Children at weddings are a touchy subject that everyone has an opinion about. Should they be there? Should they not be there? Children are fun, imaginative little people that love to dress up, dance & have a good time, too!! Children can really make a blah party come to life!! However, they can also take an amazing party and make it “just another experience” due to the amount of time and responsibility the adults must take on with their children present.

Start by having a real and rational conversation with yourself:
Is this a children’s event?
Will there be childish decorations and backdrops?
Will this event have a petting zoo or something that is specifically meant to keep children’s attention for hours on end?
Do you have enough adults to actively watch the children all night long - not leave them unattended for more than 5 minutes?
Do you see adults actively joining in the celebration or are they going to be watching their children?
Does the property have areas that are not “child friendly” and would need extra staff members to be hired to keep children away from, such as a pasture with animals, a pond, an electric fence, a highway, etc.

Weddings are not cheap and every head is another price to pay – literally. Did you budget to include children as fully charged adult guests?

Take into consideration: Is the event space large enough to have everyone and their children or do you need to cut back on the guest count? If you need to cut back on the guest count, do you want to cut the adults so that more children can be in attendance?

There are always “happy compromises” to consider:

1. Children attend the ceremony and not the party afterwards.
2. Keeping children on site, in a designated area, with hired adult sitters. However, please note the children know you are just a bit away from them and will continue to try and come into the party or have you keep coming out to them.
3.Having only your own personal children at the event, while your guests keep their children at home, with a private sitter.
 

Bottom Line - the decision is yours and yours alone. You are the only ones that know your family, their behavior and their children’s behavior. However, please note that if children are in attendance at a PBC event, extra staff must be hired to sit at the pond for the duration of the event, at the couple’s expense. Absolutely no exceptions will be made to this rule.