Kids at reception yay or nay?

I agree - if you're going no kids, go all the way (Ceremony and reception).

Personally, we are having kids (about 15-20 in total ranging from 6 months to 15 years old) - it's a 2$ bar at our wedding, not open, but still plenty of alcohol to go around. The kids are always the first on the dance floor, and no one feels silly dancing next to a 3 year old, so it's a win win (for us).

I definitely think it’s ok to have kids at any kind of reception. I also think it’s ok not to have kids at kind of reception. It should be solely based on the couples wants. Most people don’t mind an adults only wedding, and usually understand the reasonings. I wouldn’t worry what others think, it’s not their wedding and they can deal with it. Haha. We are welcoming all kids at our wedding. Of the 65 people attending our wedding, 19 of them are under age. I’m sure I’ll receive back lash about so many kids... why??? Because people always need something to complain about. You can’t win when it comes to pleasing everyone lol. So just do what’s best for you!

No kids for us. I think open bar means adult only. It's for everyone's sake - the kids never have fun when they have to behave for that long anyway.

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For sure. And some people will be okay with taking kids home, or having someone pick them up, and I guess if they know they won't have enough time, they will just leave their kids at home for the whole thing. But even for the sake of no kids disrupting the ceremony, and your friends/ family being able to focus on you, not worrying about their kids, it's a nice break. In the end, whether you allow kids or not, parents who want the day off will just leave them at home anyways

We had children at our reception. They had the best moves on the dance floor! Some parents chose not to bring their children with them, and that's fine. We wanted to give the parents the decision about what is best for them and their children. I loved being able to celebrate with those children, because they are just as special to me as their parents.

We have a strict 8:30 cut off for kids I put that very clear on the invitation so people could choose weather or not to bring them. So far no kids are coming

View quoted message Our ceremony is at a church while a reception will be at a different location with a bit of time in between. Just wanted to see what other couples were doing just to get some ideas.

I think if you're going "no kids" it should be for the whole time. We are having an adults only wedding, and the thought of people having to take their kids home in between the ceremony/reception doesn't make too much sense to me.

I think if you're leaning towards a more party atmosphere, open bar, late night reception, you should probably make the entire event adults only.

I have several friends/family with small children, and none of them have had a problem yet with finding sitters/leaving kids with other family members. Many of them are looking forward to the day/night off!

I'm putting on our invites to enjoy a date night and leave the kids at home. They're definitely allowed but we just don't want kids at ours and we want our guests to have a good time and not worry about little eyes.

Thank you everyone for the advice. It will
fot sure help with our guest list. And yes you are all right it’s our day and what ever we decide to do that’s our choice and if anyone doesn’t like it that’s too bad. Thanks again everyone!

I really believe that this is all personal preference. Obviously the most polite thing would be to allow kids at the reception, but weddings aren’t always a place to be polite!
Do what you and your FH feel most comfortable with. We’re allowing children at our reception knowing that only 2 or 3 will be there.

I’m having a few kids at my wedding. But they are immediate family including my son. And yes we have an open bar and plan to party. I’m not concerned about them seeing people who are drunk. My son may see me drunk and I’m not bothered by that (I’m not a big drinker so just a few can do it lol.

Its your wedding. If you don’t want kids there then don’t have them there. I don’t know about inviting them to just the ceremony though. Let’s face it ceremony’s are boring for kids. If you don’t want them at the reception I just wouldn’t invite kids at all.

But please remember that if you are not allowing kids you may get some guests who can’t come. It’s not always easy to find a babysitter.

I do notice any other weddings beside Indians are always adult only. We had kids from my side of family at the wedding. There is no wrong in having them there if you beleive family is important to you

We have put right on our RSVP that this is an adult only ceremony/reception. The only exception will be immediate family children. We have 10 nieces and nephews between the 2 of us so those will be the only kids there.
Like Tori said, this is your day! And you and your FH make the decisions!

We are allowing kids but not really telling people? So invites are addressed to adults specifically but if they call and ask to being kids we say yes! For family only though!

We cut our kid list down from 30 to 5 by eliminating cousin's kids who we've never met/know too well.

Out of the five that are still on our list: 2 of them are in the wedding party (our niece and nephew), and the remaining 3 are 13-18 range so they won't be crying during a ceremony, and still have fun at the reception, which is open bar.

We will be writing in the invites that the reception is open bar (especially for parents) so we're hoping they can judge whether or not they want to bring their kids. Our niece and nephew will probably go to a babysitter's after the dinner so FH's sister can have fun at the reception.

If you only want to invite kids to the ceremony, I wouldn't say it's unfair but some parents might give some backlash still. It's your wedding and you do what you want!

I will be only inviting the adults for everything but that's because it's all at the same location and the location is about 45 minutes outside the city of Winnipeg so it would be silly to bring the kids unless you were only coming for the ceremony.

If you have a long enough cocktail hour where you could see people bringing the kids then by all means extend the invitation for just the ceremony but out of the two things I would rather have kids at the reception than the ceremony. So much loud music at the reception to drown out the kids but if a baby cries as I walk down the aisle I would not be as okay with that.

Also, if I had kids and somebody told me that the ceremony can have kids but not the reception - I would probably just not bring them to the ceremony at all anyway.

Is it unfair? Not at all! It's your wedding!! This is one thing that you have all the say in!!