Think of your own wedding/commitment ceremony...the one(s) you had, the one you hope to someday have, the one you would have, except you've sworn off matrimony altogether.
Are you inviting kids?
Sure! The more the merrier! Bring 'em along!
I'll invite a few specific kids who I know well or are close family.
No way...if they're there, they'll just annoy me.
Not sure/Other
Think of your own wedding/commitment ceremony...the one(s) you had, the one you hope to someday have, the one you would have, except you've sworn off matrimony altogether.
Are you inviting kids?
Last edited by Sarahfeena; 29 Dec 2009 at 01:22 PM.
I like weddings that are more family style events than snooty adult-only events. Looking at the wee ones all dressed up is adorable, and the older kids and tweens fill up the dance floor before the adults are sufficiently lubricated to do so.
That's pretty much my sentiments exactly.
What the fuck is the point of having a celebration of a familial union if you want to exclude a significant chunk of peoples' families? Of course kids should go unless there is s specific set of circumstances that makes it impractical to have children at a wedding.
Haha, well......if it's my wedding, I don't want anyone there under the age of rationality. So say, seven.
I'm sure more family oriented weddings with lots of babies can be charming, but I would rather there not be screaming fits and tantrums at mine if I can avoid it.
Well....we're in the midst of planning ours and the thing is that my fiancee's family breed like rabbits. We're probably going to go with only the kids of immediate family, otherwise opening up the whole thing would increase the costs dramatically. We're really right at the seating limit as it is with just adults. This is going to be just a cocktail reception anyway, so leave 'em at home for three hours and scamper back if you need to.
Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.
We didn't invite kids to ours, but we had one of my cousins turn up with her brood (we didn't expect her to show up at all, much less recognize the "if your name isn't on the invitation, you're not invited" rule since, knowing my uncle, she probably WAS raised by wolves), and the wife of DH's co-worker who was so PO'd by us not inviting them that she showed up at the reception with not only her own, but some of her neighbor's kids. Bitch.
I don't have any close friends of family with young children (I think the youngest is 8) and at that age, all's well. But given the choice between excluding kids and alienating a friend, or inviting everyone and dealing with potential kid-related interruption, I'd rather have everyone there.
I think of weddings as family affairs, inclusive of the smaller members of the family. And of course mine and OCS' wedding is going to have our combined children as important cast members, and I look forward to that!
The thing of it is, for me, that so often I've seen weddings that were primarily parties for the parents of the wedding couple, their friends, and acquaintances, with only a few of the wedding couple's friends shoehorned in around the corners. At that point, we're not talking about a party of my friends and family, but often someone else's friends and that family. And my patience with a screaming, run-everywhere kid who nominally belongs to my "Auntie" Ellie's ten years off from me children just doesn't appeal. Family, my friends, my fiancee's friends, I'll be glad to entertain their kids - screaming fits and all. Some collateral relative of someone I'd met once when I was thirteen? No fucking way.
Regardless of age there are only two kinds of relatives - invited and disowned.
As far as other children are concerned I wouldn't encourage it but I wouldn't really resist either.
I want them to come but I think I would have to limit it in some regard because of costs. But I don't really have anything against kids. Actually, given the sorts of things I would want at my reception, e.g. a chocolate fountain and a Bouncy Castle, it would be wrong on a cosmic level to not have kids.
I don't think so, therefore I'm probably not.
I say hell no to babies and toddlers at the ceremony. Those aren't for little children. Hell, if it's long and wordy (and as the potential groom I've already accepted that such decisions as "let's keep it short" will likely be taken out of my hands), I'll be bored and fidgety, forget kids.
At the reception, though? Why not? That's just a family party anyway.
No kids. Nu uh
Yeah, I'm going to take a wild stab here and say that I won't be having a catholic wedding so I'm thinking 15-20 minutes for the reception and then PAAR-TAY!
I don't anticipate ever having a particularly formal wedding or reception, so I think kids will be fine. If my dream wedding involves a nacho bar, I can hardly get all snooty, can I?
Orual: Please invite me.
If I were to ever get married (which, at this point, is a remote possibility), it'd be a full blown family affair, kids and all. Traditional weddings in my family tend to be a whole family affair, ceremony and reception. I'd want the kids there because well, it wouldn't be a family celebration otherwise. Besides, when else are you supposed to introduce your teenage cousins to booze, if not at the open bar?
Whoa. I was thinking I'd just have, you know, a buffet and maybe some music. Your idea is way cooler.
Should I get married, I'm far past the age where my mother is going to be taking the thing over. I am a grownup and it would be for me and my honey, not for anybody else. To that end, any children present would be close family members, not the offspring of the niece of some random friend of my mother's. I'd prefer babies and smaller toddlers not be there just because, dude, a baby isn't going to get much out of the experience, but kidlets? Bring 'em on.
So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.
I think the little flower girls/ring bearers are adorable, even if they don't perform flawlessly. They are just so cute.
Also, at the reception, watching toddlers out there dancing is hilarious. More cuteness.
Yeah, I think weddings should be multi-generational.
(Nacho bar sounds good too.)
Last edited by Raymond Onion; 30 Dec 2009 at 04:29 PM.