Children at weddings - suggestions please!

ab7167

I'm getting married on Friday and we have 14 children coming. How much would you expect to be provides in terms of entertainment? The oldest is 11, and she is very adult, so I would imagine will be OK without being entertained, and there are 4 that are 18 months and under, whom
I will expect their parents to deal with (one of them is mine and MIL will be looking after him). The other 9 are 3.5 years to 6, I've done party bags for the ceremony with pencils, paper, raisins, stickers, fairy hats/pirates hats etc.

The hotel has a side room to the restaurant which I have asked to be left clear so I could put something in here to help entertain. Would you expect this? Not happy to do DVD's, but is there something else I could do to help the parents have a good time? There is a secure garden so I will be taking a bag of balls so they can have fun outside. OH thinks I am worrying too much and it is the parents responsibility... I just want everyone to relax!

Hollie84

My daughter was around 1.5 when we first went to a wedding,she loved dancing so spent all evening busting moves lol i think what u have like the pencils and paper etc will be fine then im sure they will be bopping about once the music starts.
another thing u could have is bubbles?
im actually having those little champagne glasses on the tables which have bubbles in

MrsDrink

I personally agree with your OH - the children are their parents' responsibility. If they don't want to look after them for the duration of your celebrations they shouldn't bring them. But this is my opinion and may not be shared with all the parents coming to your wedding. Why don't you ask a couple of them if, and what, they'd like?

ab7167

I think I'll leave it at party bags for the ceremony - we are not having any large gaps of time where nothing is happening, so I think it should be OK. All kids apart from one are well disciplined and able to behave, so I think I may take a bag of toys for the babies and nothing else. It's really the last thing I need to be stressing about.

Am starting to get excited now, one more day at work to do and a site visit 7.30 on Thursday morning, then I can get proper excited about Friday!

Hollie84

good luck hope u have a fab day

Minimoo24

the empty room might be nice for them to go and have abit of quite time in, before they go to sleep in there buggies....unless they are like my Son and can fall alseep in a full blown party! x

ab7167

Just to follow up, the party bags were a HUGE hit, kids loved them and they were all brilliantly well behaved :-) My cousin is getting married next year, there will be a lot of kids there as well and she said she was definitely pinching my idea!