How to say - Child free wedding preferred on invitation

It's not the kind of thing you want to put on your invitations, but there are other ways to spread the word that you're having a kid-free wedding. First, you only address your invitations to the adults who are invited. Example: Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Second, you can put on your RSVP cards something like: "we have reserved 2 seats in your honor....." which tells them that only the adults are invited. Third, you can put it on your wedding website (if you have one), in the FAQ section. This is where you can explain that this will be an adults only affair. Finally, word of mouth. Make sure your closest family and friends know it will be a kid free wedding, and to spread the word to other family. You can also explain it by telling them you want them to enjoy a night out without the kids.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a kid-free wedding. However, you and FH need to make a firm decision and stick to it. When you worded it like "no kids preferred" you make it sound like you're going to leave it up to the guests to decide whether or not to bring their kids. That's not how this works. If you leave it up to them, they will more than likely bring their kids, because that's easier. This is your wedding, and you decide who to invite. Having said that, you do have to accept the fact that having no kids will mean that some of your guests won't be able to come. Either they can't get a babysitter, or don't want to. But you will still have the wedding you want to have.

I would either choose a child free wedding or include children entirely. The option of having kids or not is bound to give you issues

You may offer a babysitter at the venue -especially if it’s at a hotel- where people can take their kids. But if you let kids other than say a flower girl or ring bearer in, then it’s no longer kid free.

I would not use the language "no kids preferred." There is way too much gray area. You should either include all kids or no kids to be consistent. Adult-only weddings are very common these days, and if there are a few people that chose not to come because of the no-kids rule, that that's just something you would have to deal with. Way more people would be offended if they saw other kids at the wedding but felt like they couldn't bring theirs due to the "no kids preferred" phrase

We didn't feel this was appropriate for our invitations but included it right on the homepage of our wedding website. Our website says "Invited guests only. Please no children." We've had this up since we sent out our STDs to give families plenty of time to plan. Since the invites only go out a couple months before the wedding it might be harder for families to arrange childcare with shorter notice, so we felt announcing that our wedding was kid free as early as possible was best.

The invitations we send out are addressed to specific people and they will RSVP online. Our website only allows people to RSVP for themselves and their partner, so they won't be able to add extra people. I don't anticipate any issues.

I would either say no kids or not anything at all. Letting people know that it is preferred offers them the option. We included inserts with our invitations that read, "Parents, we want you to be able to fully enjoy the wedding so we are requesting that all kiddos be left at home. thanks so much and we hope that you can celebrate with us on our special day!"