – our system is set up so that you can add different events to your website (each with an event description and customizable RSVP questions) and then specify which guests are allowed to see each event on your website when they view. This feature is great for those hosting a rehearsal dinner or limited-attendance ceremony that not all of your guests are invited to attend. This feature also allows you to create a different version of each event in different languages. This option makes things easy if you have specific RSVP questions that you’d like to ask guests who speak one language and not the other or events that are language-specific (i.e., event will primarily be attended by guests who all speak the same language.)

If you do not have language-specific events or RSVP questions, then we still think that creating multi-language event descriptions and multi-language RSVP questions is the easiest from a logistics perspective. How you tackle this part of your website is completely up to you!

Multiple versions of wedding invitations and save the dates

In contrast to your wedding website, where we suggest combining multiple languages in one place, for invitations and save the dates we suggest creating different versions for each language. The benefit is that you’re not trying to cram too many words together in a smaller space, plus you can customize the invitation wording as needed for each audience.  If you are sending email wedding invitations on glosite.com, you can create an unlimited versions of an invitation and then easily send each version to the appropriate set of guests.

Some Glosite.com specifics

Logins and Passwords

Glosites require that guests log in to view the Events and RSVP pages so that we know what events to display for the guest that is viewing. If your guest clicks through from an email wedding invitation or Glo message, they will be logged in automatically. However, if they come to your site by typing in the URL (for instance, if you are sending paper invitations and including the URL), then guests will need to log in using their email address or by searching for their name (it’s your choice.) The login instructions are in English, but any browser with an automatic translator installed will translate these instructions. To be on the safe side, you can also opt include a note on this login page to give your non-English speaking guests any extra guidance they might need. You’ll find this feature on “Manage Glösite” > “Privacy and Login settings.”

You can also choose whether each guest should choose a password the first time they log in to your site to prevent others from logging in with their email address/name. Again, these instructions are in English and will be translated via the browser or you can incorporate directions into your note. You can also decide to turn the password feature off, which means guests won’t need to think about it. It depends on how secure you would like for your site to be.

RSVP submission button

The text on the RSVP submission button is in English, however browsers with a translation feature installed with automatically translate this for your guest. If you prefer, you can also include a note at the top of the RSVP page to let non-English speaking guests know to click this button to submit their RSVPs.

Do you have any other tips for inviting and organizing multi-lingual wedding guests? Let us know in the comments!

Earlier this week, we quietly rolled out a few new design features for our email wedding invitations. Now we’re ready to shout about them! Up until now, you’ve been able to choose an online wedding invitation template from our boutique or create and upload your own design  template.

Of course, you can also edit the wording for your save the date or invitation, as well as add images, customize the envelope stamp, and choose envelope font colors for the “to” and “from” names.

Now you can do even more to customize your online wedding invitations to fit your personality. Here are the new features:

Edit the envelope liner color or design

Choose a custom color – choose a color from the color picker that works with your invitation design. If you have a particular color in mind – you can also enter the hex code for an exact match

Upload a design – upload a photo or image with a pattern that you love and this pattern will fill your envelope liner

Edit the background color or design

Choose a custom color – choose a pop of color to brighten things up or select a color that has a good contrast with your invitation design to make it stand out

Upload a design – the best option here is to upload a patterned design that will seamlessly repeat (we call it “tiling”) – that way the design will fill the entire screen no matter what screen size your guests are using when viewing

Customize the Navigation Labels

You’ll find all of these new features when you are editing your Glövite invitations on your glosite.com account! If you’re stuck on what wording and text to include on your wedding invitations or save the dates, how to address your envelopes or how to word your RSVPs, we wrote a handy mini-series earlier in the year covering these topics:

Read Part 1 of this miniseries, which covers Save the Dates.
Read Part 2 of this miniseries, which covers RSVP wording.
Read Part 3 of this miniseries, which covers wedding invitations.
Read Part 4 of this miniseries, which covers addressing invitations.