real life

Kids don't belong at weddings. Discuss

 

 

 

 

There are some really positive run on effects of wedding planning in your very early 20s. When I got married at the tender age of 23 none of my friends had children. This made it very easy to exclude kids from my guest list.  There just weren’t any around. No little cousins, no young nieces or nephews in fact I think I may have been one of the youngest people at my own wedding.

But not everybody is as “lucky” as I was.

I know that I have been invited to weddings that seem to go on for ever. The service at 3pm, drinks at 5pm , the reception at 7pm. One wedding I recently attended even had an after-party. That’s a lot of babysitting hours required.  Or a complete revision of the wedding so that little people can be included on the guest list.

It seems that people are going to extreme lengths to cater for children on their wedding day offering child minding, child friendly meals and activities for the children (like colouring in, blocks, arts and craft, board games  and even jumping castles).

The Herald Sun reports

As Australians tie the knot later in life, and head down the aisle more than once, planners say couples increasingly have to debate the kid factor at nuptials.

Some are stating ‘adults-only reception’ to help cut costs while others are asking guests to pay for their children’s meals.

Planning website easyweddings.com.au social media manager Samantha Amjadali said it could be a contentious issue but children at weddings were increasingly being catered for by venues and child-minding businesses.

”If couples don’t invite children to the wedding it usually has more to do with cost-per-head or that the reception venue isn’t child-friendly,” she said.

”Sometimes, it’s genuinely about wanting to give guests who are parents a ‘night off’. But there are plenty of ways to have kids there, a lot of cottage industries have risen up like babysitters who cater especially for weddings.”

The issue is being fiercly debated on easy wedding’s Facebook page, with some dealing with long-running grudges from relatives whose children were not invited.

Some said children were not appropriate at receptions but others said it would be rude to exclude them.

How would you feel about kids at your wedding? Would you be upset if your children were excluded from a wedding guest list?