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Me too! I hope some good ideas get posted for children of all ages. I'm counting on kids being able to run around outside.
I love the idea of covering their tables in craft paper so they can draw right on the tables. Kids love that stuff. Actually, so do adults.
I'm having 6 kids in the wedding! 3 flower girls .. one ring boy and my brother in laws twins will be walking hand in hand with one of the flower girls .. so cute!!! Other than that two of my friends have 3 year olds .. FI's side has a few too.
SweetAdelineXO - What a great idea! Ha ha, I know, when FI and I go to a restaurant that you can draw on the tables, we find ourselves having to cover-up naughty pics when the waiter comes, SO FUN!
I'm going to have several kids there, but most of them are under the age of one. There may be three or four under the age of five that I need to find something for. Maybe I'll just put together goody bags with crayons and coloring books or something else from the dollar store.
we had about 40 kids at our wedding... about 6 in our wedding party! it was so much fun having kids running around the reception and made for some great pictures! at our wedding we had a photobooth and a candy buffet...they were a hit with the kids! we also made kids bag for about 20 of the younger kids (under 8 yrs) to play with during the ceremony. i went to a wedding where they had a face painter and that was such a hit!
oh in the activity bags, we had coloring books, art projects, puzzles, etc all found in the dollar section from Michaels...it'll def. keep them occupied!
I gotta say, I can't stand kids at a wedding! I have about...zero patience for the little buggers!
More power to you brides for catering to the tots--I'm sure their parents love you!
We had crayons and coloring books with stickers for the kids at our wedding. You might also have some pipe cleaners for them. I'd stay away from anything that could damage the venue (like glitter, glue, markers, play-doh, or sequins). Our venue would have charged for that kind of stuff because it requires them to get the carpet cleaned.
VirginaMarie - it has nothing to do with liking kids. All our friends are OOT - it's just not possible to tell someone to leave their little kid at home halfway across the country, or in our town with a babysitter the parents have never met. I think all of FI's friends have little kids. Rather than be really PO'd I've decided it's best to go with the flow and provide entertainment to keep them as quiet as possible. The more I cater to them the less likely they are to cause problems, so crayons and coloring books and party favors it is!
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Go to your local party goods store and basically make them the same goody bag that they would get at a birthday party. Kids love those bags, and they're super cheap to put together. Just stay away from loud toys like whistles.
We got a babysitter for all of the kids. We made this huge cardboard box full of dress up clothes, art projects, crayons, paper, bubbles, pens and other goodies. Even kids whose parents had refused the babysitter early on ended up with the babysitter because she was so much fun!
They were in a seperate little area where they could tear it up and be as loud as they wanted, but they knew that when they came back to the reception area, it was time to behave.
At the end of the weekend we had 3 little kids begging to take the box of goodies home with them because they wanted to keep playing. It was awesome!
have a long table where kids have a bunch of activities no junk food( as a parent i dont want my children eating candy all night) but having colouring pages and games would be great
I just finished my kid project! We are having about 7 kids at our wedding under the age of 10. The other day my mom mention how much my cousins little girl loves to draw. So, I decided to make a coloring book for the kids. It was actually super easy! I found clip art online and also included a maze and made my own crossword for the kids. I got some brads to attach the pages all together. It turned out great and I hope they'll enjoy it!
We're having three children at the wedding (one of which is the flower girl). Since many of our friends have children, we invited only children of family (we're having a small wedding as it is and half of our guests would have been kids if we hadn't decided to take this road).
I went to the 99 cent store the other day and loaded up on goodies to make special favor bags for the 3 little girls attending. I saw so many options for girls & boys. I stayed away from crayons & markers because (although they are very well behaved children - you never know) I didn't want them to carried away and for us to be responsible for colored on table cloths and etc. If we had had more children attending, we would have gone the route of a movie hour (or 2) for the kids with popcorn, and games in a separate room with 2 babysitters.
Just a note, we invited 8 family children... only 3 will attend. I think many parents will be grateful for your hospitality but may just leave them at home to have an evening/day out as adults. Best of luck!
We are having a long "kid's station" table covered in craft paper with crayons and other little toys. We aren't having a babysitter there, but older kids should be able to play by themselves and it will be away from all the action!
Kids prefer to dance with the adults. Most kids don't want coloring books, games, etc.
Check out Mrs. Sprinkle's recaps - she's a preschool teacher and had a TON of kids at her wedding. Being a teacher, she had some great ideas about keeping them entertained with all sorts of things.
Ditto MrsDG
I anticipate about 35 kids at our wedding and will be having a babysitter in a separate room. The room will have tons of things for them to do.
