Inviting Children To Your Wedding

When you have children, we all know how difficult it can be to arrange a trip to the shops sometimes! So organising an event with children involved can feel quite challenging.
The subject of children at these types of occasions is always spoken about on social media and there are so many different opinions about them that we thought a post like this was needed!

Venue

Some couples may choose to have an adult-only wedding and prefer not to have children on the day, while others may want to include children in the celebration. Think about the venue you have chosen first. If the venue is not child-friendly or if the wedding runs late into the evening, it may not be appropriate to invite children.

Other venues will be perfect for families. Space to set up activities, food suitable for children and quieter rooms to go to if needed. Hotels are great for this as guests can book a room and have some time away through the day.

Venues – https://prettyweddingday.com/2021/09/21/wedding-venues/

Ok, so we’re going to ask that question!
We might wish that we hadn’t but we’ll ask anyway.

Are You Inviting Children To Your Wedding Day?

Hearing so many brides and grooms talking about their wedding day, we often see the subject of children at weddings brought up.
We also noticed that every time it is brought up, a massive heated debate is usually started between families and people on social media about the correct thing to do.

Is there a polite way of saying children are not invited? Can this be done without offending someone somewhere?
Do children bring fun to a special occasion and help to keep the day feeling a bit more relaxed?

Weddings can sometimes cost so much, that it’s just not possible to invite children if you have a large family as some venues still charge quite a lot for kids’ meals.
Thinking about this when starting to look at venues would help so much later on in your planning.

Looking back at my own wedding day, we decided from the start to have children from the wedding party on our day as we had our son there anyway.
We didn’t invite any others to the evening as space was limited on the day so we couldn’t invite everyone and their children due to numbers.
We sent out our invites with just the adult names on and if anyone said that they had a problem with childcare then we let them come along.
Looking back I think that worked really well for us at the time BUT I also understand that if I received an invite for a wedding now, I would probably stress about the childcare for three children with one being a young baby!

We see so many brides and grooms talking about how children at a wedding would ruin their day with noise, mess and running around etc

Then we see the other side of the argument saying children are the ones who make a wedding a special day, fun and how awful it would be without them.
Either way, each side of the argument gets so offended at the other?

A Few Things To Think About –

This is one of those wedding issues that needs to be sorted and spoken about as early as possible in your planning.
Doing this will give families time to sort out childcare if needed and gives them the chance to think about arranging this.
Don’t worry, lots of couples like to have a night out without their children sometimes!

Make your decision and stick with it! There will always be family and guests that will tell you that kids should or shouldn’t be there. This is for you to decide.
Remember that there will always be guests that can’t be there on your day if they can’t bring children and struggle with childcare so don’t be offended by this.

Maybe send your save the dates extra early and add on that either children are welcome or sorry this occasion is for adults only.

If you’re having your own children there on the day, let them feel involved with the planning. Get them to give you ideas for music or things that they think other children will like to do on the day. This way they’ll feel excited and included with the wedding planning.

If you have other children at your wedding, will you be providing any entertainment or activities for them? You could set up a table for them with activities they can do or hire a children’s entertainer to help on the day.
Also, consider your table plan, will you sit all children at one table with someone to look after them or will they all be with their parents?

Provide a space that can be used later on in the day for those with younger children when they get tired, need feeding or need a bit of time out. Also, think about the day’s schedule if there will be young babies. Parents may have specific times that they let their babies sleep or feed. https://prettyweddingday.com/2023/03/07/wedding-day-timeline/

Try to include a family friendly menu if possible, you don’t want to pay out for meals that the children won’t want to eat. The children will be hungry and you’ll have wasted money.

Finally

There are so many reasons for and against an adult-only wedding that there’s only you that can decide!
We say make your decision and go with it until Auntie Jane says she wants her five children there!!!

We’d love to hear if your inviting children to your wedding day or not!