Feb 5
Entertaining Kids at Your Wedding
It’s Friday again. I can’t believe that we are already into February, 2010!
I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s wedding blog. We are always trying to come up with new ways to present you with useful information. I think “Ask a PWG Wedding Pro” is going to become one of our most popular segments.
Today I want to discuss children at your wedding. More and more of my clients want to include children on the guest list. Sometimes the couple has children of their own and other times they have family and friends with children that they don’t want to leave out.
As a mother of three, I can tell you that there are a few things to remember when inviting children to the wedding particularly if they are younger than the age of ten.
- Sitting still and quiet during a wedding ceremony is nearly impossible.
- Sitting still and quiet during a five hour wedding reception is definitely impossible
- The more the parents want to talk to the friends, the more attention the children need.
- And finally, the dance floor is a great place to run around and burn off energy.
With that in mind, couples ask me all the time how to entertain the children. Check out some ideas after the photo.
Professional images courtesy of Jeff Hawkins The one of the face painter and balloon art are random selections from my library.
Here are a couple of my favorite ideas for entertaining kids at your wedding:
- Create a play area for them. Put in a low table covered with butcher paper and stock with crayons so they can work together to create a mural. Make sure to have extra paper for those artists who like to work solo.
- Serve them food they will enjoy. My little ones love to choose what they eat, so I think a kids’ buffet is a fun idea that will keep the group entertained for a while. If you don’t have enough children attending to warrant a buffet, serve them a plated meal of kid-friendly food.
- Put up a children’s bar. Stock a children’s bar with soda, water and mixers to make Shirley Temples. It will make the kids feel special and it will keep them from crowding the adult bar.
- At some point in the evening, ask your entertainment to play kid-friendly music It doesn’t have to be for long, but the kids will have a blast if they have the opportunity to dance to some music that they recognize. You will also get some amazing photographs and video!
- If you have the budget, bring in some special entertainment. Caricature artists, face painters, and balloon artists are a small sample of the fun entertainment you can bring in for the children at your wedding. A few of my clients have done a separate room with supervised Wii tournaments, kid’s DJ, movies and more!
I would like to include your children’s entertainment ideas on my wedding blog. Please post information for me here or send me an email to susan(dot)southerland(at)pwg.com. Also become a fan on Facebook by clicking here and follow me on Twitter by clicking here.
Enjoy your weekend!
Your partner in perfect planning,
Susan
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