I don't want a bunch of kids running around during the reception.
Our wedding is at a carousel, so I'm assuming the kids will stay amused with unlimited rides. Beyond that, I've gotten some great ideas from the boards and blogs on this site (search "kids table" and similar).
I'm pretty sure I'll seat them at their own long table with DIY candy centerpieces and/or balloons with paper and cups of crayons. I love the idea of toys or gift bags at each place setting and special kid-friendly snacks and drinks.
Some bees have made adorable wedding activity books for kids (coloring, word search, etc.); if I feel extra-ambitious I might try one of those. Oh, also, I'm going to hire a sitter or two (perhaps teenage children of wedding guests) to keep an eye on the kids and the parents will be right nearby if needed.
I am encountering some familial resistance to having the kids at the reception (some relatives, including my mom, think it's inappropriate), but we've thought about it a lot and have decided that making the reception a welcoming environment for kids is the best option.
We're having a fairly laid back reception, so I am considering using large rolls of paper to cover the tables & having colored pencils at each table for guests (young and old) to doodle & leave notes on (I'm hoping to get some good scrapbookable doodles/msgs).
For those with large amounts of kids & a few babysitters I would also add boardgames & classic party games (pin the veil on the bride maybe? More structured activities help with kids who will be there for some time (unless you know kids who love coloring that much, they may need something a little more exciting to keep them occupied). Even if it's just a craft project (maybe have them make something for their parents), it's hard to keep 30 kids quiet and coloring for very long (from my experience as a substitute teacher, I'd say 15-30 minutes tops before they are bored and acting out).
Hot wheels or lego sets might be a good option, but be sure there is enough so that everyone can share and not squabble over them).
We have the same challenge---not sure how many kids will actually attend, but among 150 guests on the list, there are 34 under the age of five, plus one seven-year-old (poor kid, all on his own amidst the toddlers!) About half of them are in-town so may not actually come (although on the flip side, these are the kids we know the best, and several of them are SUPER excited about the wedding) but the other half are OOT so we wanted to include them for the same reasons you noted---can make it difficult for their parents to come at all if we don't. (So far we have heard that one is staying home with the grandparents for the weekend, though.)
We are waiting to see how the numbers shake out to decide how to occupy them, but our venue has a separate room we're not using that will hopefully work well as a dedicated kid space (both for kids and for parents, nursing mothers, etc.)....it's also in a park with two playgrounds that are open until 10 pm, so that helps too. One thing we are doing is talking with parents about a food plan. Officially our caterer doesn't count anyone under age six, but realistically if we actually have 20+ three- and four-year-olds, we need to factor them in. We're deferring to our friends whose kids will be among them as far as how to plan this, and assuming parents whose kids are picky eaters or have allergies will probably bring their own snacks anyway.
We know all of these kids individually and the in-town kids mostly know each other and have been to events together before, so hopefully it will go smoothly...we'll see!
We had 17 kids and 3 infants at our wedding. We got married later than most of our friends and family, so everyone has kids already. We did something similar to Mrs. DG- a box for each kid with Crayons, a animal shaped frame (25 for $2.00 at Michael's), a paperbag puppet, scissors, bubbles, glow sticks (15 for $1.00 Michael's dollar bin- These were the biggest HIT!), and a wood animal cut out from Joanne's on sale.
Edit- we also gave all the kids a bag of animal crackers, no photo since even the adults were eating them... what can I say, a wedding at the zoo brings out the kid in everyone!
there is a play ground outside of our venue! very cool! :D but we will also have some kiddy bags. just including crayons, coloring books, candy, ect. :D just for funnsies but nohting too exciting
I am with most people on this one. Definetly have that extra room with the babysitter and have LOTS of options for the kids. Crayons & coloring books are good. But add to it as well, the dress-up stuff & lego will please lots of kids and keep them busy for a while. I was actually at a wedding where they had a whole bunch of Play-Doh for the kids to play with. Maybe even have some kids books sitting around as well.
Main thing for little ones is that they have VARIETY!!!
Good luck!
I just posted a downloadable version of my activity books if you are interested! You can get it here: http://wemetinabar.com/downloads/
Best,
Heather
You can also see if the venue can provide a TV and DVD. If they can't then see if you can't secure a laptop and a 22 inch monitor. That way you can play some movies as well.
we gave the kids in our wedding party (4 of them) personalized gifts. we ended up with 13 kids under 10 at our wedding (we invited 34 but a lot of parents chose to make the night a date night) and we put a bag with a coloring book, crayons, little toys, apple juice and chocolate milk. the parents were SOO thankful and it made the little ones night!
we got married on a ranch though so there wasn't much to break and if they ran around, the more the merrier.
