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Interpreters for Weddings and Civil Marriages

When one partner, or one side of the family, does not speak English, a wedding needs language help in two places: at the clerk's office for the license, and at the ceremony itself. Here is what some county clerks require, how to interpret vows and a ceremony, and how to book an interpreter for the day.

The license appointment: what the clerk may require

Marriage licenses are issued by county offices, and their rules on language differ. Two examples: in McLean County, Illinois, the county clerk says that if either party does not speak English, the couple must bring an interpreter — a third person — to the appointment, and the interpreter cannot be one of the couple. In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the marriage license office also asks applicants who do not speak English to provide their own interpreter, who must be over 18 and present government-issued photo ID — and it notes that interpreters in several languages are available free of charge through Bucks County Court Administration.

So check your own county clerk's page or call before the appointment, and ask three things: whether an interpreter is required, who may serve as one, and whether the county offers one itself. If it does, use it — you should not be paying us for that appointment. Couples book us when the county requires them to bring an interpreter and does not provide one, when the language is not one the county covers, and for the ceremony and the rest of the day, which the clerk's office has nothing to do with.

Interpreting the ceremony

The officiant's words, the declaration of intent and the vows are interpreted consecutively: the officiant says a sentence or two, the interpreter renders it, and the partner who needs the language answers or repeats the vow in their own language. The "repeat after me" structure of most ceremonies already fits this rhythm. Ask your officiant before the day what they need to be satisfied that both of you understood what you agreed to, and whether they have any requirement of the interpreter; a civil ceremony performed by a judge or a court officer may come with rules of its own.

Send the interpreter the ceremony script, the vows if you have written your own, the readings, and the names of everyone who will be named aloud, with how to pronounce them. Vows written in one language and spoken in another should be translated in advance and approved by the person saying them, not improvised at the altar.

When the families do not share a language

• A few relatives: the interpreter sits with them and whispers the ceremony simultaneously. No equipment is needed if the group is small and seated together.
• A whole side of the room: consider a bilingual ceremony, with the officiant or a reader saying key parts in both languages, and a printed program translated in advance. An interpreter can still stand beside the officiant for the parts that are said only once.
• Speeches and toasts: consecutive, with the speaker pausing every few sentences. A speech that relies on a joke in one language will not land in the other; tell the speaker.
• Relatives watching from abroad: a virtual interpreter can join the livestream call and interpret for them, priced by the hour like any video booking.
• Meetings before the wedding — the families meeting for the first time, or a prenuptial agreement being signed with lawyers — are bookings of their own.

Booking a wedding interpreter

In person is $110 an hour with a two-hour minimum, so even a 30-minute ceremony is $220, plus travel at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, confirmed before you book; a ceremony venue 30 miles away from the interpreter is a 60-mile round trip, $42. Covering the ceremony and the speeches at the reception, 4 to 8 p.m., is 4 × $110 = $440 plus travel. A license appointment the county requires you to attend with an interpreter is in person too, with the same two-hour minimum. Time is billed from the scheduled start, so give the start the interpreter should actually arrive at, not the time on the invitation.

Send the date as early as you can; we will not promise a date before we have confirmed an interpreter for it. After the wedding, a marriage certificate needed in another language — for immigration, a foreign registry or a name change — is marriage certificate translation, $24.95 per page certified.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Languages

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate. If a language is not on that list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

Each language has its own page on what to watch for — dialects, names, dates, who the speakers usually are: see interpreters by language.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

What this page says about the rules was checked against these official sources on October 21, 2026. Rules change; the source is always the authority.

• McLean County, Illinois, County Clerk — Marriages / Civil Unions
• Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Register of Wills — Marriage licenses: requirements & restrictions

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