Though I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my young cousins (Ages 3-8), FH and I do not want kids at the wedding. My Aunt has hinted that the kids are coming to the wedding. She even went as far to say that if I invite my Uncle with 'and family' on the invite that he will most definitely come (we don't speak and he lives upstate with 3 of my young cousins that I've never met. But its my dads brother so I have to invite him).
I was completely caught off guard and didn't know what to say when she said these things to me. Now I feel like I'm stuck!
Is anyone writing on their invite 'Adult Reception to Follow'? FH is unsure about the wording, but I think its fine!
Diorprincess
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Re: Help! Child free wedding....
I always wondered how you word the invite to have no kids. I definitely don't want kids at my wedding. I want a fun time not kids racing around and playing on the dance floor.
Lau1007
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Help! Child free wedding....
I'm not sure what the etiquette is on putting 'Adult Reception' on the invite. When you address them, be sure to only put the adults' names on them. Another thing I've seen some brides do is put on the RSVP 'We have reserved 2 seats in your honor' or '___ of 2 attending' to let people know only the two on the envelope are invited. Good luck, this is always a tricky situation.
JuneBug86
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Help! Child free wedding....
Well for us we addressed our invites to the couple only and our RSVP has 2 seat(s) are reserved in your honor. That way they will know it's just them and no kids. Also it would help to spread the word around the family. We also noted adult reception to follow on our wedding website.
pinkbunny
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Help! Child free wedding....
Too tricky for me! I certainly do not want 9 kids running around! Like I said love my cousins dearly but I don't want them running around.
They didn't go to either of my sisters wedding so I'm unsure why she is assuming they are invited to mine?
Sabellabride12
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Help! Child free wedding....
Yea I agree. I love kids too but I don't want kids running around all over the place and getting hurt and crying and in the background of all of my wedding pictures lol. I think 16 and up will be fine but I need to keep an eye on those teens.. I don't want any drunken incidents.
Bride2Be78
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Help! Child free wedding....
This is our dilemma. I feel like in my family I need to blatently put it on the invite but my invite person disagrees LOL She mentioned maybe on the RSVP. Not sure how that will work but I will be doing seats reserved.
youmewe
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Help! Child free wedding....
I think addressing the envelope to the adults only and the wording of adult reception is good. I have a ginormous family and kids are unavoidable but we are only inviting our nieces and nephews and I have kids packs for each child as well as travel games to keep them busy so they aren't running around. Good luck!
jassy119
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Help! Child free wedding....
I plan to include a note with my STDs that it will be an adult only reception. I will also be doing what the ladies said above.. addressing to the specific person or couple ad then writing on the rsvp Blank seats have been reserved. We have already told a lot of ppl no kids except those in the wedding party which is only 2. Ppl shouldn't assume kids will be invited.
saxtrevNmeg
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Re: Help! Child free wedding....
I'm wondering about this, too. FH has three kids, so of COURSE they will be there, but that's really all we had planned on. Then two of my BMs said something implying that a third would be bringing her son, who would be all of 16 months at the time! Another BM has two toddlers right now and two more are pregnant. Are they ALL expecting to bring them to our wedding?? I see them all as my nieces and nephews and love them to pieces, but kids that young should NOT be at a wedding!! What to do???
cj52514
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Re: Help! Child free wedding....
Posted by Lau1007
I'm not sure what the etiquette is on putting 'Adult Reception' on the invite. When you address them, be sure to only put the adults' names on them. Another thing I've seen some brides do is put on the RSVP 'We have reserved 2 seats in your honor' or '___ of 2 attending' to let people know only the two on the envelope are invited. Good luck, this is always a tricky situation.
I've seen this also. I think this is the best way to make your point, but in a subtle way.
pinkbunny
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Help! Child free wedding....
I've been talking with FH and we decided that we will obviously address invites as Mr. and Mrs. ___________, and then possibly on the Reception Card.
Also hoping word of mouth will make this easier. My sister is shipping my nephew home after cocktail hour LOL She can't wait to have the night to herself, which I figured my Aunt would want. So strange...interested to see how this works out.
ChristineNorah
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Re: Help! Child free wedding....
We had a terrible time with my FH's family regarding no children at our e party but we stuck to our guns and it worked out in the end. I would explain that you are not hosting children to the questioning family members when it is brought up again. For everyone else word of mouth works and on your invitations only address it to those invited. Hope it all works out!
mattandjess2013
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Help! Child free wedding....
I'm lucky that there aren't a lot of kids in my family, but my MOH and one of the GM have children. I flat out said when we got engaged that there was no kids allowed. I think it may have bothered my MOH (the GM's gf had JUST gotten pregnant when we got engaged), but I wasn't budging. Especially not when her son went into a different wedding during her reception lol! Granted, he was almost 3 at the time, but it shows how well people watch/pay attention to kids.
natalierose1085
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Re: Help! Child free wedding....
A friend of mine ran into a similar situation. What they did was address each envelope specifically to the adults, and if there were older kids in the household, for example an 18 year old, they even sent the kid their own invitation addressed to them. So there was no confusion over children being invited. It's pretty common to have adult only receptions now, I don't think anyone should be insulted.
fintababyetc
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Re: Help! Child free wedding....
I had the same issue, and I did end up putting 'Adult Reception to Follow.' We had a black-tie evening reception at a historic mansion (Bourne) - it was no place for kids! The parents were frankly happy to have an adult night out to dance and enjoy themselves. I'll never understand people who have to bring their kids everywhere with them - moms and dads need to have a little fun once in a while too!
HSsweethearts
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Re: Help! Child free wedding....
You can do 'adult reception to follow'.
I did not do that, but I was careful to specify exactly who was and was not invited on the inner envelope. Of course some people still asked about bringing their kids but at least they asked and did not assume
