Wedding Poll: Inviting children

[anchor31]

No, we didn't have anyone under 18. We wanted it to be an adult party, and we didn't have enough room to invite them anyway. Only MIL's side has children under 18 and we had problems, but the people who were pissed we didn't care if they came or not. One of DH's aunts did end up bringing her daughter anyway, but she was 20, so it wasn't a major problem.

 

[ahappygirl]

We had a 6 week old and 6 month old attend our wedding. Both came with their parents from out of town (another state, one from another country). We hired a babysitter for the ceremony so potential crying during vows could be avoided, and didn''t care if they made noise during the reception. We paid the sitter (from an agency) for 2 hours for about 20-30 minutes of work. The parents were fine with this as the sitter was indoors about 30 feet away from our outdoor wedding and about 1/2 the guests were pediatricians. Either set of parents could have left the baby with her for the reception but they didn''t want to (don''t blame them) so someone paid her and that was that.

I would not bring my 4 year old to a wedding unless he was in the ceremony. He is a wild man. When he was 2 we brought him to a wedding out of state and my husband took him elsewhere (out of earshot) for the 15 minute ceremony. Some of the kids who stayed were very disruptive and we would have felt terrible if that was our child. Since it was my friend getting married, I stayed while my husband parented. He was fine, along with many other kids, during the reception.

 

[Pandora II]

My rule was no children under 10 except:

- children from overseas
- the bridesmaids
- immediate family
- babies under a year

I ended up with 6 that way. There were a potential 25 under 10''s!

Whatever rules you decide you must make it apply to everyone - if you start to make exceptions people are unhappy. I wrote a personal note to everyone who had children when I sent my STDs and explained the situation. The only people who didn''t come because of the child issue were DH''s cousin and her husband as she was due to give birth the same day as our wedding!

Everyone was very understanding - as was I when DH''s cousin''s babysitter pulled out the day before, so I just said to bring them as well.

They were ALL impeccably behaved!

 

[HollyS]

DH and I were adamant. NO children at our wedding.

Ours was a small venue, with less than 70 guests; it would have been impossible to ignore a cranky child, and that would have aggravated the heck out of both of us. Especially during the ceremony.


I know. We were grumpy and mean.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I can''t imagine ANY parent would let their child/baby be disruptive during the ceremony

that seems so rude. We just went to a wedding last month. The ceremony was outdoors and DH held the baby in the back so if she did make any little noise it could not be heard. Also according to my friend our baby did NOT count towards her head count. She obviously didn''t eat so we just pulled a highchair up to the table. My friend was out no extra money.

When I got married our venue offered a kid''s dinner at the fraction of the price.

 

[MaggieB]

Date: 8/20/2008 8:48:32 PM
Author: Haven
We had a formal daytime wedding and invited children of all ages. For us, a marriage is the celebration of the start of our family, and so we wanted the children there. We would have invited them if we had an evening wedding, as well.

I made buckets for each of the children. They were big and colorful, I painted their names on the sides, and filled them with goodies. They had sunglasses, bandanas, yo-yos, stamps, crayons, bubbles, and several other items. We had a special table for the buckets and the kids spent nearly the entire reception playing joyfully at the table.

Oh, and children in formal wear are the cutest things ever. EVER. It wouldn''t have been a complete wedding without them, in my opinion.

Ditto. We are having a very small family wedding so my opinion isn''t really representative here, but when we were talking about kids/no kids, I yelled, "but we have to have pics of them in their little suits and dresses!"

So, clearly I love kids . . . but even I have my limits. Since our wedding is so small, our reception is a formal, sit-down dinner in the resort''s private wine cellar. This is my time for ADULTS ONLY - so we are throwing a pizza kid reception right next to ours. They are going to greatly prefer it. I''m letting the kids send me their music requests (LOT of Hannah Montana!) and the older girls are even going to decorate the room before the wedding.

 

[Shoopy]

It looks like its split right down the middle!!

I just wanted to clarify that I have no problem with kids at a party. Our venue''s rule is that if they are old enough to sit in a chair by themselves, then they are a head count. I''m going to ask tomorrow about discounted meals for them.

We talked about it and he wants us to discuss it with them before making any concrete decisions. We won''t have a bridal party, just an MOH and BM so there will be no small children part of our party. If they don''t get upset then we may just enforce the no children rule. If they do get upset then I rather pay for them to go than not have them there at all.

 

[zoebartlett]

We love kids and I wish we could have had all of our relatives and friends'' children at our wedding but we just couldn''t swing it financially. Our wedding was in the daytime, and I guess it was a formal affair. I hesistate using the word "formal" because it wasn''t black tie or anything but I had a fancy dress on and guests dressed in appropriate wedding attire. Anyway...

We decided to limit the children to my cousins'' children (3 and 5), my husband''s niece''s son who is 9, and two three month olds who needed their moms. We told our friends about the family only rule we had in place and they were thrilled to get out for the day (or weekend, if they were traveling).

 

[cakeny]

Oy, sore subject for us. I voted NO, and it's starting to become a *bit* of a problem. Not too many kids in my family, lots-o-kids on his - mostly spawns of his cousins who are wayyyy on the other coast (CA). Needless to say, I really don't know them at all. Our wedding is a Sat night, at a gorgeous venue in the city and I'm really not keen on having a bunch of too-cutesy kids that i barely know being photographed as they are prancing around on the dance floor. Just not my thing. (Why yes my heart is black. Good thing FI is so patient.) Sorry to be harsh. I do like kids (i swear!), just not at my wedding.

 

[jasontb]

I don''t like kids. I hoped they wouldn''t show up at my wedding. But I did invite them. In my eyes, your guests are doing you a favor by showing up at your wedding. Not the other way around.