Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

we are definatelyt inviting kids to our wedding..it's supposed to be a time to share with the ones you love...and i couldnt' imagine not having my little cousins there! we are also asking my little cousin blake (who will be 5 by our wedding) to be the ring bearer!!

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I want my nephews at my wedding. I just don't want each and every one of cousins and friends to bring their kids. It would be too many children and we can't afford it. In total we will have 5 children under 7, and one 14 year old.

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I truly think its a personal decision and the fact that someone might not want kids at their wedding doesn't mean they don't 'like' children.....some people don't have nieces and nephews to invite so the only children to invite would be friends children and that could get a little ridiculous and seems unecessary to invite them, most people that know there are no children at our reception were relieved to have a nice night out w/o the kids!!! doesnt mean they 'love or like' them any less...jmo

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

Neither FH nor I has nieces or nephews, so it's not like we're excluding immediate family. I guess I might feel differently if the children were our close relatives.

We chose not to have children because we have a number of friends and distant relatives that have really poorly behaved children, and we could just see it becoming a total debacle.

The only kids I considered inviting were my cousins' children (5 boys total all under the age of 6), and when we asked them their opinion, they said that they would rather not have kids invited. They saw this as a fun night out when they could leave the kids with a babysitter or their in-laws....

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

nopw i want all kinds at my reception and ceremony too. the way i see it is that if I had a child that and I wanted to take him/her somewhere with me I think I would get a little offended if I was told I cant.
Also... the children are as much a part of my life as everone else is...especially if they are from peope who are close to me. I love kids

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I had kids at my reception. As long as they are not out of control then I see no problem. The kids in my family are well behaved so I wasn't worried.

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

we invited most of the kids....we had no choice...FILs said we had to and they were paying...but it would've been nice to have a nice adults only party IMHO. i'm not opposed to them...but it meant that half the cousins could come and the other half could not. (half are over 18 and the other half is all under 15)

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I am having kids at mine....well basically the ring bearesr and flower girls and few of my cousins

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

We're definitely having kids, in fact when I was looking for places my requirement was a bridal suite off the dinning room so they could eat there with the babysitters (let the parents eat in peace), but be able to dance when the fun begins. I'm right there with you! I have 6 nephews and 3 nieces (and one on the way), I couldn't have my wedding without them!

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I'm having kids. Besides my son I am having my neighbors three kids in my wedding party. I had my niece and nephew also but unfortunately they won't be able to make it. (my brother is in the army and they are really strict that time of the year). I have an entire table just for them and the hall I am having it at has three arcade games in the corner so they will be quite busy. I also hired a babysitter to sit with them and keep them occupied so that there is always someone watching them especially the youngest who is four and whell he's four lol.

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I'm currently struggling with the kid issue. We are of course inviting the kids in our BP (3 of them aging from 2.5-7). We then decided we were going to have to limit it to first cousins since I have 20 first cousins and FH has 16 (many of who are married). I have 40 second cousins and there is just no way that we can invite them all. It would be a three ring circus, not to mention unaffordable for us. We are close with everyone though, so it makes it very difficult. So we are now considering inviting the older ones...maybe 15 and up. Not sure. I truly wish I could have them all!

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

We had only the bridal party's children, which are my 2 nephews and my DH's niece and nephew, and that was it. We paid for the entire wedding ourselves and couldn't afford to have everyone's children, too. But, even if we could afford it, we didn't want children there. IMO, it's pretty nervy of anyone to be pissed off about how OUR wedding was going to be. OUR wedding was about US, not anyone's kids. Whoever didn't respect our decision for how OUR wedding was going to be didn't have to come, and we were totally OK with that.

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

Here's my take on it, since I did have friction and a cousin not come because of the 'kid' issue.

My MOH had kids at her wedding. It was her choice. She is extremely close to her younger cousins and couldn't imagine them not there. I agree, I would have been surprised if they weren't.

I think the 'kid' issue comes up sometimes when you aren't 'super' close to a particular family/friend member and they want to bring their child.

While you may be fine with your niece or nephew (because, well, they are your niece or nephew), you may not feel close to Cousin A and don't want their child(ren) at your wedding. I had no children whatsoever and I am not close to my Cousin or her children. I hardly see them, in fact.

I think it also occurs when you just want to have an adult-affair and there are others who don't understand that.

I can honestly see both sides of the issue but even though my cousin didn't come to my wedding, I am fine about it. I had the reception I wanted and we stuck to our guns. She is the one who missed the wedding of the century!

I applaud you (and anyone) for wanting to include children. It's a special day and will be a special memory for them!

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

We have a few kids coming - not everyones....

Just kids that are special to us!!

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I DO!!

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I'm having kids at the wedding

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

---

Posted by NY031978

oh man 35 kids?! ok well as i said im having a few kids..but 35??? whoa!!! thats just way to many.

---

I'm one of the 'no kids' brides and this is the reason. I have 35 kids (under 5) between my family and FH's family. If we say yes to some and not others we will start wars so we just decided none can come so no one is hurt or getting special treatment. I'm not too upset about it because the kids aren't close relatives - we don't have nieces or nephews - these are all distant cousins and friends with children.

Don't hate us no kids brides. I think that many of us would love to have children. If you get an invitation and your children aren't being invited, don't hate the bride, chances are: (1) they couldn't afford to invite all the children or (2) there were way too may children that to invite them all would be too much.

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

---

Posted by kittythestray

---

Posted by ZuzusPetals

I think its a personal choice AND I respect both sides. I just can see both sides of the issue like when a family member gets insulted when their child is excluded. Its a hard situation.

---

I think the problem is the people who get all pi$sed off are usually the ones with the 'out of control' kids. I had to exclude ALL children because my 2 cousins are ANIMALS. The ONLY person who was mad at me for the 'no kids' rule was.... of course... the mother of those 2!! I'm kinda mad because I had to exclude 4 other children that I would have LIKED to have had attend!!

---

I have to say that I agree - those are generally the parents that have gotten angry about the 'no kids' thing. Meanwhile, it would be their kids tearing the place apart.

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

My nephews and neices were invited and anyone who wanted to bring their kids could. In the end, we didn't have alot of kids because their parents were looking for a night out but most of them were at the ceremony and I was happy to have them there. I'm like you- I couldn't imagine, not having them be part of our day.

Re: Am I the ONLY one who WANTS kids at their reception?

I had my nephews (they were in the bridal party) and my cousin's kids..they were all very well behaved and the age range was 5-15. There were only about 8 of them though and I didn't invite one of my cousin's kid because she was 2. I don't know if they felt slighted, but I feel that babies, infants or toddlers can be overwhelmed at a late party. My party ended at 1:30am. The found a babysitter and didn't even ask me about it.

If there were 35 kids I wouldn't have invited children, just the bridal party kids.

I couldn't have had my wedding w/o our nephews..they had a great time and danced the night away. There was no drama and nobody used their tuxes as brooms on the dancefloor.