Kids

This is a tough one. Halloween is one of those holidays that, for parents, is quite special, seeing their kids get dressed up and going trick or treating. Most parents won't want to give that up to attend a wedding--whether their kids are invited or not.

It's the kind of thing where you're free to pick whatever date you want to get married, but if you're inviting a lot of people with kids, you should expect a lot of declines.

However, you might get less declines if you were to have a daytime ceremony/reception. If parents knew they could still take their kids out after dark trick or treating, they might not mind attending a wedding on Halloween.

You'll have to figure out how many of your guests have kids that this would be an issue for. Good luck.

Most places have Trick or Treating fairly early because doing it in the dark is too dangerous. I honestly think you’ll be fine not having kids there-it might be a little harder for parents to find babysitters, but if they have somebody available to watch them I think it’s fine, especially with advance notice! Depending on timing you might have slightly fewer people at the ceremony but if the reception is in the evening most people will probably come without kids.

View Quoted Comment Exactly this. My kids are 2 and 5. I would not go to a wedding on Halloween, wether my kids were invited or not. They’re old enough now that they know what they would be missing, and my 5 year old plans out his costume all year. You could always make it a costume party reception, which might encourage more kids to attend, but if it were me, it would be a no.

Not sure your theme but maybe hire a few babysitters and offer like kid Halloween party in another room and let kids go ahead and dress up. I don't celebrate Halloween anymore and won't be raising our kids to, but when I was a kid we were pretty serious about it and so we're all the kids I knew and our parents. Missing Halloween would have been a real disappointment also if kids are like 10+ they aren't going to want to go out when it's still light out half the fun was being out at night.

I would have a Halloween theme if you have a lot of people coming who have kids and celebrate Halloween.