To children, weddings seem like a lot of fun at first. They view them as a day of dressing up, hanging out with family, and eating cake. The reality, however, can be much different, with long, dull waits and boring wedding receptions. The decision to invite children to your wedding can be a complicated one, but with the right planning and preparation, the occasion can be made more joyous by the little additions. Here are six things you can do to keep kids happy on your big day.
1. Send Them An Invitation
Kids love getting things in the mail, so why not make an effort to send them their very own wedding invitation. You should use your best wedding stationary, just like you will with their parents, and give them any extra information that they might need to know. For example, you could ask younger children to bring their favorite cuddly toy or action figure as a plus one.
2. Get The Outfits Right
To avoid any unnecessary conflict, you should always make sure that the children in the ceremony are happy with their outfits. Make sure to ask the girls if they’d rather wear pants instead of a dress and check whether the boys would be more comfortable with a bowtie or necktie. Kids can be quite picky about their clothes, so this will stop any tantrums later.
3. Give Them Special Jobs
Everyone likes to feel needed, children included, so why not give them a special job to do before or during the wedding and reception. There are a number of tasks you could assign depending on the ages of your guests. You could ask someone to give a reading, hand out wedding programmes, or even take pictures with a disposable camera. Throwing confetti is also fun.
4. Provide A Kids Menu
Wedding menus tend to be quite grown up, so you may want to speak to your venue and caterers about offering options for your smaller guests too. You could have them fed first so that their parents can lend a hand when needed, and then go off to play while the adults eat. You could even set up their own little table so that they can all eat and have fun together.
5. Create A Play Space
Although speeches and dances may be fun to you, those younger are likely to get bored fairly quickly. To make the reception fun for them, you should set up somewhere that they can play together. Set out cushions, books, toys, games, and more so that they can entertain themselves. You could even hire a sandpit or bouncy castle for them to play in.
6. Bring In Some Childcare
Depending on the ages of the little ones, it’s not realistic or safe to expect them to occupy themselves throughout the entire reception. Because of this, you need to make sure that you bring in some childcare to watch over them. Some venues allow you to book babysitters directly with them for this purpose. Alternatively, you could ask older teenagers to handle the task.
As fun as your wedding may be, smaller guests can get bored pretty quickly. To avoid mayhem and keep everyone happy, make sure that you remember the tips above.
