Wednesday, October 16, 2013

From Miss to Mrs: The Littlest Guests

I remember being in middle school talking to my mom about her wedding asking how many kids attended. "There weren't many. Only one or two," she told me. "You'll see but as you get older your friends tend to go through life events at the same time. Get married together. Have babies together. So when we got married we didn't know that many kids to invite."
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"My wedding will be different," I told her. "Even if I have to ask strangers to bring their kids to the wedding, I want there to be a ton of kids there."
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For a while it looked like my wish we come true since we sent invitations out to 10 kids ages 6 and under. But for a wide variety of reasons, the only 2 that attended were our niece and nephew.
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So while I may not have had the kid-filled wedding of our dreams, the kids that did attend seemed to have had a blast.
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I know at times children at wedding are a controversial topic. Some wedding locations don't lend themselves great to little people, while others are perfect for them. I'd actually say our location wasn't the perfect place for kids, but thankfully our venue had no issue with them.
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It's more than the location though. Sometimes it a money issue, where you're paying full price for kids who won't eat near us much as an adult. This was actually the case with us, where anyone with a seat was considered full price. Part of me understands the logic behind it, but if you have a ton of kids to invite, the numbers do add up.
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But probably the most important aspect of it is your own personal want. If you don't want kids at your wedding, don't invite them, and don't feel guilty about it. But if having tiny ones around is important, then find a way to make it happen.
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What are your thought on having or not having kids at a wedding?

Don't forget to enter my giveaways to win copies of Weak at the Knees by Jo Kessel and Tinseltown Riff by Shelly Frome!

All photos in this post courtesy of Sabree Hill Photography.

Miss a Recap Post?
From Miss to Mrs: The Calm Before the Storm
From Miss to Mrs: There's a Hurricane Coming?
From Miss to Mrs: Here Comes Isaac
From Miss to Mrs: Weathering the Cane
From Miss to Mrs: After the Storm
From Miss to Mrs: Trials and Tribulations
From Miss to Mrs: The Last Errands
From Miss to Mrs: A Night on the Town
From Miss to Mrs: The Hangover
From Miss to Mrs: Rehearsing in the Heat
From Miss to Mrs: The Last Single Supper
From Miss to Mrs: Gifting the Girls
From Miss to Mrs: The Last Single Night
From Miss to Mrs: Oh What a Beautiful Morning
From Miss to Mrs: Getting Prettified
From Miss to Mrs: Prepping the Plantation
From Miss to Mrs: Turtle Time
From Miss to Mrs: The Photographer Has Arrived
From Miss to Mrs: Becoming the Bride
From Miss to Mrs: Dress Details
From Miss to Mrs: Ou Est le Groom?
From Miss to Mrs: A Bridge-y First Look
From Miss to Mrs: Couple Time
From Miss to Mrs: Just the Two of Us
From Miss to Mrs: Grouping the Girls
From Miss to Mrs: Ain't No Party Like a Bridal Party
From Miss to Mrs: Fun with Family
From Miss to Mrs: Making it Official
From Miss to Mrs: The Bedeken
From Miss to Mrs: The Final Minutes
From Miss to Mrs: Programming Break
From Miss to Mrs: The Processional
From Miss to Mrs: Walking the Walk
From Miss to Mrs: Circle to Ceremony
From Miss to Mrs: Remembrance to Kiddush
From Miss to Mrs: The Exchanges
From Miss to Mrs: Lucky Number Seven
From Miss to Mrs: Mazel Tov
From Miss to Mrs: Ceremony Details
From Miss to Mrs: The Yichud
From Miss to Mrs: Extended Fun with Family
From Miss to Mrs: The One Who Found You
From Miss to Mrs: You Are My Fire
From Miss to Mrs: Eat, Drink, and Be Married
From Miss to Mrs: I Want Candy
From Miss to Mrs: Let's Get Toasty
From Miss to Mrs: What a Wonderful World
From Miss to Mrs: Behind From Where We Came
From Miss to Mrs: Havah Nagilah
From Miss to Mrs: Hey Mr. DJ
Chits and Giggles

12 comments:

  1. As a kid, I loved attending weddings. On my mom's side, she has three younger half-siblings, so my cousins on that side range from about 6 to 16. On my dad's side, my cousins are older and already have kids, ages 2 or 3 to 14. I hope to have them all at my future wedding. :D

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  2. my mom didn't want me to have kids at my wedding. but my husband has older sisters who at the time had 5 and 3 kids, and all of them were there! two of the boys and two of the girls walked down the aisle. the other 3 boys I would have wanted to walk down, but their parents didn't want them to.

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    1. It always interesting to think about all the different opinions people have with kids at wedding. I guess there really is no right or wrong answer, although you're likely to make someone upset along the way.

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  3. I really didn't want kids at my wedding when I was younger. But then I met Jeremy and that completely changed. We just have too many kids on both sides to say "No" to. Nieces and nephews that will be part of our day, somehow. We aren't having traditional flower girls or ring bearers (too many to choose who gets to do it). But we are doing a little bit with them.

    Our venue is a package deal, so the young kids actually are cheaper than kids 12-20. If they aren't 21, they don't pay full price since our price includes the alcohol. WOO HOO!

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    1. We were told anyone with a seat is full price. I guess it makes it easier on them not to have to count. But it seems a little silly that a 5-year-old is the same price as a 20-something. Although maybe if it was just for catering I'd be more upset, but since it was for the venue as a whole including set-up and everything else, I guess it makes at least a little sense.

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  4. Oh my goodness they are sooooooooo cute! I love kids at weddings, they make things more happy and more joyous.

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    1. I would definitely agree with you there! It's hard not to have a good time when you see someone so little, and so cute, having a blast.

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  5. Our cousin's kids are invited (well his, my cousin's don't have kids yet, lol) and no nieces or nephews yet. Our friend's children aren't invited. They're about 8 and younger and are already planning for a babysitter that night, ha.

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    1. I think depending on your relationship with your friends, it probably doesn't make sense to invite their kids. After all if you never see them, and don't have a relationship with them, it may not be worth inviting them. But you'll like spend a lot of time with your cousin's kids, so it makes sense to draw the line there, at least for me.

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  6. I absolutely LOVE kids at weddings! Sure, infants can scream during vows or whatever, but it's so great having them for the dancing! We're lucky that we have kids menus for ours. We also have a separate fun room for the kids to enjoy time away from adults (and vice versa!). They'll play games, eat and watch movies while the adults eat. Then when the dancing starts the kids will come in! I'm so excited!

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    1. I think that sounds like the perfect compromise! Are you paying a babysitter to watch over the room, or just having parents watch their kids? I've heard of people using baby-sitters like that in theory, but don't know anyone whose actually done it in real life.

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  7. We had about twenty kids, aged 12 and under, at our wedding. Since I was 36 when I got married, and had been a nanny, a lot of my friends had kids and we wanted them there. We did a lot of things to help them feel welcome, including having a children's story during our ceremony. One of our Jewish guests invited all the kids under the chuppah and explained the significance of it to them. It was really cool.

    If you want to read my wedding re-caps (they just took one week of posts to do!), there are at the beginning of July 2012 on my blog.

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