Writing your invitation in more than one script

Two invitations are not the answer. A single invitation can carry two scripts, and for a mixed family that is usually the safer arrangement, because then there is no wrong version for anyone to receive. The difficulty is layout rather than translation. Two things to say at the start, because they shape how you work. The builder you type into is in English; the words you type into it are not. And English, Sinhala and Tamil are the scripts we have rendered and sent real invitations in, so if yours is a different one, tell us which it is and we will confirm it renders before you settle on a design.

Why one invitation beats two

Think about who is actually on your list. A grandmother who reads one script and nothing else. A cousin in Melbourne who left before she learned to read the other. An aunt who will forward whatever she receives to the family group within the hour, whether or not it was addressed to her. If you make two versions and split your list between them, one of those three ends up holding the wrong one, and the aunt will make sure everybody else sees it too.

On Link Invitation the invitation content is the same for everyone who opens it. There is no per-guest language switch. That sounds like a limit, and in a narrow sense it is, but it removes the failure above entirely. You build one invitation, it carries both scripts, and every link you send is the right one.

Three layouts that hold up

Two blocks of text on one card will fight each other unless you give them a structure. Three patterns do the job, and which you want depends on how much text you have.

• Parallel blocks. The same information twice, stacked, with the script your elders read placed first. Best for short invitations: names, date, time, venue. It reads as a courtesy rather than a translation because both blocks are complete in themselves.
• One language per section. The welcome and your story in one, the practical details in the other. Best when you have a lot of words, since parallel blocks would double the length of the page. It only works if both readers can still find what they need, so keep the venue and the time in whichever script the guests who need directions actually read.
• One script throughout, names in both. The lightest option. The body of the invitation sits in one language, and the names of the couple and the families appear in both. For a lot of couples this is enough, particularly when the second script matters for respect rather than for comprehension.

Choose by asking which reader you cannot afford to lose. If your grandmother will not understand the date unless it is in her script, then the date is in her script and everything else is negotiable.

Names are where these go wrong

Translating the ceremony details is usually the easy part. Names are not. How a family name is spelled in a second script is a decision that belongs to the family who owns it, not to you at eleven at night with a transliteration tool open in another tab. Ask them, in writing, and use exactly what comes back. The same goes for the honorifics in front of parents’ names, which carry real weight in one script and can look stiff, or conspicuously absent, in the other.

Two habits worth keeping. Write the venue in the form people will read on the gate and in their map app, even when that form belongs to the other language. And if you cannot decide whether to set the date in numerals or in words, pick one form and repeat it identically in both blocks. A date that appears two ways on one card is how a guest ends up arriving on the wrong Saturday.

The design was drawn around one script

Scripts sit differently on a page. Line heights differ, words break in different places, and a heading that fits on one line in Latin letters can wrap onto three in another. A design drawn around one alphabet does not automatically hold a second one at the same size. This is the practical thing to check before you commit to a design, and it is worth checking with your own names in place rather than with sample text, because names are usually the longest words on the card.

The WhatsApp message is a separate piece of writing

The invitation is one thing. The message that carries it is another. You write that message yourself, with tokens filling in the name and the details that change from guest to guest, so it can be in whichever language you like. Sending is per guest: the link opens that guest’s chat with your message already written into it, and you press send yourself. There is no bulk send, which is slower, and which also gives you one last look at each name before it leaves.

If your list is genuinely split, keep the message short and give it the same treatment as the card: a line in one script, a line in the other, then the link. Nobody reads a long message from a couple they already know are getting married.

When one language is the right answer

Sometimes it is. If four people on your list read the second script and everybody else reads the first, a bilingual layout is a great deal of design work for four people, and those four would probably rather have a telephone call from you than a second block of text on a card. Ring them, tell them yourself, and send the link afterwards.

It is also the wrong tool if what you actually need is a translated interface. If the person organising your guest list is a parent who does not read English comfortably, they will struggle in the builder however the finished invitation reads, because the builder is in English. The workable arrangement there is that you drive and they dictate. You can see how the rest of it works on the any language page, and what it costs in your country on pricing.

Related: Writing in any language · Ask us about your script