Weddings and toddlers?

[Biene]

We are finally planning on getting married this year, after 7 yrs together, we were planning on a registry office wedding and then going to a really nice restaurant for our reception, we're going to have around 15 people at the wedding/reception, but my issue is that quite a few of our friends have young children, toddlers and babies, obviously our 2 year old and 3 mth old will have to be at the wedding, because we 1). it is our wedding and we want them there, but also we have no family here who could babysit.

My question is do I invite entire families to the wedding? If I did that then we would have around 4 x 2 year olds, 1 x 4 year old and 2 x babies under a year and I just think it would be chaos and mayhem on our wedding day, but I also feel a bit mean by excluding them...any thoughts?

[quaver]

Hi- First- Congratulations!
Well I just went to a wedding last weekend with little kids and it was fantastic!
The couple getting married, the mum had a adorable 3 year old. (date raped- horrible with good ending)
Anyway they wanted to include their daughter and her young friends. So on the invite they sent a kids invite too. It said something to the sound of- adults parties can be boring so there will be a seperate kids party too. The reception had a seperate room where they hired 2 babysitters for the kids- heaps of fun entertainment and food. there were about 10 kids aged 2-9 who had a ball. parents split the cost so it was a very minimal amount.
it was so special. during the vows dd weaved in between her parents legs. after vowing to each other they picked her up and they both made similar vows to dd. promising to love and be there as parents together. there was not a dry eye left in the house! it is a special day for the kids too- embrace it!

[gizmoduckus]

I think that because you are having such a small wedding it is unnecessary to invite children as well. I am sure the parents will understand.

[InSaneOne]

i think the hire a babysitter or 2 and split the costs with the other parents would be a good idea. i gather most of the kids will already know each other and you cuold have a big "movie" or party night for the kids too.

[gizmoduckus]

i think the hire a babysitter or 2 and split the costs with the other parents would be a good idea. i gather most of the kids will already know each other and you cuold have a big "movie" or party night for the kids too.

I think that might be kind of hard if she is going to have her reception in a nice restaurant. I don't think a lot of places will say no to that sort of thing.

One thing that you can do is maybe do a home sort of thing considering that you don't have a lot of people. That way you could have the kids and they will be able to run around.

But I can understand if you want to go to a fancy place. This is your wedding after all. At the end of the day you should do what makes YOU happy. Everyone else will just have to deal with it.

[Biene]

Thanks for your advice everyone, its definately given us something to think about, we never thought about having a separate spot for children etc.

I guess I was finding it hard because we don't have many friends, as we're fairly new to the state and I didn't want to offend anyone, but I just wasn't sure of the etiquette...see I've never ever been to a wedding before...

:idea: Just had a light bulb moment! Instead of going to a restaurant we will have it at home and the cost I will save from going to the restaurant ($1400) will help pay for a new patio/pergola for our wedding at home and then we can do the separate party idea for the children...thanks bubhub!