Kids or no kids at a wedding?

It has to be your call - we had 8 children (10 and under) at our wedding - we had no problems or disturbances and I can't imagine the day without them there. However, in many cases having kids will cost more money.

We are having no kids at our wedding. Mostly because they tend to be loud and they take over the dance floor. Last night, I was at my friends wedding and her and her (now) husband were reading their vows to one another and a 5 year old little boy was screaming the whole time. Then everyone turned to see his mother trying to hold him down with her hand over his mouth. To say it was distracting is an understatement. I just don’t want to chance this at our wedding.

Only you can really decide that. Here's my small list of pro/con...

Cons to kids: extra money, plan to keep them occupied, interruptions/attention problems, kid-safe environment, family drama/trying to negotiate their way into having kids - as well as parents needing to find accommodations (which may lead to some extra declines).

Pros to kids: Feeling of celebrating with your entire family, no drama around the kid/no kid from other family members, it can sometimes just be great being around them!

To me, marriage is about more than two people, it’s about two families and two social circles merging and kids are part of our family. We invited kids, some parents are bringing them, some said they’d prefer to come just as a couple. Ask your caterer though if there’s a kid rate or reduced cost since kids don’t eat as much or the same things as adults. If you do decide to do adults only, be prepared for some parents to not be able to make it since finding a sitter for weddings can be hard.

I had no kids at ceremony BUT I provided the church nanny to watch over them in the nursery so the parents really didn't even care due to that.
I had them at reception. provided a bunch of coloring books and stuff. So for the most part they behaved well. There was ALMOST one tiny accident but the parent caught it before anything happened. As long as the parents are keeping a good eye it should be ok. (the kid got to our untouched cake and his hands almost went for it - luckily the dad pulled him away fast enough)

Not an easy choice for any bride. We're having them at ours. He is one 8 kids, he has 7 kids of his own, several grandkids, and well as us both having nieces, nephews, and great nieces and nephew. For us we can't imagine not having them there, but I can totally get why some brides wouldn't. What we're doing is leaving it up to the parents. Some can't afford a babysitter, but some may want a night out on their own

I dunno. We have several people who just assumed kids are invited, soooo... that's awkward...🙄🤷‍♀️

It's whatever you and our FH decide on- it's your day- not theirs. When we were making up our guest list we figured out that there would be about 30 kids in attendance. That's 30 extra heads to pay for catering and activities/care we would've had to provide for them.

The smartest decision we made was cutting kids aside from our FG and RBs. So far no one has complained and many of our friends are looking forward to a night away from the kiddos.

We had about 3 kids at our wedding. ( Wanted the ring bearer to have friends to interact with) Everything turned out fine

We’re having kiddos at our wedding. We even made a kiddos table for them. During the toasting part we’re buying Welch’s Juice that’s in a wine looking bottle for the kids to drinks and not feel left out.

We debated but ended up inviting kids. Several bridesmaids/groomsmen had kids and it seemed weird to not include them. We invited about 30 kids under 12, and it sounds like only 6 will come! A lot of parents opted to leave them at home (or aren't coming at all) because we had a lot of out of state guests. We did include an insert in our invites, our venue has a kids room and we hired a nanny service who hangs out with games/crafts/movies for the kids if they get bored. The room is obviously optional, and kids will still be seated by their parents and served a kids meal.

We aren't having kids at our wedding. We have a flower girl and her mom (a groomsman's ex wife) will probably pick her up after dinner. We only have a FEW family members with kids and it's not enough to warrant a kids table or babysitter, plus we aren't close with them. There are 2 cousins that I was close with (I babysat them when they were younger for years) who are like 10 and 13 now but since I'm not having any other kids, I chose not to invite them. None of our friends have kids (except the 1 groomsman, who is FH sort of adopted brother).

If I was closer with the few kids in my family, I'd probably be fine with it. But no one in FH family has young kids either so it seemed weird to have 5 kids that didn't know each other. Also 3 of the kids are sort of sheltered and there will be drinking and I'm not sure their parents would appreciate them being around adults drinking anyway honestly.

This is a tough one. My and my fiance decided to allow the ceremony to be open but only certain children will be at the reception due to cost. My fiance is not as close to his family so he mostly invited the adults to the reception

I've never been to a wedding where kids were actually disruptive or took away from the day. So personally, I don't really get that reasoning for not including them. But it's still your decision whether to include them or not, but if you like these particular children and are close enough with them to be debating about this, then I would invite them.

Hi Meghan! Did you and your FS decide to have a kid-free wedding?

My future husband and I have huge families and are family oriented. We have limited children to siblings and just our first cousins’ if they want to bring them. Some are and some aren’t, others will have their kids sit through dinner and then bring them home/babysitters. Our venue is offering discounted meals and drinks to the kids. Since our families tend to be scattered all over the country, we felt it important that the younger ones have an avenue to know each other.