Pros and Cons : Kids at a wedding .....

Other than our flower girls & ring bearers we are having a no kid reception! And those kids will be going to their cabins with a sitter after dinner. I went to a wedding this weekend and kids ran around non stop, the DJ had to announce to keep kids off of his equipment and wires, and the glowsticks meant as favors to use on the dance floor... 2 kids had about 50 each in their pockets!

Also at another wedding a kid ruined the fingerprint tree guest book by writing his name in fingerprints in huge red letters across the entire thing!!

No kids for us.. Yeah it's cute when they dance.. For like 5 minutes... Then it's time for the adults to get down!!

I've never seen any thing wrong with it. Every wedding I've been to has had kids, and no issues. They dance, and are happy.

I think the worst part, is that those with little ones may have to leave early.

A wedding is a family celebration, not a drunk fest. I don't see why it has to be "Only for adults".

As having a child myself, I would not take my child to a wedding. He's been to one and he was only 3 weeks, he slept through the whole thing and we got a room (it was at the hard rock hotel) and so I stood sober FH drank and we just had to walk to the room so it wasn't too bad, but now that he is older, and by older I mean mobile, I prefer to get a sitter so mommy and daddy can I have a date night. Plus, some venues charge so much for a childs plate. Its a waste. And, I dont want to be the mom with the kid that broke the gorgeous centerpiece or grabbed a piece of cake before it was cut.

Im not having any children at my wedding with the exception of the children in our bridal party.

As a parent myself, I know that saying 'no kids allowed', unless you provide a list of babysitters, or provide one of your own, will cause some OOT guests to have to decline-- we just don't have anyone nearby with whom we could leave our kids. Also, I see many people setting the age at 'under 18'. At my wedding, my baby brother was 13, and by far the youngest guest, and he behaved *charmingly*-- two of my bridesmaids said, "if he were older, I'd snatch him up!"

For us, there are no pros. We're not inviting them. I don't want a chance a kid will be begin screaming during the ceremony. They also increase our headcount and will cost us another $1000 if added.

Our mothers don't like that though. They roll their eyes when ever it's mentioned that kids aren't invited. I wish they'd stop that. It's our decision.

No. Pros. Ever.

Soooo glad you started this thread. We have been debating this back and forth for our wedding. At ton of our friends have kids 3 and under. I do not want my wedding to turn into a nanny fest so I am leaning towards no kids.

But how does one go about requesting an adult only ceremony?

I'm very very very Pro children at weddings.

They are (usually) family events (counting friends as family) and kids are family. They should be there

(not having kids their smacks of 'not seen and not heard' ethos which I don't get at all)

We are only having the children who are attending

I would love to have no kids at the reception but if I didn't then we wouldn't have any guest and then there would be no reception. Cause most of our guest have children and most don't have anyone to babysit for them. But I'm sure a lot of our guest with kids probably won't stay to the entire end. Wedding at 3pm the reception is 5 to 9 and then we are having an adult gathering at our home after 9 with the adults that want to continue partying with us.

When you become a parent, there are things that you start to say no to; motorcycles, gin for breakfast, loaded guns on the coffee table. Possibly going to weddings without them is one of them.

It seems like this comes up about every two days, and no amount of persuasion from either front is actually going change any minds.

Bottom line? They cost money. They will suck up photographer time and attention. If that's okay with you, and vital to your familes then do it. If not, then just say no and stick firm with your decision.

At first I kept saying no kids but in the end we decided this was about family and children are part of the family. We honestly didn't have any issues, they stayed on the dance floor and kept the bubbles going since I guess the adults were too cool to blow bubbles. We did stations so we didn't differentiate between adults and children. In my opinion it made for a great party and I know they all slept good that night and probably slept in the next morning.

IMO it's a family thing...

I had kids at my wedding..however that being said I think I only had like 7 people under age 18..if I had had a huge family then I would have re-thought my decision..if there are like 30-50 kids or something then it can easily turn in to Chuck E Cheese.

Pros would be being able to see children in the family you may not have seen in awhile..also if family is OOT it would be a HUGE inconvenience to family members to have to get a sitter overnight. Many guests would be put off by not being able to travel with their kids. It was a huge priority for me to make my guests feel comfortable and to make things as easy as possible for them. If parents didn't want to bring kids, then I left that up for them to decide.

^^^^^ That's another issue ! All of FH family will be traveling for the wedding. So what about their kids, and it's a lot of them.

We are having kids at our wedding because the majority of our friends and family have children. Depending on the venue and budget I am going to create a children station. There will be crayons, coloring books, markers, puzzles, and an area where the older kids can make card for the bride and groom. If I can afford it, I may have a 15-17 year old sit and watch the kids so the parents can also enjoy it. It all depends on budget but the kids will be there.

No kids under the age of 5. My niece and nephew are going to be over 5 by the time of the wedding and they are in it. It puts a damper on some of my FH's family but the venue is cliff side on one half and the other yachts and sailboats....coming from an insurance background, its a logistic nightmare in my head. But i don't want crying kids or loud ones during the ceremony. Plus adult enjoyment should be had by both sides of the families. I'm really putting my foot down on this and I know there will be some that think I'm a B for it but its just not happening.

We had no kids and it was awesome! Highly recommended...our 3 flower girls were the only kids there and they left right after dinner...worked out great!

Our reception was a blast, everyone stayed late and didnt have to worry about taking their kids home, kids didnt get in the way or make noise at innapropriate times, everyone was dancing, celebrating and drinking, it was great! If kids were there...I know half of my friends and family would not have been able to stay or have as much fun as they did!

I'm sure its different for everyone, but I say NO KIDS

I love my neices so much, and they were with me all day long, so I did get to spend special time with them, but when the party started, they went to bed!

Bahahahaha ^^^^^ exactly Amy!

I'm anti-kid in general. However, we will be having all our nieces & nephews at the wedding -- only immediate family children allowed. They are so excited for the wedding and would be heartbroken if they couldn't attend. I'm just hoping for the best.

I allowed kids to come to my wedding and I'm glad that I did. Most of my guests didn't bring their kids with them. There were 3 babies at my wedding. They caused no problems. I enjoy seeing them in the photos. This is something that they can look back on when they're older. The mom of one of the babies was very excited that I made her baby a name tag for the table.