Kids or no kids ??

Have you considered hiring a creche? We did, because we wanted a sophisticated adult wedding, but had many overseas and travelling guests with young children, so we had a crèche and it was great! The kids all had a wonderful time, and our wedding was perfect

We are looking into having a creche also. Can I ask who yours was with venart? And how much you paid?

Venart - i'd love to hear about the creche as I'm thinking of it too xx

We had Bearsted Babes in Kent. They came for 8 hours (2-10pm), fed all the kids their meals, had soft play furniture and toys, DVDs, and it was great. They provide a certain number of carers depending on the number of children. They were in an adjoining part of the venue that was easily accessible for parents, and they had the mobile numbers of all the parents if there was a problem. The youngest in the crèche was 8 weeks, so he was being breastfed every few hours by my SIL, and the oldest was 12, but she and her 10 yo sister were only in there for the meal because there was no room for them in the room for the wedding breakfast. They joined the adults for the rest of the day, but if there were other preteens they might have liked to stay apart and do their own thing. For the most part the crèche had children up to age 5.

Brilliant!

Did the kids stay in there? That's my biggest fear - i spend a load of money and the kids don't go in there!

This is something I've been debating too. My fiance recently DJd a friend's wedding (so we were there from before the bridal party arrived right through to the end of the evening do) and there were lots of children there. Many of them were terribly behaved, running around near the wedding cake, candles, flowers, glass photo frames, the club's PA set-up, my fiance's expensive DJ equipment...so many potentially dangerous things! In the time inbetween the breakfast and start of the evening do, all the parents retired to the bar and left their kids to run around where the staff were trying to clear and set up tables, and the bride herself ended up having to admonish them. I could see she was getting a bit upset and I felt awful for her. But I would hate people to just not come to my reception if they couldn't bring their kids..argh.

Hi All

The creche idea sounds good. I'm past that point now though so the budget has def gone out the window.

I'm on the verge of sending out our invites and my aim is that children will be invited to the day but the evening reception will be adults only. Now I know this may be a bit controvesrial but I'm "hoping" parents will know that the only other option would to not have kids there at all. At a wedding I went to last year a couple had there toddler during the day which was nice to be as a family and for photos, then they let their hair down at night as her sister came to pick him up before the evening reception started.

There will be 19 kids (most under 6) in the day out of a total guestlist of 116! And whilst I am worried about them running a riot during the day, i definetley didn't want them doing so in the evening and space is limited.

Please can you let me know your thoughts on my decision so it helps me prepare for the worst! Please be as brutal (or kind) as possible. I do think there will be repercussions, but weighed up I felt having young kids there at night would have caused more issues.

Thanks xxx

We are getting married here and had a similar dilemma. We have 2 children of our own so it was never going to be a child free affair. The venue I loved and we have since booked, can only accommodate 70 day guests and our numbers were 80. We have taken the decision not to invite cousins' children, only nieces, nephews and those of close friends. Maybe do something similar? I feel a bit gutted about it, but I hope they understand.