wedding party bags for kids

wendyf_3

It's my sisiters wedding on August 11th and she has managed to rope me into to doing lots of work for it as i'm off on holiday as i'm a teacher. She has asked me to make party bags up for the children aged between 3 and 15 to keep them amused during the day. We are trying to do it as cheaply as possible as everything is adding up.
Does anyone have any ideas which arent too noisey!!!!

Thanks

Boomdocker

Is this to give to them at the reception? Is there a designated kids area that you could furnish with games. Board games, cards and the like that could encourage them to play together.

Colouring, balloons (always a winner), cards, disposable cameras, comic/magazine, sweets, costume jewelry, nail varnish.

troll35

Check out your local poundshop if you have one. They may have puzzle books suitable for older children plus games/toys/craft goodies for younger ones.

You could possibly organise a games area with things like hungry hippos, jenga etc that all kids love (even if they are a bit older and it's a bit uncool).

Good luck

Jay-Jay_4

I got some medium sized gift bags and then went to Tesco....

I bought one of those colouring pads with the intricate pattern designs, a puzzle book and a normal colouring book then ripped the pages out of each one and divided them between each gift bag. I put in a mini pack of felt tips, a mini pack of coloured pencils and I picked up some cheap stationary sets (pound shop ) to put in each one.

I put some Scoubie Dous in each one (a little teddy in one for a toddler), a small pack of snap cards (Tesco party bag section) and finally some loose beads and elastic.

They all enjoyed themselves and entertained themselves for over two hours during the meal.

I didn't spend very much and the peace during the meal was priceless

troll35

snap boomdocker:)

VickyA_2

We've got 3 children coming to our wedding, all of differing ages (11 months, 2years and 6 years). We don't have a designated children's area, though I suppose the dog can try to provide amusement. :rolleyes: Seriously, I'm just going to get them a couple of books, according to their age group, a simple toy (non-noisy!) and erm erm their own seat?

Lillibet_2

I can remember going to weddings when I was a child , we're talking between 4-10 here, and not only were my parents expected to ensure I behaved & provide anything necessary for my amusement, and food if I wasn't going to eat the main meal, but I distinctly remember enjoying being treated like a grown up at a grown up occasion. Whilst I was never an angel & I realize that not all kids have the benefit of being taught respect & courtsey I wonder how we can expect them to learn how to behave at these occasions if we don't give them the opportunity to learn? I anticipate going to weddings over the course of my sons' childhood, I would expect to provide for him myself or not take him if I don't feel confident of his behaving without the benefit of a happy meal.
Sorry, not the OP's problem I know as it isn't her wedding, just feeling distressed after the end of Dr Who & need to work out my frustration somewhere! I'll get back in my box:o.

Spendless

Lillibet wrote:

I can remember going to weddings when I was a child , we're talking between 4-10 here, and not only were my parents expected to ensure I behaved & provide anything necessary for my amusement, and food if I wasn't going to eat the main meal, but I distinctly remember enjoying being treated like a grown up at a grown up occasion. Whilst I was never an angel & I realize that not all kids have the benefit of being taught respect & courtsey I wonder how we can expect them to learn how to behave at these occasions if we don't give them the opportunity to learn? I anticipate going to weddings over the course of my sons' childhood, I would expect to provide for him myself or not take him if I don't feel confident of his behaving without the benefit of a happy meal.
.

The same was also expected of me as a child but I was and still am a very different temperament to my boisterous livewire son;) . We last attended a wedding 3 years ago when DS was 3 and DD 5 months old. The couple married at noon in a longer than average ceremony (than the CofE ones I'm used to). We got out about 12.45 photos were taken for an hour then we drove about half an hour to reception. To this day I don't know what went wrong but it was 5pm before we were taken through to eat the meal. There were several kids all going stir crazy. The hotel had a kids play area which had closed 2 days before for refurbishment:rolleyes: . When we finally sat down to eat ,in between courses another woman complimented me on managing to keep going with my kids as she'd given in and rang her mum up to take hers. Wasn't an option for me, we were at the other end of the country to where we live. How I would have welcomed a kids goody bag. Have never seen one before at a wedding and before I saw this thread it didn't even occur me to pack one up for the wedding we will attend at the end of this month(again miles from where we live) but I will do one now.

My suggestions are colouring books, pencils, balloons.

garret1

if it's outdoors at all bubbles are always a winner and little etch a sketch things are good cos they can rewrite on them

emg

I went to a wedding recently where they did party bags for the kids. They had a story book, some colouring bits and bubbles. Definitely the bubbles got played with the most - mainly by the adults! They also had a little bouncy castle (belonged to one of the children - just a little garden sized one).

Other ideas for slightly older children would be little magnetic travel games or maybe a scavenger hunt type thing where they have a long list of things they have to go off and find in the venue or grounds. Also at this time of year lots of kids comics and magazines have extra toys attached. Keeps the children fairly occupied if you give them a disposable camera too.

I think it's fairly easily to come up with ideas for younger children but I dont think I would bother for the teenagers, they are hard to please and might think it's a bit babyish. Just let the parents know it's fine for them to bring along their MP3 player and a magazine for the boring bits.

Jay-Jay_4

I have to say that my above suggestions were based on the fact that at my wedding two of the children were my own, two were my sisters and two were my best friends. I only had a total of 19 people at my wedding and the little 'party bags' were extras that I wanted to provide as part of the whole occasion rather than an obligation to keep somebodys elses children amused.

If it had been a 'big' wedding with lots of strangers kids I would've tamed the gift bags down to just some colouring stuff but the children at my wedding were very loved by me and it was lovely seeing their faces when they discovered their goody bags on their seats