Hosting a Kid-Friendly Wedding

There are a lot of decisions that a bride has to make about her wedding day. Choosing flowers, bridesmaids, and the perfect dress can bring on a lot of stress, and deciding whether or not to have children can add another entire layer of worry. If you do choose to make your big day kid-friendly, here are a few simple tips to help:

If you’d like to keep it a mostly adult wedding, but there are a few little ones who are unique to you (a niece or nephew, maybe a goddaughter or godson), there’s an easy solution to include them: give them a job! Make your nephew a ring bearer or your best friend’s daughter your flower girl. That way, you can have those kids who are unique to you there on the day without other parents wondering why they had to find a sitter.

Are you opening up your wedding to all of your guests’ kids? Try having a kids table. These kids won’t be impressed by your fancy buffet or your elegant meals, but they will be entertained by a table that has grilled cheese and coloring books! Kids love treats – so you could make goodie bags for them to take home at the end of the night. Their parents may not appreciate the sugar rush, but their little ones will.

You could also get a few on-site nannies. This could be older kids that you know or someone you hire from an agency. They could sit with the kids at their table, or you could have a separate room for the kids to go to, like a built-in daycare at your wedding. Your venue should be able to help you here – ask them if they have any rooms that would work for a daycare. The same nannies could watch the kids during your ceremony to keep the crying and squirming to a minimum while you say your vows.

Is your wedding going to be outside? You could have an area with fun games like corn hole. The bonus to this is – the adults will enjoy it, too! You should also inform your DJ that the wedding is going to include kids if they’ll be at the reception; they may need to alter the playlist.

There are a lot of ways to accommodate having kids at your wedding, and parents always understand when a wedding is off-limits to their kids. They may appreciate a night out on their own. Whatever you decide, it will be the happiest day of your life.