Feeding children at a wedding

We will be having up to 25 children to cater for between 18months and 13yrs, mainly 4-7yrs. I suspect some will not come however. Our caterers either do a children’s menu or a children’s party box which we are hoping people with younger kids will go for (under 4). I wouldn’t expect a meal for a child under 12months but would expect a highchair.

we are also having a staffed crèche to allow the kids to go off and be entertained for a while, mainly during latter part of drinks reception, after they have eaten and during speeches and beginning of evening reception

We started off with 32 potential children on our guest list. We just put on the back of the invitations that so and so was welcome to join in our day but we completely understand that mum and dad need grown up time also so just let us know if they’re coming. I think the final number we ended up with in the end was 15 the majority of which were family related. Our friends have taken the opportunity to have the night off!

In terms of catering for children our venue offered either mini versions of our food or a completely separate menu, so would be worth checking what’s available to you. The one thing I did find annoying is that our venue decided that children aged 7 or over should have an adults portion! That won’t be happening and when they ask for break downs of ages I’ll be tweaking them ?

Thanks for your reply!

I had a chat with fiance last night, and we're going to have a chat with our bridesmaids and groomsmen to check out their childcare, and go for either family, or family & bridal party (plus babes in arms - we have one friend who is pregnant now and will have a 2 month old, which we wouldn't expect her to leave!).

I just kind of feel that I've already compromised a lot, as I didn't want to have kids at the wedding at all, and to be honest didn't really take them into consideration when planning!

I thought about getting a nanny type thing (mainly for the ceremony to be honest - I don't want crying children through our vows), but I'm not sure our budget will allow it. We will have some garden games and stuff though.

I'm thinking now of putting together a little picnic box for the kids we do end up having - a little sandwich, crisps, fruit and pudding - I'd make them activity packs anyway, so I can do that too.

But limiting to family/bridal party will halve the numbers, which is much more manageable. Plus it limits it to kids that we actually see!

I did't even think about this!! I will ask my venue next time we chat, thank you! X

We had about 50 kids at our wedding, slightly older on average than yours. We sat them in one big table down the middle of the marquee and they all had picnic boxes plus sandwhich platters from caterers and pens/books etc on the table

Have two children (ages 7 and 8) confirmed. One is having a packed lunch as she’s autistic and will only eat certain foods the other is having food on the children’s menu (there was also an option for him to have a half of the adults meal). There’s potentially have under fives going) however the venue said that they’re allowed to bring pack lunches instead; we’ll just see what their parents prefer.

Thanks for the reply. I think our kids will be too young to sit by themselves on the whole, so we'll probably sit them with parents. Love the idea of picnic boxes though, we'll probably do something similar. Thanks! X

Yep, I think packed lunch/picnic boxes are the way forward. If I can reduce the number of kids, this will be easy enough for me to prep the day before.

Fiance has agreed to do family or family + bridal party. We have 2 people in our bridal party who may struggle for childcare, so we're going to chat with them first before we make the final decision.

Thanks everyone for your responses, you've all been really helpful! X

Yep, I think packed lunch/picnic boxes are the way forward. If I can reduce the number of kids, this will be easy enough for me to prep the day before.

Fiance has agreed to do family or family + bridal party. We have 2 people in our bridal party who may struggle for childcare, so we're going to chat with them first before we make the final decision.

Thanks everyone for your responses, you've all been really helpful! X

Our ceremony doesn't start until 5:30pm, we don't have that many kids though, only 6 (aged 4 and under) and 4 Teenagers (14 - 17) because it's a late ceremony, we have canapes at 6:30pm and then a hog roast at 8:30pm. The teens will eat an adult portion anyway, and the babies will either still be on bottles or have a small portion of the hog roast, we're not doing any special catering.

We haven't had rsvp's back yet so some might not bring their kids, but I know H2B's nephew will be there and he'll be 4 and half when we get married, he eats anything though so I'm not really worried.