Kids at Weddings – Ideas to keep them entertained

Kids at Weddings – Ideas to keep them entertained

Weddings are an amazing occasion for the bride and groom as well as their respective families to get together and celebrate.

Maybe you have asked yourselves…

Do we like the idea of kids at weddings?

Is it rude to have a child free wedding?

For many bride and groom, your wedding will come at a time in your life when your peer group are also getting married and starting their new families. This can raise the dilemma about whether it’s ok to have a child free wedding. Many would believe Weddings are rarely a children’s event and, particularly the wedding receptions are meant to be an adult only affair. But increasingly, couples are opting to include their friends and families’ children in their celebration. Further consideration, it can be difficult for out-of-town family and friends if only mum and dad are included on the guest list.

The best way to make sure your wedding is stress-free when children are invited is to keep the kids at weddings busy and always entertained.

Here are some fun and proven ways to keep the kids at weddings entertained and behaved for the whole day:

Getting Them Involved | Kids At Weddings

At the ceremony

A foremost way to keeps kids at weddings entertained is to make them feel part of the proceedings. Depending on their age and skill level; for the ceremony part, there are many tasks your little guests can perform.

Act as ushers

Scatter rose petals

Hand out programs

If your venue allows confetti or rice, they can be handing these out to arriving guests.

At Party time

Depending on the age mix and the number of kids at weddings, different ideas may be more suitable.

Hire a professional entertainer

The opportunity to hire an entertainer will depend on how much you can spare of your wedding budget. Some ideas would include, hire a jumping castle, a clown, magician, movie, or story character impersonator such as Superman, Spiderman, Cinderella. These professional entertainers are well experienced to keep the kids at weddings engaged and busy away from their parents, freeing them up to enjoy the party.

Activity Plan. Planning your own entertainment for kids at weddings

For those planning their own entertainment for the kids. Consider hiring either a babysitter, child minder or supervisor. Alternatively, you may be lucky to have some older kids who can assist with the younger kiddies. Often the older kids will have their younger siblings attending and will likely be well practiced at looking after the younger ones. Understanding their behaviour, therefore likely the behaviour of others.

Here are some activity ideas which, depending on the age and ability as well as the number of kids which may be suitable. You will need to provide a safe kid’s space to encourage them away from the main wedding party.

Activity Box– Beginning mindful of safety hazards for the littlies, glow sticks and bracelets, artist’s studio to include drawing, colouring, stickers. Be mindful of their clothing, be sure not to make a messy selection.

Karaoke– If you kids are a little older and there is opportunity to create your separate space where the noise won’t interfere with the weddings party in progress, the tweens will love this. After a drink or too, you even find from of the adult guests joining in.

High Tea/Build your own Dessert- Little girls love a tea party, tweens love to play sophisticated. For these a High Tea is a great suggestion. For a more mixed group, build your own dessert. They can build their own sundaes, decorate donuts, cupcakes, and biscuits. This idea can also be used earlier for ideas like build you own pizza, taco’s, burgers.

Outdoors- Lawn games can entertain and help to tire kids so the adults can have time later in the event when perhaps their children are enjoying a group slumber.

Glamping- For the younger kids who will not last the distance, set up floor mats, tipi’s, tent with sleeping bags for their personal glamping experience.

Photo Booth- If the budget allows, the hire of a photo booth is fun for kids and adults alike. As an alternative, you may like to set up a disposable camera hunt for the kids. Kids love a scavenger hunt, it’s a fun activity. As well keeping the kids occupied for a good amount of time while they use up their film. There is then the bonus that some of their images maybe suitable to add to your wedding memorabilia.

Now it’s time to make your kids activity plan. It is important to first consider the number of children attending. Then the mix of ages and abilities, choose activities best suited to cover this mix as well as the gender mix. Then decide on the level of supervision which will be required and set a plan to cover this.

So, weddings are a celebration for the whole family. Let it be fun and memorable. Enjoy!

By Nicola Hazzell