To invite or not to invite the kids...

I'm team no kids but it really depends on your family, budget, and wants

I wouldn't. It sounds like you honestly don't want to either. I didn't invite a single child to my wedding (not even nieces and nephews, whom I love dearly but 6 toddlers at an evening wedding would've been very distracting.) Anyway it's completely you and FH's call. It may indeed cause drama but you shouldn't be afraid to invite who you want to your wedding.

I would keep it just your bridal party kids that is enough

We're doing kids 10+ at our wedding. I was given the following advice as I talked about the same dilemma you mentioned... "It's your wedding. Invite who you want. If people don't come because they're mad about you not allowing kids, it wasn't that important for them to come in the first place. You'll never plan an entire wedding without making at least a few people angry."

I'm having the same dilemma however I also have the fact that I have one older cousin about my older sisters age around 35 36 or so and she is absolutely rude and I don't wanna invite her however it's family and I'm not paying the venue my parents are and plus what to do about kids I mean I'm having Bp but what do I do about my other family cousins kids :/ wedding isn't for a year and half but I have school so trying to plan a head so I can just get it over with so I can focus on school

It's your wedding and your budget, so invite who you want. If you do invite children, invite in circles or create "rules" and stick with them. We have a lot of out of town guests who were invited, so we decided that if the family had to travel more than 3 hours and stay overnight, then their children would be invited too. Anyone local would not have their children invited. Be prepared for some drama not matter what your decision

We're inviting some kids but not others. Friends kids are a hard no but my nieces, some of my cousins and his cousins and niece and nephew (10 total) are all invited. You don't have to invite kids though. People will either figure it out and attend or not. Plus, don't think that because you're inviting kids in the wedding party or kids that are close to you now means you have to invite every child that you know. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

You decide if you want to invite kids, but you also have to accept if people with kids decline.

Oh and for $60 per kid, I'd choose a new venue or say NO to kids lol.

We are inviting kids within our family and kids of out of town guests. When beginning planning, two family friends said they would rather not bring their kids to a wedding and have a night out. Also, I'm one of the youngest in my family and family friends, many of them have kids now and I don't know their kids. Our venue holds 250, our guest list is at 277, and I don't want kids taking place of adults. My flower girl and ring bearer are brother and sister, they have 3 other siblings and their parents have said they can get a sitter if I don't want them there. I've spent countless summers watching their kids and they're family so they are invited.

I'm making a note on our invitations "we love your kids but please make it a date night". There's no shame in asking your guests to leave their kids home and they might enjoy a night out away from them instead of having to constantly watch them

'I'm making a note on our invitations "we love your kids but please make it a date night"'

I wouldn't say that. I'm sure some parents will get miffed at the 'enforced date night' wording.

Yikes! What's the plan Melissa? No to all?

Fuck. Idk what to tell u. Kids are a pain in the ass but they are sweet too

The two step brothers, I don't think need to be invited unless they live* together.

@Melissa I have about 50 kids from my first cousins. :/ but u take the cake for 100!

We're doing an adults only event, but are allowing exceptions for BP kids and those who have babies too young to leave with a sitter. We're expecting two couples with newborns to attend. But we included a note on the website basically saying that it's adults only due to the size of the venue and the amount of alcohol we expect to be involved.

Our wedding is 21 and over because kids would put us over budget.

While providing a sitter option would be thoughtful, its neither necessary nor your responsibility. I had a coworker who was married in the ballroom of a hotel. They rented a conference room in the same hotel, stocked it with coloring books, board games, crayons and set up a Wii. They paid a set of neighbors to watch the kids for the night and the bride and groom stopped in to say hi to the kids in full wedding attire. It -can- be done, but its an added cost to an already expensive day.

I had a couple discussions with my parents on this, because they kept going into "So-and-so invited you to their wedding when -you- were a kid, you should invite their kids". I had to remind them that this isn't a birthday party, where its a simple $2 for additional punch and cake. So far, I've not had any complaints (actually had one family reach out to confirm that they need a babysitter).

My son will be the only kid at our wedding. We thought about doing immediate family but for every kid we would invite that's an adult that we would have to cut from the list. We already have our list down to our closest family and friends. So we are not having kids. We've been told now that some people may be offended that we are not inviting their kids to the wedding because of the "close relationship". People will need to get over it, it's our wedding and that is the decision we've made.

It would cause way too many problems if we didn't invite kids, so we are. Then again our cost per person is very low.

Can you ask the caterer about less expensive options for the kids?

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I have reached out to my caterer to find out if we could amend the meal plan for kids and bring the price down. Fingers crossed. 95% of the kids that would be invited would be out of town guests, so I'm still going to have to figure out the semantics.

Wow @Melissa! With my first cousin's kids and first cousin once removed kid's we were at 27 and I thought THAT was crazy!! 100 kids... I can't even imagine!

Set an age limit. Such as the wedding is for 15 and older or something like that.