No children at wedding

Also, stand your ground when/if the parents call asking about their children coming. If they threaten to boycott, just tell them you'll miss having them there.

I've had invites that say adult reception to follow or adult ceremony/reception, etc.

Address it to "Mr and Mrs Smith" instead of "the Smith family". Don't mention who isn't invited on invitations.

And no matter what you put, you'll probably still have to make some phone calls. When that happens, you say "sorry for the confusion, the invite is only for you and spouse. This is an adult wedding, and if that means you can't join us you will be missed."

We addressed our invitations to the parents only and then put this on our website: "We love your children, but due to venue restrictions, unfortunately cannot accommodate them. We hope you will see this as an opportunity to let your hair down and party with us!" Overall, people were pretty receptive. Of course there were a few rotten eggs who couldn't understand that we were having an adults-only wedding, even in 2017, when it's perfectly acceptable not to have children at a wedding, but as I say, "you do you, girlfriend!" They will just have to deal with it because remember, you can't please everyone no matter how hard you try! I wish someone had shared that with me earlier on in the planning process.

Address it to precisely the people you are inviting (parents only) also I've seen (but not certain of the etiquette) people put a line on the RSVP that says Attending: ___/2. This way they know their gaggle of rugrats aren't invited. Also, stand your ground. My bridesmaid tried to guilt me into inviting her children which I had been considering. When I talked about it with my mom she told me it would start a shit-storm of "Well if [bridesmaid] can have her kids there why can't your other family members??"

State it is an adult only affair. Address it to only the parents and reserve ___ seats in their honor

Address invitation to "Mr and Mrs. ___" and talk to close friends and family and ask them to help spread the word.

Don't make comments about "nights out alone" or "letting your hair down". Don't insinuate that their kids don't let them do that already. Trust me, just because I'm a mom doesn't mean I don't have a good time when I want to.

Word of mouth works great! Had my SIL not told me that no children (not even nursing infants) were invited to my nephew's wedding, my daughter and her family would have already purchased plane tickets and booked a hotel before the invitation came stating "adult only reception to follow". There was no way of knowing that from the STD or on their website, so I'm glad it happened to come up in conversation.

ETA: I don't advocate putting "adult only" on your invitation and I'm fully aware that nursing infants are usually an exception - but not in this case

Address the invitations to those who are invited. It is rude to say who is not invited.

Do not put "Adults only". That implies that your guests are too stupid to figure out who is invited.

Do not tell parents this is their chance for a good time. Their definition may be different than yours. Some parents prefer family evenings and in fact are sacrificing that in order to celebrate your wedding with you.

There's no need to be "tactful" about inviting adults only because it's not a rude thing to do. If people get their panties in a wad, then so be it. Just address it to the parents and if you do get shit about it, just reiterate that you can't accommodate children due to capacity restrictions. Never blame it on budget because some people will offer to pay for their children and you can't really overcome that objection. Nobody can object to capacity.

You can invite in circles as well (nieces/nephews or BP kids only).

Word of mouth is very helpful. We found out for FSILs wedding that it was kids only. We asked and she said my daughter was welcome being immediate family to the bride. FHs cousin we also found out through word of mouth, we declined, but knew ahead of the invites. I would also put it on your website.

Say "As much as we love and adore kids this is an adult only wedding"

We were just told flat out by my cousin that they're doing an adult wedding ... shrug :p

Also- I did get an invitation for a November wedding that explicitly said "adult reception to follow" so they'll get the hint.

At the end of the day it's not the parents wedding it's yours so if they come they come if they don't they don't

We just addressed the invitations to the parents. People still didn't get it though and I know at least two people told us, not asked, but told us that they were bringing their kids. Luckily they were FH's friends so he had to deal with it. I know people on here say it's bad etiquette but I wish we just went ahead and stated that it was an adults only event.

Agree with @Bemyguest, make sure to address the adults only, not the whole family.

I have some cousins I'm worried won't get the hint that children aren't allowed or that their flavor of the month isn't either lol so I'm doing the following:

Addressing envelope to mr and mrs

The rsvp will state "due to venue occupancy limits, we can only accommodate those addressed on the invitation. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope you can still celebrate this day with us" or something like that

And then doing /2 seats reserved for you

I know it's a lot but seriously---I've learned from other cousins weddings that it's necessary lol

FH wanted to put in the invites "leave your brats at home". Lol We settled for "adults only affaire" on our website.

Here is what we did for our reception card RSVP card says adult reception. (Hide post that had the address on it)

@ciera A me and you think alike. I just said the same thing last week and people told me I was rude and can not invite someone flavor of the month to my wedding. The way some of my cousins operate with these guys/girls I could of saved my money on they Temporary boo thang. I like the way you think.