How do you Keep Little Ones Happy at the Wedding Reception?

Any suggestions on how to keep young children happy during the reception - without spending a fortune.

Answer:

First of all, thanks for your question, and second, congratulations on deciding to invite children to your wedding.

I am a big advocate for inviting children to weddings...after all, they're family too!

And you don't have to spend that much on their meals as you can choose to serve simpler faire that is more appropriate for children.

You can definitely take some simple steps to make sure that the little ones are going to be occupied at the wedding.

You'll find when the dancing starts, that the little ones will love to dance and certainly help the dance floor filled, but you might need some help to get them through the speeches.

One of the best ways to keep kids entertained and involved in wedding reception activities and games as soon as they get to the reception, is to offer them plenty of (washable) writing materials such as pencil crayons and crayons and paper.

To save on your budget, go to your local dollar store and you'll find a great selection of these kinds of things.

Take some of these items and arrange a "goody bag" at each place setting, but just make sure that each bag contains the same things so that you don't create any fights or bad feelings.

Instead of using table linens on the kid's table, use huge pieces of paper that the kids could write on (very popular today in bars and restaurants, and keeps people busy while waiting for their dinner).

You could also see if the reception venue has a room that could be used to show movies in for the smaller children especially during the speeches or slower moments at your reception.

Just make sure that you have a volunteer adult supervisor present to keep an eye on things.

These are just a few ideas...check out more under Children's Wedding Reception Activities.

Hope it helps,

Diane