Inviting children to your wedding is entirely up to you both. Children are a huge part of family life and weddings are a big life event where they do play a part.  You may even have children of your own or you might have niece’s or nephews, young cousins and friends who have little ones.

At the onset of your wedding planning you and your partner need to think about whether you would like little people at your wedding or not.  By the way, this is totally your choice but for some reason this topic sparks hot debate between family members and friends which can put pressure on you either way.

Team | Child Free Wedding

This doesn’t mean to say you don’t like children at all by the way! There are many reasons that you may choose not to have kids attend your wedding such as giving the adult guest a chance to have a day/night off, you may have budget or capacity constraints or the venue you’ve chosen may not be child friendly.  Whatever the reason, you need to make your intentions clear from the get go.  I would advise calling and actually speaking to those who will be affected.  Explain that you’ve chosen your wedding to be a child free occasion and you wanted to give them plenty of time to arrange child care.  Do be mindful that if one of your guests have just had a baby, it’s important for the newborn to be with their parents, so this would be an exception.  You may also have your own children or close family members who are kids that need to be at your wedding.  You may have to deal with negative comments from family/friends.  If you do receive this sort of reaction, it’s not nice but do stand your ground.  Perhaps if those guests are being difficult and not accepting your wishes, they shouldn’t be attending in the first place.  In most cases you will find that your guests will appreciate your choice and will make arrangements to respect your wishes.

 

Team | All children are invited

On the flip side you may feel that your wedding won’t be the same without the little cuties! This is also a very valid response.  A wedding is all about love, family and friendship and children play a huge role here.  If you have a venue that has a large enough capacity, provides children’s meals, highchairs, family accommodation and you have the budget to do so then totally go for it! Children at weddings can get very restless, bored and tired.  Make sure you keep them entertained and looked after during the day.  You might want to hire a nanny so the parents can relax and enjoy, organise children’s activity packs for during the wedding breakfast or arrange a room to be filled with toys, games and crafts.  Just be prepared to entertain the children.  At the end of the day though, the children’s parents are responsible for them during your special day and that includes curbing any bad behaviour!

 

Good luck and do what you both want to don’t worry about anyone else!

 

Olivia x