Children at the Wedding
Posted by Jennifer on Apr 16, 2008. Filed under Expert Advice, Planning, Receptions
Comments (10), Permalink
Worried about inviting children to your wedding? My husband and I welcomed children and babies at our wedding. We even asked the religious school kids who had class at the same time as our wedding to join us (in the back of the sanctuary) for the ceremony. None of the single-digit crowd caused any sort of distraction.
Our thinking was that the reason we had a wedding with guests (and didn’t just elope) was that our family and friends (including the little ones) were an important ingredient in our celebration.
As a parent now, though, I must say that I am looking forward to attending a wedding next week that will have a babysitter. We’re traveling across the country to attend—and without a babysitter at the wedding we would have to either find our own babysitter (not a simple or likely task from out of state!) or we would end up taking turns outside with our pre-schoolers burning off a little of their energy, thus missing out on the wedding.
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Comments
Jenn, please let us know how it goes. I am plannig a destinatio wedding and there will be toddlers from different families. We will be arranging for babysiters. The wedding planner at the site said she will help us locate sitters. For an evening wedding We may need more than one sitter, as moms may not want to move sleepings kids from one room to another.
UPDATE: The babysitting was excellent! Our kids had so much fun because they were with a group of other kids in the congregation’s toy-filled kids’ room. I watched the kids who were part of the wedding (all under 6 or 7 years old). Like other kids their age, they were full of beans. They behaved well (mostly!) but their parents were quite distracted by having to keep a tight reign on them during what is a long and boring day for most little kids—even the princess-obsessed pre-K girls. Also, while our kids were happily dining on pizza and mac & cheese, the kids in the wedding were at their own table facing down the salmon roulade. Again, the parents had a lot of bouncing up to do: cutting their food, mediating squabbles, etc.
I am soooo thankful that the bride & groom made arrangements for babysitting! My advice to brides & grooms would be that if you do offer babysitting, encourage the parents of the kids who participated in the wedding to drop the little ones in the babysitting room after the ceremony. The parents of those kids are most likely important folks in your life—with their little kids around, they have to be more focused on their progeny than on you. You can always ask the parents to retrieve them for dancing if you want a spin on the floor with your flower girls.
TahoeKidsGuide.com offers a babysitter list for families traveling to Lake Tahoe. This might be helpful for brides to offer their guests for Lake Tahoe weddings.
If children are included in the wedding party, the bride can find nice flower girl accessories and ring bearer accessories on http://www.e-weddingfavors.com and clicking on the appropriate link.
This is a great article. I love that you explained how you wanted children at your own wedding, but then as a parent you preferred to have a babysitter for your children while you attended a wedding. It’s great to be able to see both sides. Thanks for sharing your story!
Lisa McLellan, Child Care Expert
We have been offering this childcare service for special events in the Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara area since 1999.
It really does solve a lot of potential problems.
The Little Guest
All About Kids Babysitting also provides wedding and special events childcare for weddings in the Lake Tahoe Region as well as Napa, Napa Valley, Sonoma and the entire Wine Country Region.
Thanks, this is very helpful! We’re planning our wedding in Paros (Greece) and so everyone will be making a vacation out of it. That, of course, means that they’re all coming with babies! Although I love babies, I do think it’s going to be a hassle for parents to have to watch them all night! So, I’ll take your advice and look into getting babysitters either at the house where we’re doing the reception or provide a list of babysitters to look after them in their hotel rooms. Not sure which is best!
Like you, I think kids at the church are a pleasure, but at cocktails and dinner, they’re gong to be hard work!
The brides that think to offer childcare (like our onsite service) always are very appreciated by the parents. Not all choose to use the fun space we create, but the parents who do bring their kids have a place to chill and everyone gets to enjoy and stay longer at the celebration.
Debbie
The Little Guest
Santa Barbara
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Hi Jenn,
I can’t believe that the bridal couple isn’t fighting to make your 2 boys (aka the cutest twins on the planet) part of the actual wedding party! Can you picture them as co-ring bearers? Fighting over who gets to hold the pillow down the aisle?