Hiya All,
I was just looking for a bit of advice on the whole "No Kids" thing.
We originally were planning on having children at our wedding as we are the only ones on both sides of our families without kids.
We then had a conversation with a close family member and she said she couldn't think of anything worse than bringing her kids. She said she was worried about them making noise during the ceremony, running around and that she never enjoys her meal as shes focusing on the kids (we have paid a bomb for catering). We then got to discussing the possibility of no kids at all (The family only rule wouldn't work for us as that would still be 15 kids ranging from 12 to 2 months old). I was then 99% sure that we were going with no kids after speaking with a few family members and friends that have kids. They said they would be happy to leave their children at home so they can enjoy the day.
However we have a couple of tricky situations with our family, My brother lives four hours away and has 3 kids. Eldest is 11, youngest is 4. My other brother is expecting their second baby soon and will have a 5 year old and a 6/7 month old and lives about an hour away from the venue. My FH sister has a toddler and a baby due 2/3 months before the wedding date. If we say "babes in arms" are the ones with an older child then going to want to bring the older child or would they be happy with just their "newborn". But also If we say they can bring babies and other people turn up without their kids isn't this also going to upset people. It's really stressing me out and every time I think about it I get upset (I'm starting to wish i'd eloped at this point)
We don't have kids so have no idea how it feels to leave your child for a day/overnight but we do feel that it is only one day and most have left their children before. I could go into my defence about the venue not being overly child friendly etc but it sounds as though I'm just making excuses and ultimately I just want the best day for me and my FH and for everyone to enjoy themselves. One thing that is definitely not an excuse and is concerning me about kids being present is my dog. He is part of our wedding and isn't overly child friendly we are doing everything we can to make the day as easy for him as possible so inviting kids makes me anxious for him as he is ridiculously cute and small so kids tend to swarm to him which he doesn't like.
I get that people are likely to decline if we go with the no kids thing, We just feel that it is one day and we would love if everyone just understood where we were coming from but we feel like were being backed into a corner and the wedding is going to turn into a children's party
Any advice/views greatly appreciated
xx