Childcare on Wedding Night

It is a tricky one, can they not stay at the reception and then go home with MIL Kids are likely to stay up later at weddings and fall asleep on laps until home time and then go back with your MIL? Our venue has a little room attached the reception room that they are putting bean bags in for little ones as a quiet zone. Or, is there a way you can get a couple of large family rooms and split the kids in there with your MIL and another adult who you trust to stay with them? Hope you manage to find a solution

Our children will be 4 and 6 when we get married and will be attending the evening reception. We have been to weddings before where they sleep in buggies or chairs later on but my eldest is a party animal and usually parties on dance floor in his pjs lol! They will be going home with my oh dad and step mum but prob not until 11pm or midnight.

It's different for everyone but personally, we're having our children, 6 and 10, to our reception. I think they'll have a ball with the buzz of the day. They don't stay up late at all usually but this hasn't put me off. There are sofas in the reception type area they can crash on as we have a barn which is exclusive use, but I honestly think they'll be loving it too much to even want to sleep. Yes, the next day I expect them to be shattered but it's a big deal for them as well as us, it would seem a bit mean not to include them in the "fun" bit (by this, I refer to our circumstances, as I say, everyone is different).

As Jade said, I'm planning on getting some nice pjs they can party in as it gets later :-)

Mine are 10 this year and will be coming to the reception, I wouldn’t dream of not having them there. They like to join in with everything and always have.

Appreciate what you say about costs, but have you looked into getting an event nanny? My fiancé has a seven year old and I have two nieces aged 4 and 5. The nannies are coming to the reception and will put the girls into their PJs when they get too tired and have a side room at the venue with bean bags, blankets, stories etc until my sister and mother in law are ready to take them (they offer a service where they take them back to the hotel, put them to bed and watch them until guests get back to the room, but we wanted the girls to stay up if they wanted to and be nearby). It actually wasn't any where near as expensive as I thought it would be. Happy to give the details of the company I've gone with if you want to look into it.

Thank you so much for the responses everyone. We have a 1,2,3 and 7 year old, all very young and dependent still which is where my concern was coming from of not being able to give them my full attention especially when they all get tired around the same time (they thrive on routine!) We’ve decided to do as some of you suggested and use a room which we’ll put blow up beds in and movies and go down the event nanny route just for the evening rather than the whole night until morning. We’ve had 2 young ladies training in nurseries offer to help so that’d be ideal. One can be with the kids who are sleepy and the other could follow around the ones who might want to join in the fun. My mum and sister will come and stay at our house with children around the corner from the venue and I’ll come back in the morning to sort out the kids and bring everyone to the wedding breakfast. Problem solved. Thanks so much guys 😁

When we get married our 3 children who will be 18, 14 and 9 are all staying with us for the whole of the evening. Out youngest is autistic so we will be creating a chill out area for him with beanbags, fidget toys and his tablet incase he needs some wind down time.
We are staying at our venue the evening of our wedding and have booked a room for all 3 if the children to stay in together. Family members want to drink so refused childcare, which i understand. So we spoke to the eldest two and they are happy to all stay together in a family room so we get our wedding night alone.