Deciding whether or not to invite kids to your wedding can be tricky – it’s impossible to please everyone after all! If you are planning to invite them, it does help to be prepared to ensure that everyone (young and old) has an enjoyable day. Here are 6 helpful tips you should know if you are inviting kids to wedding.

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Well done! You have made your decision re kids at your wedding, and sticking to it! But there are a few helpful tips you should know when inviting kids, to ensure that everyone has a great time.

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The one thing we all know is if the kids aren’t happy, no one is happy!!

Remember if you fail to plan, you plan to fail! So do some forward planning for a smoother running day for all your guests, young and old!

#1. Most Important Tip – Be Clear on Invitation

The first and most important tip is to decide early on whether you are inviting kids or not.  After that, you need to be very clear who is invited on your invitation.

If kids are invited you can name them, or just add “and family” to your invite! You could also add an age cutoff to invitation, if that is your preference e.g. No children under 8 please.

#2. Bring in the Professionals

Consider bringing in a minder or baby-sitter from a service to look after the kids.

Companies like Last Minute Minders will discreetly arrive at your wedding and set up in a room with everything needed to ensure your little VIP’s have a great time! They are all Garda-vetted and qualified, and will have the kids occupied and having fun for as long as you need them!

#3. Entertainment for the Kids

Organise activities and entertainment to occupy the kids, such as toys, books, bubbles, colouring, a DVD, or an Xbox (last resort!). Maybe ask the parents of children attending to suggest/bring some toys, colouring pages etc., to get the activities started.

Believe me, having these will be invaluable to all the guests and well worth the forward thinking.

#4. Dining Tips

You can make the dining experience better for all guests, both young and old, much better with a bit of forward planning.

• Print out their own “place mats”. These are easily downloaded colouring sheets in landscape, or they are readily available to buy online. Be sure you have plenty of crayons on each table though to prevent any squabbles.
• Or provide activity packs which could include stickers, colouring sheets, finger puppets etc.
• If you are serving canapes, have some snacks ready for the kids, like veggie sticks or cheese cubes – they will most likely be ravenous and will probably turn their nose up at your smoked trout pâté!
• Always ask the hotel to serve the kids their dinner with the adult starters (remember these kids have had a long day and are probably starving!)
• You could then ask the hotel if they could have a room allocated to the kids, with a movie showing for the remainder of the adults’ meal, where kids will be happy to go and escape the constraints of the table!

#5. Dance Routine

Ask a child-friendly Aunty, friend, or helpful teenager (or two) to help the children prepare a dance routine that they can perform during the evening.

This is a good way to occupy them for a while, and they will really enjoy “surprising” the bridal party with their offering.

Recommended Read: 10 Reasons Having Kids at Weddings is Fun

#6. Try Relax and Enjoy

Don’t forget to enjoy and laugh, and if you do see a little hand trying to steal one of the beautiful handmade flowers from the cake, don’t freak!

Get your photographer to capture it, and you will all get a giggle later at this!

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Over to you! Let us know any tips you might have to make life easier for everyone when kids at weddings?