Please, PLEASE, PPPUUHLLLEASE let me preface this post by saying I LOVE KIDS, I can't wait to have a few ankle bitters one day!
How do you handle guest that want to come to your wedding with small children? I have never been a parent, but I am guessing that if I were and I was invited to a wedding where there was going to be dancing, drinking, and grown-up food. I would treat this wedding as a date night for me and my beloved?! Yes? NO?
Now the exception would be I am flying, driving, a long distance with a weekend, or overnight stay and taking the kids is a must. That I can deal with too, so how to do you deal with screaming babies on your wedding video? I have seen this handled many different ways...
1. Offer a "cry room" during your ceremony that is kept by church volunteers, or trusted babysitters.
2. Be clear on the invitation say Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Smith not Tommy, Sally, Tommy Jr., Little Sally. This sometimes get the message across.
3. Trust your guest, most parents use sound judgment on where they can or can NOT take their kids (except that one person in the movie theater). Most parents know that if little Tommy hasn't had a nap he is going to be screaming through a 20 minute wedding ceremony.
If you are like me and 99.9% of all your friends have children, but you want your friends to come and have a good time at your wedding, you might just have to get over the baby crying on your wedding video!
Sidebar: We FINALLY did our engagement shots this morning, I can't wait to see how they will turn out! Matt said he hopes to have them ready by next weekend! WOOT!
I totally agree with you! We felt the same way for our wedding. :) (And yes, we will have a sitter for Colin so we can enjoy and adult night out!) ;) I recommend addressing the invitations as you have implied and also getting the word out...your Mom, family, etc can get the word out that you are going to have an adult reception and usually people understand that with no problem (at least they won't tell you about it anyway!). If you're still concerned with the OOT guests, hire a babysitter/nanny from a local service for a couple hours to keep the kiddos occupied in a side room with coloring books, activities, etc.
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