Alright folks, it's time for another poll.
The guest list is not yet complete, but it is growing. Right now, with immediate family, we're looking at around 25 kids, most will be under the age of 5 at that time. This is just to give you an idea, because my opinion is different if we're talking about just 5 kids. Now that we're looking at a classroom-full, I'm leaning heavily toward an age limit. Douglas is all in favor of having all kids of all ages.
So please help us become more informed. Did you allow children at your wedding/reception? What was the fallout, if any? Do you prefer going to weddings where there are a lot of young kids? Do you enjoy adult-only affairs more?
As always, any and all input is welcome.
personally, i really like kids at weddings and have never been to one where they got out of control. but i've also never seen more than 10 or so. i actually wish there were more coming to ours, but we've got a really small guest list and not many of them have children.
ReplyDeleteif you set a limit, you MUST stick to it. you can't pick and choose which kids under the limit get to come because you'll end up with hurt feelings on the part of the rejected kids' parents. the only exception is if they're in the wedding of course.
another thing to consider is the time of day. if it's a day wedding, kids are easier to handle. but if your reception is at night, lots of kids turns into lots of cranky kids whose parents have to leave early.
martha stewart has some really cute ideas on her website about stuff to do for kids at the wedding. you could make little activity packets for them that you use in place of the place cards at the kids' table/s. you could also consider hiring a baby-sitter or 2 and having a mini-daycare set up for them at the reception.
I don't remember being at a wedding with that many kids 5 or younger - the ages were usually more spread out. All the weddings I have been to have not had any out of control kids, but sometimes the kid families did have to leave earlier, which kinda sucks. But I have babysat for numerous weddings over the years. Typically I limited myself to up to 15 kids 10 and under, but for that many kids of the younger age, if you decide to hire babysitters, I would hire 2-3 so that there are enough people to give the kids the attention they need. You can often find babysitters through some of the venues being used for the wedding or on CL as well. Another choice is to ask the families with the kids to go in together on the babysitter if it will be expensive.
ReplyDeleteWe are having family kids at the wedding, however none of our friends are bringing their kids, by their own choice. Since it's just a few nieces, I think their parents will have them under control but I was originally planning on hiring a babysitter if our friends wanted to bring their children and having a separate children's area for them.
ReplyDelete