Invites and no children

ac085

I'm trying to sort out the invites for my wedding this year.

I am not inviting children other than those in the bridal party during the service and meal but they can come to the reception and need to write this down in the additional info for the invite.
Most people have already been told that we can't have children in the day so it isn't going to be a shock.

I'm just looking for ideas of a more polite way to phase this, I have seen other posts a few months ago but after a few searches and pages and pages of posts I can't find anything.

Angel_of_Tomfoolery

I would keep it simple and just say something like 'unfortunately, we are unable to invite children to the daytime events, but they are very welcome to join us in the evening'. I wouldn't get into justifying your decision too much

PootleFlump_3

Im not inviting any children apart from family to any of it (not the evening either). Im just putting the parents names on the invitations which will hopefully make it obvious that kids arent invited.

lupyloo

My very good friend is getting married and we were wondering how to word it. Looked at loads of different ideas and found this, copied and pasted it to a word document so dont really know which site it was from. Anyway hope it helps

Example of wording for Child Free wedding

‘Parents please note: It is our wish to have an adult-only celebration. We hope that this advance notice means that you are still able to share our big day.’
‘We hope you understand that we have chosen to make our special day adults only.’
‘To allow all guests to relax and enjoy themselves, we have chosen for our wedding day to be adults only.’
‘We want to make you aware as early as possible that due to numbers and maximum capacity of the venue, we will not be able to invite children to the wedding or reception. We thank you for your understanding on this matter.’
‘We hope no offence is taken but due to budget restrictions, we are unable to invite your children.’
‘We would like to make it clear that due to costs and the wishes of the bride and groom, children are not invited to the wedding ceremony or reception. We thank you for your understanding.’
‘Although children are not invited to the wedding, some local hotels can provide a babysitting service in your room. Details of this are shown below.’

Child-free except for immediate family

‘.....not able to invite children who are not part of the bridal party....’
‘Due to restrictions on numbers, the only children we can invite to our wedding are family children’.

Telephone those guests with children in advance of the invitations to pre-warn them that it will be a child free wedding. Not only is this polite, you also guarantee that invites can’t be misinterpreted and people have sufficient time to find a babysitter.

If you’re getting married in a hotel, find out whether they have a baby sitting service

Don’t lie about why you’re not inviting children – you’re more likely to offend people if you’ve told them the venue doesn’t allow children and they later find out that’s not the case.

I think it was something like nosparetime or something like that. Hope you get it sorted and don't let it stress you out, Lupyloo x

Sammy85_2

I think alot of the suggestions above are great.

We invited children to our wedding and all the reception. Only immediate family actually brought their children, most friends declined the offer preferring to have a day off/away from the kids.

kmmr

I put a handwritten note in with the invites. I was actually the opposite - I'm ok with them at the church, but not at the reception. It went down fine, most people are perfectly happy with it and some are very pleased to have an excuse for a weekend away from the kids!

I wouldn't say it's to do with capacity or cost (unless it is) as otherwise people may say 'oh I'll pay for little Johnny', or be thinking at the event that there was enough space. I'd also say don't try to solve the problem too much for people - ie don't set up babysitting, or day care, as everyone seems to have different standards on this and it's easier if it's left to the parents.

I told people that there can be babysitting services at the venue, and if people wanted advice I could give them the details of the venue who can advise who they normally use. Good thing with lots of babies is that parents can share babysitters in the rooms.

Idiophreak

Personally, I always think it's better to be positive, rather than negative.
So I wouldn't say "no children during the day", I'd just say "Children are welcome at the reception" - that way people will read between the lines that they're not welcome for the rest of the day, but you don't actually have to say it

ac085

Thank you for the replies.
The reasoning is partly wanting a more adult/serious day and mainly the venue we have chosen not being able to cater for more than 4 young children for a sit down meal. (The numbers under 5 are in double figures)

As we are invite children to the evening too I have drafted this:

[FONT=&quot]Unfortunately we are unable to invite children, other than within the bridal party, to the ceremony and wedding breakfast. We very much look forward to them joining us in the evening for the celebrations.
Please indicate what parts of the day you are able to attend when you RSVP.[/FONT]


What do you guys think?

smartiedriver_2

The best invite I saw said something along the lines of.....

Whilst (bride) & (groom) both love children, they feel their friends would be better able to let their hair down and enjoy the day if children were present. As such, any children not in the bridal party are not included in the invitations.

This was written in a letter from the bride's mother, included in the invitation, which also covered which hotels to stay at, dress code, directions, etc etc.

Idiophreak

smartiedriver wrote: »

The best invite I saw said something along the lines of.....

Whilst (bride) & (groom) both love children, they feel their friends would be better able to let their hair down and enjoy the day if children were present. As such, any children not in the bridal party are not included in the invitations.

This was written in a letter from the bride's mother, included in the invitation, which also covered which hotels to stay at, dress code, directions, etc etc.

You sure that's what you mean?

LegalBlonde

if you don't name them they won't presume kids are invited. that's what we did and anyone with kids asked. at that stage you can explain.