Kids or no kids?

Hey Alexis,
I wanted all the parents coming to our wedding to have a night off; I have opted for no children aside from the ones participating in our wedding. To me its only a couple of hours for one day. Granted if you the space for the little ones and you really want them to be there, then go for it. It's your day, whatever you and your fiance chooses; your family will understand and support you both.

Yes and no haha I've found the outfits I like on Etsy but I'm going to see if I can find a local shop that has something similar. A friend is making matching headbands for them though that will match my garters!

Due to the size of our venue, and how blended and large our families are we have opted for no kids at the wedding besides the 3 that are in the wedding party.... it was a very hard decision but overall we want as many people there that would remember and appreciate our day as we will.

I'm including kids in ours. We have a girl and a boy (currently 2 and a half and 7 months), and a few of the wedding party people have kids, so we think it's fair to include all of them. I love the activity ideas. I've never seen it done but think it's a fantastic idea. I'll have to have a look at some of the posts to get some ideas for our wedding

Hi Baily Welcome to the community!! Where did you choose to celebrate your wedding? 60 seems like the perfect amount of people!! Will your guests be mostly friends or family?

Your daughters will look so cute for your wedding Ami! They're so young! Have you already chosen their outfit?

We had about 10 kids on our, and our maximum capacity is 60 so we decided on no kids. I think if your venue is large enough to accommodate, and your comfortable spending an extra but of money on things to keep them entertained, kids are fun to have at weddings! But, if you don't feel comfortable don't feel obligated.
You could always also opt to just have them at the ceremony and have adult only reception.

Was just looking through different discussions and found one with different activities at tables if you were looking to have kids there. There are a few ideas for activities at their tables! 5 kids table ideas

Thanks so much for the input, Laurie. I think I would normally lean towards having the kiddos attend, but when I did the count, 14 just seemed like a lot. Like I said, a number of the kids come as a package deal (i.e. my aunt had twins and she's remarried a gent who has two of his own). I think my FH and I, and our families, will have to weigh this decision carefully.

I will be inviting all the kiddies. I am having a later wedding and reception but I am leaving it up to the parents to decide if they want to bring their littles with them. There won't be a large number anyway. I just remember some of my cousins weddings where they had kid free weddings it was very divisive and caused a lot of hurt feelings. My neice was a baby at the time and my brother and his wife felt like my cousins didn't want them at the wedding because they were excluding the baby. It wasn't anything as personal as that they just wanted their wedding ceremony and reception to be a certain way that didn't include all the things that go with babies and toddlers. But it left enough of an impression on me that I am including the littles.

Yes! we have 2 daughters (will be 3 and 1). I sell Discovery Toys and have a ton of stuff to set up a play area in the basement of the hall.

Hi Alexis I'm happy you're asking this question!

It can be hard to decide on who can come or not so I like what Maly, Valerie and Cheryl suggested. There should be some kind of objective rule that makes it even for everyone.

You should have a look at Melonie's discussion, she was wondering the same thing just recently.

Kids at the reception yay or nay?

Are kids invited to your wedding?

It also depends on how long will be your ceremony, and how late will be your reception! Plus, in your budget, is there room for all the kids?

I can't wait to see what activities you'll have for kids if you decide to go for this option!! I think you can have so much fun with it too! Here are my favourite ideas:

9 ideas to entertain kids at your wedding

I love the teddy bear toss!

What style of reception did you want to go for? How long do you want your ceremony to be?

I am having a kid free wedding with the exception of my 2 nieces. We don't really have any kids in our family, the youngest is now 18 years old so it worked out for us! One of my bridesmaids had some activity tables and games for children at her wedding. I would be happy to post some pictures if you would like! Just let me know and I hope this is helpful!

We are going kid free- our reception starts late and will not have anywhere for them to play or do anything...

But I think the standard rule is your safest way to not upset people

We're having no kids at the reception. My only advice is that if you're only having some kids (rather than all) it should be a standard rule. Like if you want your nieces and nephews only or kids over 10 (like Maly suggested), but a standard rule avoids hurting anyone's feelings that certain children were chosen over others

I understand where you're coming from, I want my sister there and a cousin or two but others are packages. Can't invite one without the other it seems.

I'm deciding on the no kiddies under 10 rule.
But if the ones you want There are random ages that might be hard to explain.