To have or have not is the usual question regarding children at wedding receptions. Personally, as the mother of three, I love having a dressy night out without having to worry about what my children are doing, but not all parents feel the same way. Here are some tips to entertaining young children at the reception, or in a separate area.

Tips for the Wedding Reception:

1. Create a child-friendly seating area. My favorite thing to do is have the reception site setup a short table, cover it with butcher paper and provide the kids with crayons. Children love creating works of art. It will keep them busy… for a little while. One of my clients gave each child a small personalized lawn chair, they served as favors and place cards in one tidy package.

2. Have child-friendly food. When it comes to young kids, I love buffets. Again, ask your reception site to setup short buffet tables. Fill the buffet with the food kids like best… chicken fingers, French fries, fruit, macaroni and cheese. Your biggest challenge will be keeping the adults away from the buffet.

3. Ask your entertainment to do something that will entertain the kids. Have the DJ play The Electric Slide or another group dance that the kids can dance to with their families.

4. Do not fill the table with candy and chocolate. Children have tons of energy, they don’t need to be revved up with lots of sugar and caffeine. Also, the chocolate melts and makes a mess.

5. Make sure you have a sense of humor, or that you genuinely like children. Even the best behaved four-year-old will have a melt-down when tired or bored. Just be aware that your reception may have some screaming and crying at times.

Childcare Tips:

If you are having a very formal event, you may want to arrange childcare for young kids. Many cities have great baby-sitting services that will come prepared with games and activities for kids of all ages. Here are some ideas to make the kids’ party a hit.

1. Rent a ballroom or small meeting room close to your reception area so parents can visit their children if they so desire.

2. Make sure the children are fed early. Arrange for room service or a kids buffet to be available in the party room.

3. Hire a licensed and bonded child-care company. They will have the proper amount of staffing and experience in handling children in this kind of setting.

4. Make sure the children have plenty to do. From arts and crafts to movies and arcades games, anything to keep them busy will keep them out of trouble.

5. If you are having very young kids, make sure there is an area for them to lie down and rest.

I have been working on a really spectacular event. It is one of the more expensive ones in my career. But even with all the money they are spending, they are stressing out over the event budget.

I should go back a bit on this story. I was hired on this event after several of the most expensive vendors had been hired. Actually the client brought me into the event with the hopes that I could help reduce her expenditures. I told her I couldn’t promise that, and I certainly couldn’t alter the contracts she had already signed, but I agreed to do the best I could.

Six months later, we are struggling to trim and tighten the budget. It is nearly impossible. In fact, the only significant cut we could make is to reduce the number of guests.

Why am I sharing this unfortunate story? Well, its because I want to emphasize how important it is to do a budget FIRST! Whether you are spending $5,000.00 or $500,000.00 you have to know what your priorities are when it comes to spending money.

Planning a wedding is a marriage (what a bad pun) of creativity and good business sense. You must know how to take the money you have and shift it around to hire the best vendors for your wedding day. It takes discipline. If you overspend in one area, you have to compensate in another.

Do your parents and yourself a favor, plan a detailed wedding budget and stick to it!

I got to be a guest! Okay, I wasn’t at a wedding. I was actually at the Bohemian Ball, a fund raiser for Hospice. We in the wedding industry here in Orlando lost a very close friend this year to pancreatic cancer. Jonathan Panzuck was one of the most talented floral designers I have ever known. Many of the photos you see on my website are of his designs. He was also a passionate supporter of Hospice. Ironically, Jonathan and his family were in need of Hospice’s services just six weeks ago.

The reason for me bringing this up is that I have never seen so many wardrobe malfunctions in my life — and I was with a bunch of wedding planners! The lessons that I learned that evening may come in handy for brides when it comes to their bridal attire.

• Rule number one: Try on your wedding dress and make sure it fits. One of my friends bought a beautiful gown. She tried it on at the store and the zipper was not acting right. She really wanted the dress and just figured that she was in a hurry and all would be fine. That is not what happened. While she was zipping her dress on the day of the ball, the zipper broke. Her wonderful boyfriend ran all the way to the mall to get her a new dress. He is a saint! She made it to the ball, a bit late and very frazzled. Trying on your dress is crucial to prevent potential bridal attire malfunctions AHEAD of time!
• Rule number two: Try on your shoes before you leave the store. So my other friend, who is well known for her shoes, had the most fabulous pair of shoes on. Well, my dear friend didn’t try on the shoes before she left the store. She had two left shoes. We were hysterical. She made a joke of it by walking in circles to the left all night. Her feet were killing her, but she still had a good sense of humor.

None of us were walking down the aisle that night, but we still wanted to be our best. Cool heads prevailed on the day and we all had a good time. Sense of humor was key, but all could have been avoided with a bit of pre-planning. (Sorry girls, I am sure you will publish my next big guffaws.)

Below are two of my lovely friends. Kristy (left) didn’t have any wardrobe malfunction, but she gets the award for quickest dresser. She had just hopped off a plane from Washington State (we are in Orlando, Florida) an hour before the ball. She tossed on her dress, in her office! Isn’t she stunning? Michele on the right, is the one with the saintly boyfriend.