Kids at Reception???

I am still up in the air whether or not to allow small children to come to the reception. I am leaning towards no... don't think I want to have small toddlers running around or babies crying, but will feel bad if people can't come because of their children.... I know the question will be asked, just don't know how we are going to respond!

Just want to see what others are doing!

Re: Kids at Reception???

i am having children at the wedding because I couldnt imagine them NOT being there. I am so close to my cousins I just couldnt get married without them seeing me...That being said, NONE of them are babies or toddlers, the youngest we will have there is my 4 year old ring bearer and my 6 year old flowergirl, all the others are a bit older.
It will not take away from the formality of the Saturday evening black tie optional wedding...BUT, I have to admit that I would prefer not to have babies or toddlers, I think they will become too tired and may cry and be more of a nuissance to their parents. BUT, you could invite them and then leave it up to the parents whether to bring them or not. Most likely they will want to have fun and wont want to bring them

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This is a really personal choice. IMO, kids ruined my brother's wedding. They had them there as they couldn't imagine their day w/o them. But they ran around in a circle on the dance floor all through the entire reception. Most of us thought this was completely annoying. Part of the problem was their parents were all in the BP and were having their own good time. The only kids I considered were my neice and nephew, and their parents, my bro and SIL, are in my BP, and preferred themselves to leave them home. So that was that!

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Other than the RB and FG I really do not want any kids there.

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Only the ones we are close to.

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I do not want kids at the wedding. FH on the other hand thinks it is a parent's job to parent - not ours - and that said parents will be responsible enough not to bring children to an affair that ends at midnight. He has also said on more than one occasion that so and so won't come if the kids aren't invited. My response is that the parents can then stay home b/c a late evening wedding is no place for children anyway. To which he just gives me argument # 1 above. Which leads me to - if they are responsible enough to parent, then why bother to invite the kids.

I am seriously loosing this argument. Believe it or not, we settled it by including kids on his side of the family, and excluding them on mine. This only works because all the kids on my side are under the age of ten, and all the kids on his side are over the age of 12. Which leaves us with our 9 year old flower girl as the only real kid, and a bunch of teenagers coming to the wedding.

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We;re hvaing close children...nieces and nephewa and children of first cousins.

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The youngest person at my wedding will be 16....it is a very personal choice but for us we didn't want little ones running around all night

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Thanks to all... I appreciate your feedback. I am thinking that on the invites we will not be including small children unless they are close cousins or the FG. Then, if someone wants to call me up and ask if they can bring their 2 year old child, they can address it with me.

I guess my FH and I should have this conversation and get our story straight so that we are consistent in what we tell people. At this point, I think I am leaning towards the no small children side.....

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Just the ones in the bridal party and thats ENOUGH IMO

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You guys are so lucky you have a choice in the matter. My wedding of 100 people will be a total disaster because we will have 15 kids there between the ages of a few months to 7 years of age. Plus other older teenage kids....

The majority - 11 - will be on my side of the family. Because they are Asian, it's impossible to even consider not inviting them with kids. I asked a few and their response was if the kids weren't invited they won't attend the wedding. &@#$#@$@#% !!!! It's just extremely frustrating!

These will be the same parents that will watch their kids misbehave while not making any effort at disciplining them. @#$@$@#$%

So frustrating! Just had to vent. Thanks for listeing. *sigh*

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I really didn't want kids under the age of 14 at my reception BUT.......FH's aunt said that if she cant bring her three kids 8, 6 and 5 she cant come!!! In total we will have about 7 children...

Re: Kids at Reception???

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Posted by larryswife2be

I really didn't want kids under the age of 14 at my reception BUT.......FH's aunt said that if she cant bring her three kids 8, 6 and 5 she cant come!!! In total we will have about 7 children...

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I never understand this argument - can't people get a babysitter?? Why can't they come if kids aren't invited, do they EVER go anywhere w/o their kids?

Ugh JMO.

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my sister's ceremony was ruined by our 2 yr old cousin screaming and carrying on. It’s all captured on video for posterity

at that very moment I promised myself that if I ever get married, NO KIDS!

we ended up having his 12 yr old niece and my 13 yr old cousin at the wedding. that's it!

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If people tell us that they cannot come if their kids cannot come...then I am going to say oh well...we will have a great time without you!..I have a feeling a cousin of mine will do this!

Re: Kids at Reception???

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Posted by beautyq115

If people tell us that they cannot come if their kids cannot come...then I am going to say oh well...we will have a great time without you!..I have a feeling a cousin of mine will do this!

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that's right! stick to your guns!! we had MAJOR drama b/c his cousin wanted to bring their 4 month old baby to the wedding. I'm very sorry, but a wedding is no place for an infant! and we did NOT appreciate the stress that this caused, right before the wedding no less

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we are not inviting any kids to the wedding. the youngest people will be my brother and his gf (they are 23 and 22)

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It's a personal choice. We are having only a select few children at our wedding. My two brothers will be 9 and 7 years old and my sister will be 5 yrs.old by the time I get married. In addition to them there will be a few young cousins and that is it! No kids under 5 yrs. My guests will have to understand that I'm close to these kids and it would get really expensive to have a whole bunch of kids running around causing trouble. Most weddings are in the evening and last well until midnight, kids would be tired and adults irritated! Good Luck!

Re: Kids at Reception???

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Posted by dleeny

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Posted by beautyq115

If people tell us that they cannot come if their kids cannot come...then I am going to say oh well...we will have a great time without you!..I have a feeling a cousin of mine will do this!

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that's right! stick to your guns!! we had MAJOR drama b/c his cousin wanted to bring their 4 month old baby to the wedding. I'm very sorry, but a wedding is no place for an infant! and we did NOT appreciate the stress that this caused, right before the wedding no less

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I mean kids are one thing but an infant...you have got to have some nerve to even ask someone if you can bring an infant

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we got lucky with this.... the only real kids were my cousin the FG ( who was 3 1/2) and a friends son who was 5..... the rest were my 2 cousins who are all a little older and in the preteen ' i'm too cool to do anything' stage... so they just sat moping at the table all night.... LOL - DHs side had no little kids, so we got lucky that there weren't too many we had to worry about
but i think you definitely need to limit the number of kids if you have a lot in your family.... i have a friend who is OBSESSED with kids- and she invited every family she ever babysat for to her wedding- with their kids... there were, no exaggeration, 40 kids there.... it totally ruined the wedding because they were just running around, and it was like a 5 year olds birthday party. even the DJ was up there looking like ' what do i do with this??'
so, theres nothing wrong with a couple kids- but i think you need to limit it to only the ones your closest to.