Kids at a wedding

I think you can say "children in the bridal party only" are allowed and people will understand this.

Personally I wouldn't invite half my cousins and exclude the younger cousins but that's up to you. I think that would cause some friction though especially if in some families there's a 16 year old you invite and a 5 year old you don't.

If my son was invited to the evening only I simply wouldn't bring him as he'd be in bed asleep! But other parents would happily bring their kids.

Agree with saisi. Perfectly reasonable to just have kids only if part of the bridal party.

We don't have children so weren't too bothered about many kids being there. Turns out there's loads! But we've come to a compromise and are inviting children to the day but having an adults only evening do.

If you google invite wording children there are lots of suggestions!

Xxx

Hi Steph!!

just be a *** like I did and say no children, upset his mother even more!

I think it's perfectly acceptable to say children only in the bridal party. I am considering doing the same, in which case my three year old niece would be the only child there. Xx

My partner and I struggled with this. My side of the family is HUGE and lots of kids.

We decided that we would invite god children (who I see twice a week and am really close to), my nieces and my bridesmaids kids (as I have asked them to be part of the wedding).

3 of my younger cousins I am closer to are not coming in the day even though I would like them too. It would cause arguments from the rest of the family.

Working it out, it would cost us over 4000 extra if we in cited all of the cousins and the kids. I would rather have my awesome honeymoon.

sounds quite ruthless but you have to have a cut off point or you'll spend tonnes! Xxx

We are having our son, my niece and oh's nephew, no other children are invited to the day or night. We would be over run with kids if we invited them all, but them we're not inviting everyone's partners either so be weird if the kids were invited haha

Its personal choice & I guess you have to decide if there are any guests that you would be upset / disappointed werent there if by saying no kids meant they couldnt or wouldnt come.

This is an issue we have too. We have 2 small children, both under 5, who will be a page boy and flower girl. Our evening reception is in an over 18's venue, so we will need to find babysitting, and others can't bring little people.

My issue is that almost all our day guests are travelling long distances to get to us, and so I believe we have to tell them children are discouraged due to the evening restrictions. HOWEVER, there are one or two locals invited who in theory could bring their kids because they only live a short distance away and could get their kids home to bed, but will that seem unfair to the people who have travelled without their kids, seeing children at the lunch when they were told no? If so, how do I explain to my local friends they can't bring their kids during the day?

To be quite honest, we would prefer to have no kids at all....

There has been loads of threads about this recently- it's a really common problem. Have a look at the search function and have a read- hopefully it will give you some perspective.

If you say no kids, you could risk that the parents cant come if they cant find a babysitter. That's one thing to consider. We dont have kids either and i would rather not have any especially with an open bar all night, it's just easier not having to "babysit" the little ones. If you start allowing some kids from your family to come and others not, it can get testy with some people. Bridal party only is totally fair. Or "no under 10's" or something if you dont want the little ones.....

It is a tricky one. For us, as most people will be coming over 500 miles and having to stay overnight the night before and the night of the wedding. If we say no children, then a few may not be able to come. If we say no children in the evening, we have to have provision for during the day, and risk people not being able to attend the evening reception through lack of babysitting... It's so hard.

Im thinking about saying due to the small numbers at the wedding (50) and a rather unsafe setting for the ceremony (an open riverbank) AND an over 18s only licensing issue for the evening reception, we are having to ask guests not to bring under 18's. and even say the same to the locals, because it will be unfair on those from further afield otherwise.