Translations
I had so many questions about translating. I was told that you need to have everything professionally translated, which seems true. I also read you can translate everything yourself, which also seems true. The consulates have lists of translators on each of their websites; I read that you have to use one of those translators, that was not true. Since I was learning Italian, I was thinking I could save some money and do it myself, but I was worried because everything needs to be translated, even the stamps and boilerplate.
I found lastfuelstation (on fiverr.com) on the facebook group came highly recommended and I also recommend them as well. Any questions I had were answered quickly and the whole thing was very professional. There were a couple typos that I found and fixed, but they were very minor. Everything was delivered in docx which I did have a little trouble with, but was able to get them in PDF format which fixed any formatting issues.
My documents were on average $10 to translate, and for everything that needed translation I spent about $120 total. Some prices I've heard up to $60 to $100 per document for professional translation, but I would advise you to be sure to shop around.
One of the things that I wondered is what one of these translations look like. I have attached one of the marriage certificates that I needed to have translated so you can see the format is close to what the document would look like. Stamps and seals, including the certification are denoted in circles or small areas of text like the top left and bottom right respectively.
I have read in a few places that you are able to translate your documents yourself if you know Italian. I considered this as I am learning Italian, however I'm glad I didn't as I'm sure I would have messed up some of the verb tenses in translation. This example came from LastFuelStation on fiverr.com; there's a link a few paragraphs up.