Adult Only reception

No need to put it on the invitations. On the RSVP cards note, "We have reserved XX seats in your honor."

Address the invitation to the parents only, "mr. and mrs, x" not "the x family" also, on the RSVP cards, you can write, "we have reserved 2 seats in your honor." "__ of 2 attending" and they can fill in the blank with a 0, 1, or 2.

ETA: don't actually write "adults only" on the invitation, it is seen as rude.

Don't put it on the invites. Put it on your website and spread t by word of mouth. Make sure your RSVP's say we have reserved ___ seats in your honor and fill the blank with how many people are actually invited.

This was very helpful to me! great questions and answers

I've had friends who put I have reserved XX seats in your honor. Most people get the hint a few brought there kids and at that point it is what it is. It didn't take away from there special day

I'm having an adult only reception. I don't think it's appropriate to have the kids there with an open bar.

Just have your RSVP mention how many seats are reserved for them.

Great question

If people are coming from out of town, you need to make it a bit clearer that you are having an adult only reception. Most people will turn down an invitation where they can't bring kids, if they are traveling to be there.

We invited 250 adults and 2225 attended. One local couple claimed they didn't have a babysitter, given 10 months notice, with the save the date. The other couple had to travel, but has always had a nanny and has traveled without their kids before. We had a fabulous time without them.

P.S. Edit - only 225 attended. 10% declined and only 4 because their kids weren't invited. The other 21 didn't have children, had conflicts, lived overseas, were the husbands of co-workers (the ladies came together), etc.

@Dreamer 2225 people attended! I hope that's a typo

Agreed with the previous posters, just put the amount of seats on the RSVP card and something like, "this will be an adult's only reception" on your website. FH and I had the same concerns with our family and especially since we only have two cousins and two friends between us with kids, we were afraid they'd feel like we were singling them out. But we realized it was what we wanted, I've seen too many horror stories of kids freaking out at weddings and frankly those family members and friends deserve a night to cut loose too

The actual invitations also stated "adult only reception."

It's rude to say who is not invited on an invitation. As others have said...address the invitation to only the adults in the household and write the "_ of 2 attending" on the RSVP card

Donya, sorry to say but I don't think that belongs on an invite. We're doing adults only, mentioned it on our website, will be inviting adult guests by name and have suggested to our friends who have children to get a room at the venue and contact the hotel for childcare options, but only if someone asked. We suspect some people won't attend because it's adults only and we get it and respect their decision either way.

I put adult only on our website, our RSVP cards say "x number of seats have been reserved in your honor", and the invites are addressed only to those who are invited. It isn't necessary to do anything more.

@Donya - ewww

Donya, that's...way over the top.

@OP, do what others have suggested. Address the invitations only to those invited (ex: Mr. and Mrs. Smith, rather than the Smith Family). And put "we have reserved ___ seats in your honor" on the RSVP card.

This is what we did. There were a couple of people who tried to badger us into making an exception for their special snowflake children (lol), but we had to be clear with them that this wouldn't be fair to all of the other guests who either made childcare arrangements or declined the invitation.

As a parent I completely understand the adults only but I would just throw those out......adults only on the invite would have been just fine. Remember you are talking to the adults not their children...and if you feel like you have to talk to these adults like children to get them to understand then I would rethink the invite.

@The Queens people have kid-friendly weddings and open bars all the time. The world doesn't end. An open bar should have nothing to do with whether or not you invite kids.

@Halloween - yes it was, I'll correct it. Thanks for pointing it out.

Sometimes it felt like 2225, though. Haha!