Hire a clown!!! They can perform for an hour or two and that will keep the kids occupied...
Our wedding is going to be at my Mum's house (the house I grew up in) and we're going to have probably around 20-25 kids at the wedding (6 in the wedding). We're going to bring the Wii and set it up inside so if they don't want to dance they can Wii it up. I think the younger kids, especially the girls will (probably 7 and under) will be much more interested in dancing with the adults all night. The rest of the kids (and likely some of the adults) will probably split the time between dancing and the Wii. Plus my Mum is a foster Mum and has a ton of toys and stuff on site so I don't think there's going to be much of an issue there but we'll probably get some bubbles and glow necklaces and things like that to keep them occupied throughout the evening.
We are having kids too. My main concern is that their parents are not going to be watching them. Mostly around our candy buffett we want to make sure that every one gets a trip to the candy. But you know how kids can be around candy. Any ideas?
That's a lot of kids to keep busy. It's awesome you've got a separate room. Have you made arrangements for kid food? Pizza/mac and cheese/hot dogs covers most kids. Maybe steer away from soda (especially caffeinated soda) and sugar drinks and stick with 100% juices and plain milk, and carrot sticks/apple slices/whole grain crackers and cheese for snacks and appetizers. (I assume they'll be having cake too, since it's a wedding. :)
If you're doing cupcakes, you could have a decorating station where they can put sprinkles or small candies like m&ms on top.
Maybe the hotel can provide a TV and you can have a video game set up and get a couple DVDs (The Princess Bride, maybe? Cinderella?) and have movie time after seven-thirty or eight?
How late is your reception going? If it's past about nine PM, with kids in the under 10 set, you might suggest that parents bring sleeping bags and pajamas so the kids can change out of their nice clothes, wind down and relax. You could give them pillows with printed pillowcases as favors; IKEA has ninety-nine cent pillows and five-dollar 2 packs of pillow cases. Designsponge has a fabric stencil tutorial: http://www.designsponge.com/2011/06/diy-project-ikat-print-pillow.html or there's a ghetto screen printing tutorial here: http://craftgrrl.livejournal.com/3674467.html?page=1
Parents will totally appreciate being able to relax and have a good time without being called away to deal with over-tired sugar-fueled tantrums. And the kids would probably appreciate it too. :)
For activities/favors, you could do a puppet theater and puppet kits for each kid. There are a lot of DIY how-tos. I've done puppet kits with socks, yarn, felt, glitter glue sticks, and markers. You could do paper/cardboard that they can color, cut out, and put together, too.
Having crayons and coloring books available is a good idea, but I'd shy away from giving the kids crayons/coloring books/dollar store toys as favors, they get that everywhere.
You could have all the kids wrap an old toy they don't play with any more and bring it to play White Elephant. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange)
(I love planning stuff to do with kids. They are so much fun.)
My reception is on my property in a marquee so that makes it easier to accomodate the kids. I have a daughter so there is a big trampoline, 2 bikes a trike and a totem tennis set ready to go. I will also be setting up a kids table with colouring in books pencils.
some tips:
If you have younger children DO NOT provide felt pens, only pencils as they cant draw on themselves, you, the floor, other guest etc with pencil :)
kids under 3 put everything in their mouths and can choke on small items.
big blocks provide hours of fun to the little ones
If you can, a dvd player will provide you with alot of quiet from the kiddies :) especially if they are getting restless or tired.
Have fun :) My daughter will be on the dance floor all night probably, she is 6 and loves to dance. She is being taken home by grandma at bed time so I can relax a bit more.
we arent have a ton of kids, but there will be some. thinking about glow sticks, blow up musical instruments, stuff like that
We are having 6 kids in the wedding and no less than 40 attending. Thank goodness it's outdoors on our farm! Since it will be outdoors in nov we are having enclosed firepits and a s'mores table as well as a cotton candy machine. We are having fireworks (for us) but will be entertaining as well. The kids in our family aren't really sit-quietly-in-the-corner-and-color type so dancing will keep them busy. We are doing a country elegance theme and a bouncer or trampoline have crossed my mind, can't decide if those are awesome or white trash haha we shall see
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Is anyone having alot of young children at their wedding? We will be having twenty kids under the age of 8 at our hotel reception, Holy Cow!
Did I mention that I am an only child and do not have any exposure to kids! Honostly I find them a little intimidating.
Anyhow, we are having a pretty formal reception in a banquet hall on the harbor. Fortunately, we will get a smaller attached room whith a couple of babysitters.
I wanna know your creative, cute, clever ideas for party favors and activites for kids between 8 - 10.